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Indian-asset Will
Drafted under the Indian Succession Act 1925 to cover all your assets situated in India, with proper attestation and registration.
A separately drafted Indian Will protects your Indian assets and avoids the cross-border friction of relying on a foreign Will. Expert-drafted under the Indian Succession Act 1925, attested in your country of residence via Apostille or consular route, and registered in your Indian home city on your next India visit. Time-zone friendly consultations.
India's Most Inheritance Planning Drafting Platform
Free 15-minute discovery call with a senior estate planning expert in India. We will explain how your situation across two jurisdictions is best handled, and recommend the right Will strategy.
A complete cross-border solution for Non-Resident Indians and OCI cardholders. Drafted by senior estate planning experts, attested abroad, and registered in India, all coordinated by us.
An NRI Will is a Will drafted by a Non-Resident Indian or OCI cardholder that governs the distribution of assets located in India.
It is the document that addresses what happens to your Indian property, bank accounts, mutual fund holdings, equity portfolio, and other Indian assets after you pass away, regardless of where you reside or which country's law governs the rest of your estate.
The Indian asset Will is typically drafted alongside, not instead of, your home-country Will. Most NRIs follow a two-Will strategy because Indian succession law, registration requirements, and FEMA compliance work differently from the systems in countries like the USA, UK, Canada, or Australia.
The three categories carry different rights and obligations under Indian law. The Will plan works for all three, but the documentation route can differ.
If you are unsure of your current status, the consultation includes a review of your documents and the recommended drafting route.
Many NRIs assume their US, UK, or Canadian Will will be honoured in India. That assumption costs families months of delay and significant legal cost.
For immovable property in India, a foreign Will needs to go through additional processes including probate or ancillary administration in an Indian court. The court will examine whether the foreign Will conforms to Section 63 of the Indian Succession Act, whether it was properly executed under the law of the place where it was made, and whether the witnesses meet Indian standards.
For Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata properties, this is not an administrative inconvenience. Until December 2025, Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act 1925 mandated probate for property in Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata. The Repealing and Amending Act 2025 has now omitted Section 213. Probate is no longer statutorily mandatory, but in practice banks and financial institutions often still expect it for NRI estates.
The two-Will strategy avoids all of this. A separately drafted Indian Will, executed and registered in India, sidesteps the cross-border probate path entirely for your Indian assets.
Parliament, through the Repealing and Amending Act 2025, omitted Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act 1925 along with consequential references. The Act received Presidential assent on 20 December 2025. The change removes the colonial-era requirement that beneficiaries of Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Jains obtain probate before asserting rights under a Will in respect of property in Mumbai, Chennai, or Kolkata.
Source: Repealing and Amending Act 2025, Presidential assent 20 December 2025. Saving clause protects pending probate matters.
Bring it to the cross-border consultation. We will review whether your Indian assets are protected under the existing document and recommend the right path forward.
Drafted under the Indian Succession Act 1925 to cover all your assets situated in India, with proper attestation and registration.
Drafted under the law of your country of residence (USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore, UAE, etc.) for assets located there.
Each Will clearly references the other and confirms it does not revoke the other. No double-coverage, no contradictions.
Major life events update both Wills together. We coordinate with your home-country attorney if needed.
Both Wills can be probated in parallel, in their own jurisdictions, by their own executors, under their own legal systems. Your family is not waiting for a foreign court to authenticate or interpret a document drafted under another country's rules. The Indian executor acts on the Indian Will. The home-country executor acts on the home-country Will. They each have a clean, locally-drafted, locally-attested instrument to work with.
For Indian assets located in the three former Presidency Town jurisdictions, probate is not optional. NRIs with property in these cities should plan for it from the drafting stage.
If your Indian assets are spread across multiple cities including any of the three, we structure the Indian Will to minimise probate friction in each jurisdiction.
The Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 permits NRIs and OCI cardholders to inherit Indian assets without prior RBI approval.
Under Section 6(5) of FEMA 1999, a person resident outside India may hold, own, or transfer immovable property situated in India if such property was acquired by that person when resident in India or inherited from a person who was resident in India. Inheritance does not require prior RBI approval. This means your Will operates without obstruction under FEMA: your overseas heirs can inherit your Indian assets without seeking permission.
The complication arises at the repatriation stage. Once an NRI heir wishes to remit the inherited funds out of India, the RBI's USD 1 million per financial year limit through the NRO account becomes relevant. This applies cumulatively across all inherited assets in a given year.
We address both ends in your Will planning: the FEMA-compliant inheritance and the practical repatriation roadmap your heirs should expect.
India is a member of the Hague Apostille Convention 1961. Documents from Hague member states require only Apostille certification, not full consular legalisation.
