The deceased is a UK domicile with very significant investments and cash deposits in several overseas jurisdictions.
I am struggling to decipher the US asset-situs rules in relation to his cash deposits of USD and investment portfolios, etc held in USD (some US corporations but not all) but held outside the USA by non-US banks and institutions including in Cayman, Singapore and Jersey
Can anyone direct me to any ‘relatively simple’ articles or similar that will assist us in ascertaining whether a US estate report is required and whether we need specialist advice in relation to any of the assets?
Dear Lisa, we need more details to be able to help. There is a USA/UK Estate Tax Treaty and if the deceased died domiciled in the UK there is no USA Estate Tax payable. The next problem is that if the assets in the USA exceed US$60,000 as at the date of death then a Federal Transfer Certificate is need from the IRS or a Grant of Probate in the USA is needed. We do this all the time. You need to check on the bank account as some banks want the Federal Transfer Certificate / Grant of Probate even though such accounts are exempt from USA Estate Tax in any event. We advise getting a Grant of Probate as it is a much quicker process than going the Federal Transfer Certificate / IRS route which at this time is taking over 2 years, whereas getting a Grant of Probate takes about 10 months to complete the total transfer of the USA assets to the Executors / Beneficiaries. We have used the Grant of Probate route for over 3 years without a problem.