Cross-Border Wills and Inheritance Planning for Chinese Families with UK Assets

Lawyer-review draft only — not legal advice Governing jurisdictions: Mainland PRC plus the relevant UK legal system; England and Wales only for probate examples below Review status: PRC scope finally approved without changes; UK scope not lawyer-reviewed Confirmed reviewer assignment: Jinxia Cheng — mainland PRC succession/conflict-of-laws scope only; UK private-client/tax reviewer unassigned Attribution status: Jinxia Cheng may be credited for the PRC succession/conflict-of-laws scope; no UK attribution Last legally reviewed: 2026-08-05 for the mainland PRC scope only

A cross-border estate plan should begin with facts, not a will template. Before deciding whether to use one will or more than one, the family and its advisers need to identify the assets, the people, the ownership rules, the relevant legal systems and the officials or institutions that will control each asset after death.

UK government guidance itself identifies overseas property or a permanent home outside the UK as reasons to obtain professional advice.

1. Map the family and every asset

Create a schedule recording each family member's nationality, habitual residence, tax residence, marriage history, dependants and any person who may need support. For each asset, record the legal and beneficial owner, location, account or title number, currency, value, debt, nominee or trust arrangement, company wrapper and original-document location.

Ownership comes before succession. Joint title, matrimonial property, trust interests and company ownership may mean that the whole asset—or the asset itself—does not enter the deceased's personal estate.

Questions for professional advice: What did the deceased actually own after applying the relevant matrimonial, co-ownership, trust and company rules?

2. Separate the legal questions

Do not ask only, “Which country's inheritance law applies?” Capacity to make a will, execution form, essential validity, revocation, intestate succession, administration and tax can follow different rules. Mainland PRC's foreign-related civil law contains distinct connecting rules for intestate succession, will form, will validity and estate administration. Asset location is particularly important for immovable property.

England and Wales also has its own wills and probate framework; Scotland and Northern Ireland must not be treated as interchangeable with it. A will intended to operate in England and Wales must satisfy the applicable validity rules, and an executor may need a grant of probate before controlling assets.

Questions for professional advice: For every issue and asset, which court could act, which choice-of-law rule would it use, and what evidence establishes habitual residence, nationality and location at the legally relevant date?

3. Apply the mainland PRC succession framework

The PRC Civil Code's Succession Book addresses statutory succession, succession under a will, legacies and legacy-support arrangements. It also contains rules on estate administration and the treatment of debts and dependants. The precise result depends on family relationships, ownership, the instrument, formalities and any foreign element.

PRC advice should identify any person requiring a protected or reserved provision, any legacy-support agreement, creditor issue, rural or restricted asset, and the local notarisation, court, registry or financial-institution process.

4. Coordinate wills; do not count them

A single document may be difficult to use across institutions and languages. Multiple jurisdiction-limited wills may simplify some local steps but can also revoke one another, overlap, leave gaps, appoint representatives with incompatible powers or produce inconsistent tax and administration outcomes. HMRC's foreign-assets form acknowledges that separate foreign wills may exist; it does not establish that they are preferable.

The drafting lawyers should jointly decide the architecture. If there is more than one will, each should be reviewed against every other instrument for scope, non-revocation language, definitions, governing-law effect, executor appointments, tax clauses and simultaneous-death provisions. Originals, certified translations and a controlled signing sequence should be documented.

No template should be produced from this guide.

5. Plan administration while the client can supply evidence

For an England-and-Wales estate, executors may need the original will, estate valuation, tax work and a grant before dealing with assets. PRC assets can require a different authority and institution-specific evidence. A UK grant should not be described as automatically empowering an executor to transfer a PRC bank account, company interest or real property.

Prepare a document plan covering death and marriage certificates, kinship evidence, identity and name variations, title records, original wills, translations, notarisation or apostille requirements, foreign-law evidence, tax clearances and secure access to digital records. The exact route must be confirmed at death because procedures change.

6. Review tax under the current date-specific rules

For deaths and transfers on or after 6 April 2025, the UK moved the main inheritance-tax test for foreign assets from domicile/deemed domicile to long-term UK residence. Broadly, current HMRC guidance describes long-term residence by reference to UK residence in at least 10 of the previous 20 tax years, with continuing exposure after departure in some cases. Transitional provisions, trusts and treaty concepts require specialist analysis.

The tax reviewer must identify the event date, residence history, asset location, gifts, trusts, spouse status, reliefs, foreign taxes and filing obligations. The ordinary UK-China income and capital-gains treaty should not be assumed to cover inheritance tax.

7. Do not rely on an inapplicable convention

The HCCH 1989 Succession Convention does not create a China-UK solution: the HCCH status table records that it is not yet in force and has no contracting parties. The applicable rules must instead be established from the domestic conflicts rules and any genuinely applicable instrument.

Review events

Revisit the plan after a move, marriage or divorce; birth, adoption or death; acquisition or sale of real estate; major change in tax residence; new company or trust; material asset change; change of executor; or change in law. Each review should reconcile the asset map, every will and side letter, tax analysis, beneficiary needs, original-document custody and administration plan.

UK private-client and tax advice remains necessary for individual planning; the published review credit above is limited to mainland PRC succession and conflict-of-laws issues.

Selected official sources

General information only, not legal advice. Law and administrative practice can change. Obtain advice for the relevant facts and jurisdiction.