U.S. - Greek Estate Planning - One mistake - Huge losses

Planning your U.S. estate? Do you have significant U.S. and Greek assets? Well, under the intestacy law of many U.S. states, the surviving spouse is entitled to a percentage of 50%.This is not taxed against the $5,250.000 Federal Estate Tax Exemption. So for example if you have 6 million in U.S. assets, only 3 million will be subject to the Federal estate tax-if one spouse dies without a Will. However, as to the Greek assets, if Greek law applies (which it would if the person was domiciled in Greece and/or a Greek national as well) then, the surviving spouse would only get 25% of the Greek assets. That means that the U.S. Estate Tax Return may have to list as taxable 75% of the Greek assets - and the total non-spouse taxable U.S. estate may be over $5,250.000.

Careful planning is required to avoid this. Of course, this analysis does not even look at the State tax issues - which also must be considered.