We all want to leave our loved ones as financially secure as possible when we die. But that involves more than just the basics of executing a valid will, choosing a competent and professional executor, and of course leaving enough asset value in your estate.

Let’s talk about the risk of one or more of your heirs finding themselves in financial distress and losing their inheritances to their creditors. How should you go about ensuring that inheritances aren’t subject to attachment by creditors, or seizure by trustees if their estates are sequestrated? Read on for some options…

“Domicile”

Your “domicile” is your “legal home or a home for legal purposes”. Everyone has a domicile, and you can only have one domicile at a time. It’s a concept highly relevant to matrimonial and divorce matters, particularly in determining which country’s laws apply to a marriage. And because it is, somewhat confusingly, “not necessarily the same as the place of actual residence or a place where one eats, drinks and sleeps”, and because what counts is your “intention to settle there for an indefinite period” (“intention” as a state of mind not being easily proved), a good tip is to record both spouses’ chosen permanent countries of residence at the time of marriage, and any subsequent changes in intention.