Under Art. 648 of the Vietnamese Civil Code (CC), rights of testators include among others: To appoint heirs or to deprive an heir of the right to inherit the estate, to determine those parts of the estate which each heir is entitled to, to reserve part of the estate as a gift or for worship purposes and to designate heirs to perform obligations. A few points to consider are the following:

1. Coordinate your Last Wills in Vietnam and abroad: Most importantly, you should not have different, ambivalent or even conflicting Last Wills when you decease: Accordingly, it is important that you coordinate drafting your Last Will(s), and make sure they are clear, consistent and covering all of your assets (or if most of your assets are in Vietnam: your Vietnam-located assets and real estate). If you decide to cover all of your worldwide movable and immovable assets, it is essential that - in case of doubt - you obtain different legal advice on each of the jurisdiction involved, particularly with regards to real estate (as choice-of-law provisions are sometimes intricate and not immediately clear to non-legally trained persons, especially with regards to immovable assets). If you cover your Vietnam-located assets and property only, it is recommended that you make a specific inventory of assets/properties, and that you exclude explicitly all other assets/properties and subject the Vietnam-located Last Will to Vietnamese Laws (which for immovable property located in Vietnam would be mandatory in any case)

2. Combine good Succession- and Tax Planning with drafting your Last Will(s): Sound succession planning means that you start thinking about distribution of your movable and immovable assets early. This is particularly true when larger estates, company interests, substantial real estate and/or many heirs are involved. It is also recommended if disputes among the heirs seem likely. Early succession planning will allow you to distribute your assets fairly, be in control of such distribution as long as possible and also to make adjustments early in case the future heirs are not living up to their expectations. Early succession planning will also enable you to tax-optimize the passing of your movable and immovable assets, specifically by making best use of tax-exemptions / tax-free amounts for gifts and inheritances, both in Vietnam and abroad.

3. Note the potential differences between Vietnamese Inheritance laws to those in your home country: If you intend to make a limited/separate Last Will with regards to your Vietnam-located movable and immovable assets only, you should be aware and potentially take advantage of the Vietnamese inheritance law potentially being different to those in your home country. For example, with regards to “Inheritance-at-Law” provisions, Art. 676 of the Vietnamese Civil Code (CC) stipulates that assets shall be distributed to heirs at law in the following order of priority:  The first level of heirs comprises: spouses, biological parents, adoptive parents, offspring and adopted children of the deceased; the second level of heirs comprises: grandparents and siblings of the deceased; and biological grandchildren of the deceased; the third level of heirs comprises: biological great-grandparents of the deceased, biological uncles and aunts of the deceased, and biological nephews and nieces of the deceased. Heirs at the same level shall be entitled to equal shares of the Estate. Heirs at a lower level shall be entitled to inherit where there are no heirs at a higher level because such heirs have died, or because they are not entitled to inherit, have been deprived of the right to inherit or have disclaimed the right to inherit. Two points are noteworthy in Vietnam: First, unlike in other countries, parents of the deceased are entitled as first-level heirs-at-law: Accordingly, if you are married with children, your parents will be entitled to 1/3 of your assets and properties by law. Second, in Vietnam you are free to testate that heirs-at-law shall not be entitled to (parts of) your estate (disinheritance). And unlike in some other countries, there is no legal claim of those heirs for a statutory share in case of disinheritance, allowing them for at least some form of financial compensation (e.g. in Germany this would be 50% of what their share would have been in case of inheritance-at-law).

4. Make your Testament/ Last Will in qualified and legally valid form: Once you decide to go ahead with drafting a Last Will / Testament in Vietnam, it is essential that you draft it precisely in substance, specifying in detail your assets (in Vietnam), such as movable and immovable assets with exact locations (and your share), company interests, bank accounts, art works, vehicles, and other (valuable) personal assets that you want your Last Will to cover (and also to the contrary: specifically, what you do not want to be covered by your Last Will in Vietnam). In terms of form, even though a simple and unwitnessed hand-written Last Will is legally valid in Vietnam, it is strongly recommended to: i) notarize your Last Will with a Vietnamese notary public, ii) in the presence of at least one witness. Note that the Last Will must be made in Vietnamese language to be enforceable in Vietnam.

5. Appoint trustworthy Custodian and Administrator of your Testament/Last Will: It is finally recommended that you appoint a custodian of your Last Will who shall keep it in his/her custody until you decease; and an administrator / distributor of your estate for the time after, who will make sure that the provisions of your Last Will are executed precisely and properly. While the custodians of your Last Will would often be your lawyers or the notary public who notarized your Last Will, the Administrators could technically be anyone. However it is recommended that you chose your Vietnam-based lawyers so as to keep form and protocol so complaints of Heirs are minimized and your Last Will implemented according to what you had wanted.