Dealing with Death – Preparing a Living Will in Thailand

Dealing with Death

By: Nippita Pukdeetanakul

It was a Tuesday morning and I had to wake up early for a meeting with a friend followed by a sit down for a cup of coffee afterwards. We went on about how our lives have been, how busy business was the past year and so on. Then we came to the subject that I would like to share with you. This friend mentioned that her foreign dad has passed away and she had to go back to take care of his funeral in his home town. Her fear was that she had been living in Thailand for many years and had lost touch with the community her dad lived in. So to arrange the funeral at short notice over there was very worrying for her.

The story gets more interesting after she arrived at her dad’s home town. At the funeral, everything was arranged for her. The food was catered for, the music was playing, everybody seemed to know what to do and what the next step was, as if there had been an event coordinator for this funeral. The truth was that there was an event coordinator. The coordinator was her dad who had arranged everything, in every detail possible for his own funeral. He had contacted all the people necessary to make his funeral the way he wanted it to be.

The caterer told my friend, after the event, that her dad asked her to cater for his funeral personally a few years before he had passed away. His arrangements made it extremely easy for her to have time to cry and think about all the good things he had done. Needless to say, her dad had also arranged how he would like to distribute his estate, and how he would like to be buried, down to the finest details of how he would like to be treated after his death.

This way his family did not have to worry themselves to work out what and how he would prefer his funeral, to be cremated or buried, and where, how he wanted to be dressed for the last time etc.

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Most people do not talk about death, let alone talk about how to take care of one’s funeral or affairs after death. However, it is one of the most valuable things you can do for your family, relieving them of the worry of making personal decisions for you. Imagine that you have passed away in Thailand, and your foreign family have to take care of your affairs here, or worse, if your other half has to take care of your affairs abroad, how difficult would that be for them? If you do not have enough time to go around arranging things like my friend’s dad, try preparing a Will. At least, your intention is expressed in writing to guide your family on what to do with your funeral and estate. A Thai Will would also make it easier for your family to seek a court order to appoint an administrator of your estate in Thailand (which is compulsory under Thai law). In order to do so, you can either get a free form online or buy a guide book from a book store or seek advice from your lawyer.

One of my clients, who was having a serious health problem, came to me with a very realistic and positive attitude, and asked me to prepare a “living will” for him. In case you do not know what a living will is, it is a document which instructs your family on how you would like to be treated medically when you are unable to give directions regarding the use of death delaying procedures. This is also something worth considering in order to make it clearer for your family to make decisions for you when there is doubt.

A Will is not a complicated legal document, and you can prepare your own Will. However, a Thai Will has to be in a certain format (there are 6 forms of Will under Thai law) otherwise the Will is not effective. The law also regulates certain conditions, such as the age of the testator, the management of certain assets etc. It is very important to know and consider the legal regulations of the Will before preparing it to make your Will valid and effective. It is recommended that you consult with your lawyer on these matters.

Nippita Pukdeetanakul is a Thai Barrister/Attorney currently working as a Managing Director at JNP Legal Office and a special lecturer at ABAC University. She can be contacted at Nippita@jnplegalthailand.com

More Information

JNP Legal office provide several signatory services including, Notary Public, Family Law (Marriage/Divorce, Prenuptial agreements, Inheritance), Probate, Wills, Living wills.

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