Whether you are a German national or not, a valid bilingual or English language will for English, Irish, or South African assets make sense.  At a personal level, you should understand what you have written and be able to go back and make changes. At an administrative level, you may want to make provision for differences in administration of your estate assets in each country in which they occur. The German rules of succession are significantly different to those of England and Wales and South Africa.  In Germany the heirs inherit directly on the death of the deceased and are often personally involved in winding up the deceased estate, unless provision is made for a Testamentvollstrecker, with similar powers to an executor and trustee in England and Wales. In South Africa, an estate with a value of over R250 000 requires the executor to be assisted by a professional resident in South Africa. A valid English-language will that caters to the requirements of each jurisdiction reduces the administrative costs associated with recognition of the will in the foreign jurisdiction, reduces conflicts that could arise between heirs as to the choice of executor, and further enables estate planning in regard to the distribution of assets.  

Yes!  The will and its execution (signing) must however meet the requirements of either the EU country where you lived at that time of signing the will or, where appropriate the law of England and Wales or South Africa.

The EU Rules allow you to choose the law of your nationality to apply to the distribution of your estate, provided that the choice is expressed in a will or a separate written declaration.  This means that the German courts would recognise the law applicable to your estate as that of your chosen country of nationality.  If you haven't made this choice, and are a habitual resident of Germany, German succession law applies to your world-wide assets and your entire estate becomes subject to the “forced inheritance” rules.  These rules trump any distribution provisions stated in a will.

Germany is a civil law system that does not acknowledge trusts as these are used in England and Wales and South Africa, and the taxation of trust assets in the hands of German residents can be complicated. As a beneficiary of a foreign trust resident in Germany, you should obtain advice on its appropriateness as an estate planning tool, and your taxation exposure in Germany.

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