Cross-border estate planning pricing

Fixed fees for New Zealand wills, foreign wills and multi-country estate structures.

For people whose assets, or whose own connections, cross a border.

One question decides your tier: how many wills your plan actually needs. We scope it at your first meeting and then fix the fee.

STEP-qualified cross-border specialist, Auckland

A New Zealand will does not govern everything you own.

Land follows the law of the country it sits in, whatever your will says. Everything else follows the law of the country you are legally at home in. So a cross-border plan is not simply a will with an extra paragraph, and the question that decides your fee is a simple one: how many wills does your situation actually need?

We design the structure and draft the New Zealand documents. Where another country’s law is involved we brief and instruct a lawyer there, and make sure the two documents work together rather than cancelling each other out. Their fees are quoted to you upfront and passed on exactly as charged, with nothing added.

One question decides your tier.

How many wills your plan needs.

Tier

Individual

Couple

One New Zealand will

Your overseas assets do not need their own will: bank and savings accounts, share and investment portfolios, most superannuation.

$2,800 to $4,500 + GST

$4,500 to $8,500 + GST

A New Zealand will and one foreign will

Usually because you own property overseas. We brief and instruct a lawyer in that country, then make sure neither will cancels the other.

$4,500 to $7,500 + GST

$6,500 to $12,000 + GST

Three or more countries, or a country that overrides your will, or a real question about where you are legally at home

Scoped at your first meeting and then fixed.

from $8,500 + GST

from $12,500 + GST

What you get: Every tier covers your New Zealand will, a free review at three years or on any significant life event, and all of the cross-border work described below.

Foreign lawyers’ fees are separate. So are enduring powers of attorney and an advance directive: see below for why.

If your will also needs the work described on our Estate Planning pricing page, because your family shape needs building around or because someone may have a claim against your estate, that is added on top and we tell you at the first meeting. Nothing is added later without your agreement.

Which tier is you.

  • One will is usually enough if your overseas assets are financial

    Bank accounts, savings, share portfolios and most superannuation can generally be dealt with by a New Zealand will, because the country they sit in will recognise it. Your will is drafted so that those assets are properly caught and so that your executors can actually reach them.

  • Two wills are usually needed if you own property overseas

    Land is the exception to everything. It follows the law of the country it sits in, so a New Zealand will alone can leave your overseas house in a probate queue for a very long time, and in some countries cannot dispose of it at all. The answer is a second will made in that country, and the risk to manage is that the two wills do not accidentally revoke each other. Most standard wills contain a clause revoking all previous wills, which is exactly how people unknowingly cancel a foreign will they signed years earlier. Drafting the two to sit alongside each other is the core of this work.

  • Three tiers up if a country overrides your will, or your position is genuinely unclear

    Some countries oblige you to leave a fixed share to particular family members whatever your will says. Much of continental Europe works this way, as do Latin America, Japan, Quebec, and countries applying Sharia principles. So do Scotland and Ireland, which surprises people, because they are otherwise very like us: Scots law lets a spouse or children claim a third to a half of the moveable estate, and Ireland gives a surviving spouse a legal right share.


    Separately, if there is a real question about which country you are legally at home in, that has to be answered before anything is drafted, because it decides which country’s rules govern most of your estate. Either of these puts you in the third tier, and so does having assets in three or more countries. We scope it at your first meeting and give you a fixed fee before starting.

Four answers are usually enough.

With these we can tell you your tier and your fee at the first meeting.

Is this for you, or for you and your partner?

Which countries are involved? Where you hold anything, and any country you have a personal connection to: you live there, you are a citizen, or you were born there.

What do you own in each of them? Property, bank accounts, shares and investments, or a business.

Do you already have a will in any other country? This one matters more than people expect, because of the revocation problem above.

Both enduring powers of attorney

$1,300 + GST

$2,300 + GST

Available if you are in New Zealand. If you live overseas we cannot complete these while you are away, and we will do them the next time you are here rather than charge you now.

Powers of attorney, and why they are not in the price.

A New Zealand enduring power of attorney can only be signed in front of a New Zealand lawyer, who must explain the document to you in person and then certify that you understood it and were not under pressure. That cannot be done over a video call. So whether you can have one at all depends on where you are, not on what you are willing to pay, and we do not build into the price something many clients on this page cannot use.

Service

Individual

Couple

Notes

Advance directive

$600 + GST

$1,000 + GST

Available to anyone, though of limited use if you are not receiving medical care in New Zealand.

If you live in New Zealand and hold assets overseas, powers of attorney matter more to you than to most people, because whoever you appoint may have to deal with an asset in another country. We will also tell you whether your New Zealand appointment is likely to be accepted by the bank or land registry holding that asset, and where a local one is needed instead.

Quoted separately, and never assumed.

You may have been told a family trust is a good idea. For some people in your position it is, and for others it creates an annual filing obligation and a tax result they did not expect, depending on where you and your trustees are tax resident. That is a different question from the one that decides which law governs your will, and it should be answered second.

So a trust is not included in any price on this page and is never assumed. If one still makes sense once your position is clear, it is quoted separately at that point, and your accountant should see it before you sign anything.

What these fees do not cover.

Foreign lawyers.

We brief and instruct them; their fees are quoted to you upfront and passed on exactly as charged.

Tax, in any country.

These fees cover the legal structure and the drafting, so that your assets reach the people you intend. They do not cover foreign inheritance or estate tax, capital gains, or double tax treaties. Cross-border estates can carry real tax exposure and we will tell you where we think you need a specialist, but we do not give that advice ourselves.

A family trust.

Quoted separately if you need one.

Administering an estate after a death, and conveyancing.

Including any grant of probate obtained or resealed overseas.

Before we begin you will receive a letter of engagement setting out your fee, which tier applies and why, exactly what is covered, and our terms. Nothing is charged beyond that fixed fee unless you have agreed to it in writing first.

Not sure this page applies to you? If none of your assets or connections are outside New Zealand, our estate planning starts at $1,500 + GST for a will and $2,850 + GST for a full estate plan. See our Estate Planning pricingpage.

Book the consultation.

One hour with a STEP-qualified cross-border specialist. Bring what you have: the wills, the titles, the pension paperwork. We will tell you which countries’ laws apply to what you own and what needs doing about it.