NRI Wills — Cross-Border Estate Planning for Indians Abroad

Who Needs an NRI Will

If any part of your life sits across two jurisdictions — assets in India and a home outside it, or vice versa — a plain Will drafted in either country alone is almost certainly leaving something exposed. The NRI Will service is built for that exact reality.

The clients we typically serve fall into five overlapping categories:

• OCI cardholders settled in the United States, United Kingdom, UAE, Singapore, Canada, or Australia — with an Indian passport surrendered but Indian assets (property, MFs, EPF residue, ancestral share) still held in India.
• PIO holders and non-OCI persons of Indian origin — including second-generation NRIs who have inherited Indian property or company shares and now need to plan the onward flow.
• Resident Indians with foreign assets — startup founders with US LLC equity, professionals with vested ESOPs in a foreign parent, individuals holding a small overseas property under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme.
• ODI (Overseas Direct Investment) holders — individuals or family offices holding foreign subsidiary equity through the RBI's ODI route, where succession has to be squared with FEMA reporting and the AD Bank record.
• Returning NRIs in their RNOR window — where the residency clock is ticking and the estate structure needs to be finalised before Resident-and-Ordinarily-Resident status kicks in and the tax base expands.

What unites all five is that a standard Indian Will drafted without regard to the foreign side — or a foreign Will drafted without regard to Indian succession law and FEMA — creates avoidable friction at exactly the wrong moment. Probate is delayed. Repatriation is denied. Foreign courts refuse to give effect to bequests over Indian assets. Our NRI service is designed to prevent that.

The Two-Will Strategy

For most NRIs, the correct architecture is not one Will but two — an India Will covering Indian-situs assets, and a host-country Will covering assets in the country of residence. Drafted correctly, the two Wills speak to each other: each one contains a carefully worded revocation clause that revokes only prior instruments relating to the same jurisdiction, so the two documents co-exist without cancelling one another out.

This is not a stylistic preference. It is a hard-earned practical response to how probate actually works. Indian probate courts, particularly in the presidency towns of Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras, expect the Will they are asked to probate to concern Indian assets. Foreign courts expect the same for their side. Splitting the estate into two properly coordinated Wills:

• Reduces the probate timeline in each jurisdiction from years to months.
• Prevents the awkward — and expensive — situation of having to obtain probate in India and then re-seal it in the host country, or vice versa.
• Allows each Will to be executed under the formalities of its own jurisdiction (Section 63 of the Indian Succession Act on the India side; the local Wills Act, Uniform Probate Code equivalent, or Sharia-compliant Wasiyat framework on the host-country side).
• Lets each executor deal with a familiar legal system rather than being forced to run in parallel across two.

When we take on an NRI engagement, our advocate leads the India-side Will and coordinates directly with a host-country lawyer of your choosing (or from our referral panel in the US, UK, UAE, Singapore, and Canada) to ensure the two documents are architecturally consistent.

What's Included

The Rs. 50,000 NRI Will engagement includes every element you need to leave a legally clean cross-border estate:

• Full advocate consultation — a 75 to 90-minute video consultation with an enrolled advocate specialising in cross-border succession. Every fact of your estate, every jurisdiction, every beneficiary structure is mapped before a single clause is drafted.
• India-side Will drafted from scratch — bespoke, not a template. Covers immovable property (flats, plots, agricultural land where permissible), listed and unlisted equity, mutual funds, NRE / NRO / FCNR balances, PPF (residual), EPF, gold and jewellery, and any other Indian-situs asset.
• FEMA and repatriation architecture — bequest language drafted in line with the Foreign Exchange Management (Remittance of Assets) Regulations, so heirs sitting abroad can lawfully repatriate their inheritance through the AD Bank channel without hitting the USD 1 million-per-year ceiling as a hard wall.
• Apostille and legalisation guidance — clear instructions on how the executed Will should be apostilled (for Hague Apostille Convention countries) or consularised (for non-Hague countries such as the UAE) so it is admissible for probate on both sides.
• Coordination with your host-country lawyer — our advocate speaks directly with your US, UK, UAE, Singapore, or Canadian counsel to align the revocation clauses, executor appointments, and residuary-estate handling across both Wills.
• Two rounds of revisions — as your host-country lawyer feeds back on the mirror Will, we adjust the India-side draft to keep both documents perfectly synchronised.
• Execution memo — a step-by-step written brief covering how to sign the Will (Section 63 attestation, witness eligibility, jurisdiction-specific notarial requirements), where to store it, and whether registration with the Sub-Registrar is advisable in your circumstances.
• 90-day post-execution access — a WhatsApp and email channel to your advocate for 90 days after execution, in case a follow-up question arises.

The service is delivered end-to-end by an enrolled Advocate working alongside an in-house Company Secretary — the same team model described on our About page. There are no hidden fees. Sub-Registrar registration, if you elect it, is billed separately on actuals.

Frequently Asked Questions

I already have a Will in the US / UK / UAE. Do I still need an India Will?

Almost certainly yes. A US, UK, or UAE Will can attempt to cover Indian assets, but probating it in India — either through a fresh grant or by re-sealing under the Indian Succession Act — is slow, expensive, and, in the case of some Sharia-based jurisdictions, may be refused by the Indian court for public-policy reasons. A separate India-side Will drafted to Section 63 standards moves you from a two-year probate exposure to a three-to-six-month one.

Can a single Will cover assets in both countries?

Technically yes; practically almost never advisable. A single omnibus Will has to be executed under the formalities of every jurisdiction whose assets it touches, and it has to be probated in each of those jurisdictions in turn. The two-Will architecture is the market standard for a reason.

What if I move countries later — say from the UAE to Canada?

The India-side Will typically stays intact, since Indian assets rarely change on a move. The host-country Will has to be re-executed under the new jurisdiction's Wills legislation. Our 90-day post-execution channel covers minor updates; a full re-draft on a country move is charged at a discounted retainer.

Are OCI and PIO holders treated any differently under Indian succession law?

For Will-drafting purposes, no — Indian succession law and Section 63 of the Indian Succession Act apply uniformly. Differences emerge on the FEMA and repatriation side, and around the ability to hold agricultural land or farmhouses, which the RBI restricts for non-resident status categories. Our drafting addresses these differences head-on.

Do you handle Muslim NRIs and the Wasiyat framework?

Yes. Our advocates draft Sunni and Shia Wasiyats within the Shariat Application Act, 1937 framework, respecting the one-third bequeathable share rule and the differing residuary treatment. Muslim NRIs in the UAE and other GCC states are one of our most frequent client cohorts.