Is there any lawyer who you’ve worked with that can help with creating a Taiwan will? I heard it’s almost impossible to go through probate court here. My birth certificate wouldn’t be recognized in Taiwan - I’ve asked already.
I asked a law firm in Taipei and they said they will bill me at 25k NT per hour, and estimated 900k NT to draft a Taiwan will. It seems they’re overcharging a bit? I just need a local lawyer. I feel this should cost maybe 3000 NT at most? Willing to drive down to somewhere like 台東 to find an affordable local lawyer.
Yeah I don’t know what they’re smoking. My living trust in the U.S. cost $500 and that was pretty complicated but a will is much simpler. Maybe because I spoke English and they’re an international firm. I have a local Taiwan company, local accounts, local investment accounts, and local real estate in the future and wanted them on the will.
For making a holograph will, the testator must himself write the whole text, stating the year, month and day and sign it. In case of any insertion, cancellation, erasure or alteration, he must make and sign an additional note stating the place in the text where words have been inserted, erased or altered, and the number of such words.”
I guess that’s always an option if I can’t find something affordable
probably not 3,000, more around 15K to 20K, but 900K is excessive, do they mostly do corporate business? that could be the reason for the high cost.
wills can be prepared by a public notary, try finding one close to you?
U$ 800.oo/hour & U$ 29K for the final product.That comes to 36+ billable hours to simply prepare a Will. I’d say “overcharging a bit” is a HUGE understatement. I’d be frightened to know what this firm would charge if they had to perform “real” law work.
The Celsius bankruptcy lawyers were charging up to 1500 USD a hour per lawyer and it’s all public, there’s many lawyers working on that case. 4 lawyers just to draft some statement. Around 55mil USD in lawyer fees owed. Don’t know who are the ones getting scammed.
Should be able to do yourself and get notarized, no? wills are pretty easy in Taiwan, they even accept verbal wills. the trick is having it fraud proofed. I would expect notarization would be ample.
I found a local notary to help. They charge based on total assets and the total cost was within budget of what I’d consider reasonable from my original post. They can’t speak English but you can probably use google translate.
For a holograph will they helped me prepare several copies, provided instructions on how to write the will on paper, reviewed it and pointed out where to make fixes (I’m bad at writing Chinese), did a video recording for their records and went through the will, stamped it with their office seal, and provided some legal advice. They also provided advice on Taiwan law, and advised that normally I don’t need to provide holograph will for family beneficiaries, but I said I’d like to do it anyways for peace of mind.
Overall the process took 1 hour of preparation work and ~40 mins in person and they were quite helpful.