We coordinate the attestation in your country of residence. You provide signed originals locally. We handle the rest.
India abolished estate duty in 1985. There is no central inheritance tax in India today.
Indian heirs pay capital gains tax only when they sell inherited assets, calculated on the difference between sale price and the original cost basis at the time the deceased acquired the asset. The holding period for indexation purposes includes the deceased's holding period.
The cross-border complication is your country of residence. Several countries levy inheritance, estate, or gift tax on residents who inherit foreign assets. It is advisable to check the specific country Income Tax rules while carrying out Estate Planning. Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) between India and certain countries provide relief in many cases, but the relief is rule-specific. The Will planning step is to anticipate the tax friction your heirs will face and to structure ownership accordingly.
A nominee is not always the final owner of your asset.
In Indian law, a nominee is the person you authorise to receive an asset (a bank account, a fixed deposit, a mutual fund unit, a demat holding, a life insurance payout) after your death. The nominee's role is custodial, not ownership.
The legal owner after your death is determined by your Will. If you have a Will, the Will overrides the nomination. If you do not have a Will, the personal succession law applicable to your religion decides ownership.
For NRIs, this matters because nominee names on Indian bank accounts and investments are often set decades ago and rarely updated. When inheritance happens, family members assume the nominee owns the asset outright. They do not. A clear Indian Will eliminates this ambiguity.
The executor named in your Indian Will is the person who carries out your instructions after your death.
For an Indian-asset Will, the executor will need to deal with Indian banks, mutual fund houses, registrars, the Sub-Registrar Office, possibly the probate court, and the tax authority. Doing this from abroad is technically possible but practically very slow and expensive.
Naming an Indian resident as your executor, or as a co-executor alongside a family member abroad, makes the process far smoother. The executor should be someone you trust, who lives in India, who is capable of administrative paperwork, and who is willing to take on the responsibility.
Cross-border consultation on your time zone. We map your assets, jurisdictions, and recommend the strategy.
FEMA-compliant Indian Will, Power of Attorney for Indian representation, and supporting documentation.
You sign locally. We coordinate Apostille (Hague countries) or consular attestation (non-Hague) through to completion (if needed).
Our Indian representative presents the Will at the Sub-Registrar Office in your home city. You receive the registered original.
Share your country of residence and a brief outline of your Indian assets. A senior estate planning expert will reach out within 24 hours, on your time zone.
A US, UK, or Canadian Will is not a substitute for an Indian Will for property and accounts in India. The two-Will strategy is the standard for a reason.
Documents from Hague Convention countries need only an Apostille, but the step is routinely skipped because people are unaware. The result is rejection at Indian registration.
Generic Will templates often include jurisdiction clauses that create conflict between the Indian and home-country documents. The two should explicitly coexist.
FEMA does not block inheritance, but repatriation rules apply afterwards. Anticipating them at drafting saves your heirs months of paperwork later.
Naming only a US or UK-resident executor leaves your family unable to act in India. A local executor or co-executor changes the timeline dramatically.
For Indian-asset Wills, registration is voluntary but valuable. Without it, NRI heirs face longer probate and more bank pushback. Registration via Power of Attorney solves it.
Bank account and demat nominations set 20 years ago do not match current family situations. Update the nominations alongside the Will, not after.
Composite scenarios showing where the NRI Will plan structurally fits the family. Names and facts are anonymised.
Raj had been living in Singapore for over 12 years but continued to own an apartment in Mumbai, along with Indian bank accounts and mutual funds. We helped him prepare a separate Indian Will exclusively for his assets in India, while his Singapore Will governed his overseas estate. This ensured his family could manage both jurisdictions independently, without delays or legal overlap.
Vikram had built a successful business in Uganda but retained ancestral property and investments in India. We drafted a dedicated Indian Will covering only his Indian assets, while his Ugandan estate remained governed by local laws. The dual-Will structure gave his family clarity and helped avoid cross-border legal complications.
When Anita's husband was undergoing cancer treatment in the United States, the family wanted to ensure everything was in order. Although they already had estate planning documents in the U.S., they also owned property and investments in India. We prepared a separate Indian Will for their Indian assets, ensuring their family would not face unnecessary legal hurdles across two different jurisdictions during an already difficult time.
In most cases, yes. A foreign Will is not automatically valid for Indian immovable property and faces long delays and cross-border authentication when the time comes. The two-Will strategy is the standard for NRIs and OCI cardholders with significant Indian assets.
Speak to a senior estate planning expert about your NRI Will. We will map your Indian assets, your country of residence, and recommend the right two-Will strategy. Consultations on your time zone. No India travel required.
15-minute discovery call. Senior estate planning counsel. No obligation.
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