# Wills and FBAR



## coconutwater (Jan 17, 2019)

Kia ora (welcome) from New Zealand! 

This forum is wonderful, and is helping with my tremendous anxiety around all of the filing requirements for the USA. I have tried to search to see if this question has been asked, but because of the keyword - "will" - you can imagine that it's hard to locate a thread if one exists because the word is so common. 

What I want to know is whether I have to report my spouse's accounts if she has made a will that leaves me as sole trustee and executrix of her assets. I do not currently have signatory access to her accounts - she is the sole owner. 

Thanks so much in advance!


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## SoCal85 (Jan 14, 2019)

I'm assuming you are a US citizen currently living abroad since you are asking this question. To answer your question, currently based on your facts, I would say it's unnecessary. This assumes you are not currently listed on the account in any way other than through her will. 

The FBAR requires you to disclose accounts that you have a financial interest or signature authority over. Signature authority is specifically defined in the FINCEN 114 instructions and just says if you have the authority to control the disposition of assets held in the account. Doesn't seem like you have this level of control yet.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

The specific answer to your question may depend a bit on a few more details: What are the nationalities of you and your wife? Is she subject to FinCEN (FBAR) reporting on her own? 

I'm assuming that she is still alive and kicking (or certainly hope so, at any rate). All that trustee and executor stuff won't come into play until the will comes into effect upon her death. Until then, you're just the executor-in-waiting and/or trustee-in-waiting. And even then, depending on how her assets will be distributed, you may wind up being able to report her accounts as being those over which you have "signature authority but no financial interest." But with any kind of luck, that's still a long ways off.


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## coconutwater (Jan 17, 2019)

Thanks to you both for the replies. I am a dual US-NZ citizen (US from birth, NZ acquired), and my wife is only a NZ citizen. We have almost completely separate accounts but having just found out the complexities of filing according to the US tax system I started to panic thinking the living will meant I had to list her accounts. When I filed FBARs for the first time, I tried to make sense of what, to me, is complex business language - and determined having a will wouldn't mean needing to list her accounts.

But, I have just found out my KiwiSaver is apparently a PFIC even though it is government sponsored and was passed under an act of legislation in NZ. I thought it was a 'social security-type program.' I feel like I'm in a living hell right now, because I can't help but wonder whether this is really the IRS' view, or whether compliance professionals are telling me this to force me to spend thousands of dollars to go back and file complicated paperwork and passive income etc. I feel totally sick over it. 

Anyway, the point of telling you the above is to say that now, I'm questioning everything. I feel like the rug's been ripped right out and I feel like my efforts to file by myself for the past 8 years was the stupidest decision I could have ever made.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Don't forget about the "good faith effort" approach to your FBAR filing. I don't know the details of your KiwiSaver account, but just report it as a "bank account." That way you've reported it. If they ever notice and someone in the FBAR office has a clue what the account is, they might come back to you and ask questions. But I really wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them to do so.


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