# Wills (Mexican)



## MangoTango (Feb 8, 2020)

In the US I will have beneficiaries setup on all my assets. I have no real property in the US.

In Mexico I will have beneficiaries setup on my bank accounts. I will have an executor (albacea). 

Taking all of that off the table I have some percentage of my house (50-100% depending on how my wife's will ultimately settles out), a car, cats and household stuff. I was thinking of maybe making CruzRoja my heir so they would pick up this 'residual' stuff.

The alternative to that would be to make my albacea my heir and have a legacy clause to leave the house to CruzRoja.

Thoughts appreciated.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

Make sure the executor is left with access to enough cash to pay expenses related to both funeral and winding up the estate. Suppose for instance that it takes a while to resolve the house and some bills come due in the mean time (utility, predial) or some transfer fees need to be paid to properly disburse assets like cars, or pay for notarization of death certificates and registered mail to the US to activate disbursement of those financial assets to the beneficiary. Also assume the executor can't transfer assets from a US account with a beneficiary to mexico to cover expenses.


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## MangoTango (Feb 8, 2020)

Thanks for the advice. I could give a graduate level course on some of this stuff...

I am probably the only US expat in Mexico who is a 'Mexican resident' - but the US brokerages make it very hard to be honest. Mexican residents who have JTWRTS(?) registrations will have their accounts locked and the surviving spouse will not have access to the funds until the IRS is done doing its thing. Fidelity allows TOD (transfer on death) designations and the guy I spoke with said they were even willing to make it international if needed. Schwab will allow TOD for retirement accounts but not generic brokerage accounts... So - I guess I will keep the bulk of my 'cash' at Fidelity and transfer it into Schwab as needed. Schwab will let me buy pesos in the US and wire them to my Mexican bank. Fidelity will not. Maybe they will let me wire dollars to Mexico and someone along the way will do a currency conversion - but I would need to double check on that. 

I am setting up beneficiary designations on my US accounts. They will all be US charities. 

Our (actually my) Mexican financial accounts also will have beneficiaries assigned. As a matter of fact it is for the most part the executor. She already is very well off and she will have more than enough to settle things out. At this moment she will 'probably' be the sole heir and executor. I trust her impeccably and I can leave her instructions which I know she will honor. That way things stay 'informal'. I can write her to give X pesos to some orphanage for example - in a simple letter. 

Cremation in Mexico runs somewhere less than 50,000 pesos (all-inclusive) and you can arrange a contract (with large multi-state companies) ahead of time.

Our mechanic (he is a lot more than that) once said of my car - if I had this car I would sleep in it. So today actually I asked him if he would like me to leave it to him in my will


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## Vantenich (Sep 16, 2021)

Regarding account transfers to mexico - look for a reliable international transfer.


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## Vantenich (Sep 16, 2021)

Regarding account transfers to mexico - look for a reliable international transfer. Banks and other providers often add a surcharge to their exchange rate while advertising low fees, which means you may pay huge hidden fees. So look for ones that show the commission up front and deduct it from the payment amount before conversion. You won't have any unpleasant surprises in that case. You can also find more details here. It isn`t superfluous to resort to financial advisors as well. Also keep in mind that the fastest way to send money to Mexico is rarely the cheapest, so you need to weigh what's more important.


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