Preparing for Death

[nichola]

Prompted by the recent topics on Turkish Wills and their worth I took the opportunity the other day to have a chat with Sule Beder, Lawyer.

Please note I am not an expert I am just reporting back some of the conversation in a way that I hope will be helpful to some of you.

Your assets in Turkey on your death - who decides

1. When making a Turkish Will it should be explained to you that you can only make it in such a way that it complies with Turkish Law and what that actually means in practice; making a Turkish Will can not over ride the Law of the land.

2. Turkish Law dictates what you can or can not do with your assets in Turkey (land/property/money/etc) on your death. This raises the issue is a Turkish Will really necessary because...

3. Normally on death the Turkish way, what happens is as follows.

An application is made to the court (by next of kin I guess or someone with power of attorney to act on your behalf) and the court will tell you who gets what - according to Turkish Law.

4. This suggests the need for having a Turkish Will may be unnecessary if for example you (and your partner) are happy with the way the Law will divide up your assets.

However I would recommend that anyone with assets in Turkey seeks advice from a Lawyer about their particular circumstances. Everyone has a different family network some are more complex than others and it appears that there is some movement on the automatic % split - see Example 1 below..

Examples
Below are a couple of examples we actually discussed; they do not cover all possible family or extended family scenarios for example children by previous marriages.

Example 1

A married couple with 3 children; Dad dies!

Under Turkish Law wife gets 25% the 3 children get 25% each. Total 100%

Here is the however and may be an example where making a Turkish Will would be worth while! You can apparently if you wish reduce the amount the children receive by 50% to 12.5%. I am not sure this can be done to the wife  and what you can then legally do with that 37.5% you have taken back from the children - you would need to check.

If the assets are in joint names I think I am right to say that it is just Dad's half of the assets that are subject to the above.

Example 2

For a single person with no children - parents are the automatic beneficiaries; if they are not living then siblings are next in line.

In this case it may be worth making a Turkish Will if you would like siblings and possibly others to benefit, the Law extends to that. What limits there are, if any in terms of % - you would need to check.

Or, if you trust your parents you can make up your own list and just ask them to share out the cash as you request with family and friends once assets are sold. This would not be legally binding on your parents though.


Tips

1. Have assets in joint names - dare I say this is obvious.

2. You can register your house as the family home to avoid children or step children insisting on their share right now and making mum or dad homeless or having to buy them out. This way you get to remain in your home until your death or presumably until you decide to sell up. This needs double checking.

3. Make life easy by making a comprehensive list of assets for your beneficiary/s, Power of Attorney and or Lawyer.

4. Keep some money in solo bank account names as joint accounts will get frozen and leave you short of money at a time when you don't need the aggravation.

Note - non married couples have no rights to partner's assets under Turkish law. Living in sin simply isn't recognised here.


As I have already said I am not an expert just passing on information that may be useful to consider when planning for the future.

I recommend using a Lawyer who will properly advise you on what you can and can not do within the Law. Then you can make an informed decision about whether or not you need to make a Turkish Will and if you do that it complies with Turkish Law and avoids any upset "in court" at an already emotional and traumatic time.

The days where people take your money for a worthless bit of paper should be over.

[quackers]

Many thanks Nicola this makes it very clear for me. One quer. If on the death of husband/wife and the bank account is frozen does access to the money, once it is unfrozen, go to the surviving spouse or in turkish law do the children automatically get a share.

[usedbustickets]

What happens with Example 1 if mum dies?  Dies it all go to dad, or is a similar division of the assets made amongst dad and the children?

[nichola]

Example 1 - could have been mum not dad in the scenario if assets are joint assets.

I don't know the answer to the frozen bank accounts question - however logically half money would be subject to the inheritance law and be shared accordingly.

I don't really know much about it all but Sule certainly helped me understand as much as I have written above.

It really would be worth getting some advice and I suggest a Lawyer is the best person to do this.

It would be good to get feedback from people who do follow up with examples of how the law affects their family circumstances as this may be helpful to others. I am slightly reluctant to suggest this though as last time I suggested feedback on a particular topic it killed the topic dead - lol  

[usedbustickets]

Thanks Nichola, this and other threads do show that Mrs tickets and I do need to get another will drawn up for Turkey, as it looks like the present turkish one is as much use as a chocolate fireguard!

[Sus]

But surely the bank account single or a joint one should come under movable objects, therefore under law of domicile (UK)in relation to movable assets (such as cash in the bank, jewellery or cars).

[quackers]

Ah but this is Turkey not UK ,laws are different and as we live here and not Uk we have to be sure so off to a lawyer we go.

[LeeGlo]

I did see something some time ago on another forum about Holistic Wills i.e handwritten ones. Does anyone know anything about these? What is the procedure, do you need a particular layout, does it matter which language it's written in, and most importantly do the Turkish courts recognize them as a legal document. I'm talking about bequeathing moveable assets here, money, cars etc, not bricks and mortar property.