The single biggest structural choice an NRI faces in estate planning is whether to draft one consolidated Will covering all global assets, or separate Wills — one for India and one for the country of residence. Both approaches are valid; one is usually clearly better for your situation. A patient walkthrough.
If you are an NRI with assets in both India and your country of residence, the question of whether to have one Will or two is genuinely difficult. Every experienced estate lawyer has clients on both sides of the debate, and every position has good arguments. This article walks through the trade-offs as we see them in our practice, and gives concrete recommendations based on the most common NRI fact patterns.
We see this question come up in roughly half of our NRI consultations. The answer matters because once a Will is drafted and executed, it carries forward — and the wrong architectural choice at the beginning can create administrative friction for the family for years after the testator's death.
There is no single right answer that applies to every NRI. But there are clearly right and clearly wrong answers for specific fact patterns, and getting your specific answer correct is worth the time.
Under this model, you draft a single Will covering every asset you own anywhere in the world. The Will is executed in compliance with the formalities of one jurisdiction (typically India, if your Indian-rupee assets are substantial), and the executor uses that single instrument to deal with all property.
The principal advantage is simplicity of intention. There is exactly one document the family can refer to. There is no ambiguity about which Will covers which asset. There is no risk of accidentally contradicting yourself by amending one Will but not the other.
The principal disadvantage is administrative complexity at the post-death stage. The single Will may need to be probated (or formally proved) in multiple jurisdictions, with each jurisdiction's court process running on its own timeline. The Will must comply with the formality requirements of every jurisdiction where it will be used — typically the strictest set governs.
Under this model, you draft a separate Will for each country where you hold significant assets. Each Will deals only with the assets located in that jurisdiction. Each is executed in compliance with the formalities of that country.
The principal advantage is administrative speed. Each country's executor can act on the local Will without waiting for foreign proceedings. The probate or administration process in each country is shorter and cheaper because it is dealing with a smaller estate.
The principal disadvantage is the risk of accidental revocation. Wills typically contain a 'revocation' clause stating that all earlier Wills are revoked. If your second Will contains a standard revocation clause, it could inadvertently revoke your first Will too — leaving you with one Will covering only a portion of your estate. The drafting must be carefully coordinated.
Where dual Wills are chosen, the standard drafting solution is to have each Will explicitly state that it deals only with assets located in a particular jurisdiction, and that it does not revoke any Will dealing with assets in any other jurisdiction.
For example, the Indian Will would state: 'This Will deals only with my assets situated in India. It does not revoke or affect any Will I have executed dealing with assets situated outside India.' The US/UK/UAE Will would have a mirror-image clause.
This explicit geographical limitation is the lynchpin of the dual-Will strategy. Without it, the danger of inadvertent revocation is real, and we have seen cases where families discovered too late that a properly intended dual-Will arrangement had collapsed into a single Will that did not cover everything.
If your assets in one jurisdiction are dominant (say, 90%+ of total value) and the other jurisdiction's assets are minor (a small bank account, a single insurance policy), a consolidated Will from the dominant jurisdiction is usually right. The cost and complexity of a second Will is not justified by the size of the minor estate.
If your beneficiary configuration is simple — say, everything to your spouse, and on her later death everything equally to your children — a consolidated Will captures this cleanly without coordination issues.
If you anticipate your assets shifting frequently between jurisdictions — for instance, you may return to India, or you may continue moving across countries — a consolidated Will gives flexibility that dual Wills do not.
If your assets are reasonably balanced across jurisdictions (say, 30-70 split or more even), dual Wills typically deliver faster post-death administration. The Indian family can deal with Indian assets through the Indian Will without waiting on foreign proceedings.
If your beneficiaries are different across jurisdictions — for example, you wish to leave your US assets to your US-resident children and your Indian assets to your Indian-resident parents — dual Wills allow each disposition to be cleanly captured in the appropriate document.
If your country of residence has aggressive inheritance or estate taxes (the US, the UK, France), structuring your Will in that country specifically for tax efficiency may require provisions that would not work well in a single global Will. Dual Wills allow each jurisdiction's Will to be tax-optimised independently.
For the Indian part of an NRI's estate, the Indian Succession Act, 1925 (for Christians and Parsis) or personal law (for Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains) governs validity. The Will must be in writing, signed by the testator, and attested by two witnesses under Section 63 of the ISA.
Probate is mandatory in the territorial limits of the Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai High Courts for Hindu, Christian, and Parsi Wills dealing with immovable property in those jurisdictions. Outside those territories, probate is optional but often advisable for substantial estates.
FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999) regulates the cross-border transmission of assets on the NRI's death. The Indian Will, and the executor's compliance with FEMA on transmission, are central to whether the family abroad can repatriate the inherited proceeds.
Every country has its own probate (or succession) regime. The US has state-by-state probate (each state independent), UK has Inheritance Tax (40% above the nil-rate band), the UAE has a default Sharia application unless DIFC/ADGM Wills are used, Canada has provincial probate.
The foreign Will should be drafted in compliance with the formal requirements of that jurisdiction. In some countries (US, UK), additional formalities apply for the Will to be 'self-proving' — meaning the witnesses do not need to be brought to court to prove the Will.
For NRIs in countries with inheritance or estate tax, the structure of the foreign Will materially affects tax. Common tax-planning patterns — disclaimer trusts, marital deduction trusts, generation-skipping arrangements — require precise drafting that a generic Indian-style Will would not accomplish.
