NRI wills: how to handle Indian assets when you live abroad

If you're an Indian citizen living abroad — or a foreign citizen of Indian origin holding Indian assets — the will you write affects two countries' courts, two tax authorities, and two banking systems. Get it wrong and your spouse spends three years in cross-border probate while the Indian rupee balance you saved sits frozen in a Mumbai bank. Get it right and the handoff is mechanical. The decisions you make in the next hour matter more than the size of the estate.

**Decision 1: one will or two?** This is the single most consequential choice. The conservative position — and the one most cross-border lawyers take — is **two separate wills, one per jurisdiction**. Your Indian will covers Indian assets only (bank balances, immovable property in India, mutual funds, demat holdings, PPF, NPS, Indian insurance). Your foreign will covers your foreign assets. Each is executed under the law of its own country. They reference each other (so neither accidentally revokes the other), and they're consistent in spirit (so they don't contradict at the level of beneficiary intent).

Why two? Because a single will probated abroad would still need re-probate in India under the Indian Succession Act 1925 (which applies to all wills, regardless of religion, when probate is sought). Re-probate is slow, expensive, and gives Indian courts unfamiliar with foreign legal terms a reason to ask for clarifications. Two wills bypass that friction.

**Decision 2: the revocation clause is the trap.** Most will templates start with 'I revoke all previous wills and codicils.' If your Indian will says this, it can be read as revoking your US/UK/UAE will too. The fix: in your Indian will, write 'I revoke all previous wills and codicils to the extent they relate to my assets situated in India.' The foreign will mirrors this for its jurisdiction. Lawyers in either country will recognise this language; templates often don't. Sort My Legacy's NRI template uses this scoped revocation by default.

**Decision 3: who is your executor in India?** Executors must physically appear before banks, registries, and (sometimes) courts. If your executor is also an NRI, every transaction involves them flying in or signing notarised affidavits from abroad — each requires apostille or consular attestation, each takes weeks. The pragmatic answer for most NRIs is **two executors named jointly**: one resident Indian (a sibling, an old college friend, a trusted CA) who handles day-to-day paperwork, and yourself or another NRI family member who handles strategic decisions. The Indian will explicitly grants the resident executor delegated authority for day-to-day administration.

**NRO vs NRE accounts on death.** NRE (Non-Resident External) account balances are fully repatriable; NRO (Non-Resident Ordinary) account balances are repatriable up to USD 1 million per financial year, subject to Form 15CA/15CB filing and tax clearance. On death, the nominee or legal heir can convert an NRE account to an NRO account (or to a resident account if they are resident), but the route depends on their residency status. Specify in your will that your executor has full power to convert, repatriate, and pay applicable taxes — without this, banks will ask for separate authority each time.

**Immovable property: where the foreign court has zero authority.** A US court probating your will cannot transfer your Pune flat to your spouse. The Pune sub-registrar takes its instructions from Indian probate (in jurisdictions where probate is mandatory — Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai for certain communities) or from a registered will plus the proper transmission documentation (in jurisdictions where probate is optional). For NRIs, this means: register your Indian will in India (the sub-registrar's office, ₹100-500 fee), and keep the registered original in India. A scanned copy lives in your Sort My Legacy documents; the wet-ink original lives in your locker or with your Indian executor.

**FEMA, source-of-funds, and inheritance tax.** India has no inheritance tax (yet — there's been periodic legislative talk, none enacted as of mid-2026). But FEMA requires that foreign inheritances received by an NRI be deposited into NRO/NRE accounts with proper documentation. If you inherit from a parent in India, the inflow into your NRE account abroad needs an RBI-cleared paper trail. Your Indian will, your executor's certificate, and the bank's transmission letter are the trio that makes this clean.

**Practical packet for your executor.** Whether you have one will or two, leave your executor a single physical envelope (and a digital copy in Sort My Legacy) containing: Indian will (registered copy), foreign will (notarised copy), PAN card copy, Aadhaar copy if you have one, list of all Indian bank accounts with branch and nominee details, list of all foreign accounts with bank and beneficiary details, list of immovable property with survey numbers and registered title deeds, life insurance policies (Indian and foreign), the name and contact of your Indian CA, the name and contact of your foreign accountant, and a one-page 'first 30 days' instruction sheet. Sort My Legacy's NRI template guides you through assembling this packet.

**Final note: this is a guide, not legal advice.** NRI succession crosses tax law, succession law, exchange control, and (sometimes) succession treaties between countries. Use it as a checklist for the conversation you'll have with an Indian estate lawyer and (separately) a lawyer in your country of residence. We are working on a verified directory of cross-border specialists; join the Professionals waitlist if you'd like to be matched as the network goes live.