A less common but sometimes appropriate hybrid is to have a single primary Will covering global assets, and separate codicils for specific jurisdictions where particular formalities or local features must be reflected.
This can work where the testator's estate is dominantly in one jurisdiction with relatively small but specific foreign-asset complications. The codicil for the foreign jurisdiction deals with the local-asset detail without disturbing the main Will's overall structure.
We use this approach sparingly. In our experience, families prefer the conceptual clarity of either 'one Will' or 'two Wills' over a mixed approach. The hybrid can introduce ambiguity about which document is operative for which asset.
Step 1: Inventory your assets by jurisdiction. List every asset, its approximate value, and its location. This is the foundation for everything that follows. Many NRIs are surprised at how their actual asset distribution differs from their mental model.
Step 2: Apply the dominance test. If one jurisdiction holds more than 80% of value, lean toward a consolidated Will. If split is more balanced, lean toward dual Wills.
Step 3: Apply the beneficiary symmetry test. If beneficiaries are identical for both pots of assets, dual Wills add coordination overhead without much benefit. If beneficiaries differ, dual Wills allow cleaner expression.
Step 4: Apply the tax test. If foreign jurisdiction has substantial inheritance or estate tax, dual Wills allow each to be tax-optimised. If neither jurisdiction has heavy inheritance tax (India does not currently), the tax case for dual Wills is weaker.
Error one: a foreign Will that fails to expressly preserve the Indian Will. The standard revocation clause in the foreign Will unintentionally revokes the Indian Will. The Indian assets are then in intestacy.
Error two: an Indian Will that purports to deal with foreign assets it does not have authority over. The Indian executor cannot enforce dispositions of US bank accounts through an Indian Will alone — local proceedings or coordination are required.
Error three: dual Wills that contradict each other on the same asset. The testator amends one Will but not the other, and the two Wills now make inconsistent dispositions of the same property. The court must resolve which prevails, and this resolution may not match the testator's intention.
Error four: failing to inform the executor of both Wills. The Indian family does not know about the US Will (or vice versa), and they proceed to administer the estate under one Will only — discovering the other after substantial administration has already happened.
Our default recommendation for NRIs with assets in both India and one other country is: dual Wills, carefully coordinated, with explicit geographical limitation in each. The administrative speed at post-death is worth the upfront coordination effort.
For NRIs with assets in three or more countries — increasingly common in our practice — the picture is more complex and individual counsel is essential. A two-tier structure with a 'master Will' setting out overall intention plus jurisdiction-specific Wills is sometimes appropriate.
Whichever model you choose, the key is to make a deliberate choice. The worst outcome is to draft a single Indian-style Will, leave it untouched, and have the foreign-asset coverage be handled by accident. That's the case we see most often, and it's the case that costs the family most after the testator is gone.
Anand Mehta, age 58, has lived in London for 22 years. He is a UK citizen with OCI status. His estate: a Bandra apartment (₹4.5 crore), Indian mutual funds (₹1.2 crore), an NRE deposit (₹80 lakh), a London flat (£700,000), UK ISAs and pensions (£400,000), and a small French holiday property (€250,000).
His family: a UK-resident wife, two UK-born children (now young adults), and elderly parents in Pune. He wishes to leave his Indian assets primarily to his parents (with eventual flow to his children), and his UK assets to his wife with eventual flow to the children. The French property is to be sold and distributed equally.
Dual Wills is the right structure. The Indian Will (registered in Mumbai, executed under Section 63 ISA) deals with the Indian flat, mutual funds, and NRE deposit, with bequests to his parents and a life interest for his wife if she returns. The UK Will (executed under English formalities) deals with the London flat, ISA, and pension, with full provision for his wife and children, and includes appropriate UK inheritance tax planning around the nil-rate band. Each Will expressly preserves the other. The French property is captured in the UK Will (governed by EU succession regulations as the country of habitual residence).
Can one Will mention assets in multiple countries? Yes, a single global Will can cover worldwide assets. The challenge is enforcement — each jurisdiction must recognise the foreign Will, often through 'exemplification' proceedings that add cost and delay.
Does drafting a US Will revoke my Indian Will? Only if the US Will contains a general revocation clause without geographical limitation. The fix is to insert express language that limits each Will's scope to the relevant jurisdiction's assets and disclaims any revocation of the other.
If I have dual Wills and update one, must I update the other? Not necessarily — but you should review both whenever you update either, to ensure the overall picture remains coherent. Many couples now schedule joint reviews of both Wills every two to three years.
Our standard 'geographical limitation' clause in dual-Will engagements reads substantially as follows: 'This Will deals only with my assets situated in [India / United Kingdom / United States / etc.]. It does not revoke, modify, or affect in any way any Will I have executed dealing with assets situated in any other country, all of which shall continue to operate according to their terms.'
We pair this with a 'mutual acknowledgement' clause in each Will identifying the other Will by date and place of execution. So the Indian Will recites that a UK Will dated [date] has been executed for UK assets, and the UK Will recites that an Indian Will dated [date] has been executed for Indian assets.
This combination of express limitation plus mutual acknowledgement is the safest structural pattern we have found. It makes the testator's intention regarding dual coverage unambiguous to any executor or court reviewing the Wills.