Will Writing for NRIs · Indian Assets · Sign From Abroad
A will for your Indian property, bank accounts and investments, written by Bar Council-enrolled advocates under Indian law, for people who live abroad. We guide you through signing it correctly from where you are, and plan for the banks, registries and paperwork your family will face.
Share your country of residence, your citizenship or OCI status, your main Indian assets, and who you want to leave them to. An advocate from our team will tell you what kind of will you need, how you can sign it from abroad, and what it will cost. No obligation.
If you live outside India but own property, bank accounts or investments here, those assets are governed by Indian law, whatever your passport says and whatever the will you made abroad provides. A will that does not meet Indian formalities, or that clashes with your foreign will, can leave your family waiting for years while banks, registries and societies ask for documents they cannot easily produce from another country.
This page is only for NRIs, OCI cardholders and other people living abroad with assets in India. We draft your will under Indian law, guide you through signing it correctly from where you are, and plan for the practical problems your family will face: an executor in another time zone, nominations that contradict the will, and sending money out of India. If you live in India, see our general page on will writing services in India.
On this page: Do you need two wills? · Laws that apply · Your status · Making it enforceable · Signing from abroad · Assets · Executor · Probate · After death · Tax · Process · FAQ
If you own Indian property or hold Indian accounts and investments, usually yes. Succession to immovable property in India is governed by Indian law wherever you live, and Indian banks, registries and depositories work from documents that meet Indian rules. A separate Indian will keeps your Indian estate in one clean document, avoids the delay of proving a foreign will, and means your family does not have to argue about foreign law.
Many guides stop there and tell NRIs to make “two wills”. The trap is in the wording. Most wills contain a clause revoking all earlier wills. If your foreign will says that, it can wipe out your Indian will, and the reverse. Three rules avoid this:
We draft the Indian will and read the wording of your foreign will against it. We do not advise on foreign law. We work with your lawyer abroad on the points where the two wills touch. In a few cases one will can work, for example when your Indian assets are small and financial. If that is your case, we say so rather than sell you a second document.
Six sets of rules decide whether your will works for Indian assets.
Under Section 5, succession to immovable property in India follows Indian law, wherever you were domiciled when you died. For movable assets such as bank balances and shares, the law of your domicile applies in principle, but Indian institutions will still ask for documents in the Indian form.
Section 63 sets how a will is signed and attested: your signature, and two witnesses who each see you sign and sign in your presence. A will that fails this is the easiest kind to challenge.
Whether you can leave your whole estate to anyone you choose depends on your personal law, not on where you live. A Muslim testator can generally dispose of only up to one third of the net estate by will, unless the heirs consent. Goa has its own succession rules. See which law governs your will.
Decides who abroad can hold or inherit Indian assets, which accounts they sit in, and how money can leave India. Your status as an NRI, OCI or foreign citizen matters.
Wills are excluded from electronic signatures. An e-signed or video-witnessed will is not valid in India, so signing has to be on paper, in person, before witnesses.
Registering a will is optional, and a will needs no stamp duty. Registration makes forgery claims harder to sustain, and it usually needs you to appear in person.
FEMA treats people living abroad differently, and it affects what your heirs can do after they inherit.
Your heirs can inherit residential and commercial property, and also agricultural land, a plantation or a farmhouse. An NRI cannot buy agricultural land, but can inherit it, and generally can sell it only to a resident Indian citizen.
Generally treated like an NRI for inheriting immovable property, with the same limits on agricultural land, plantations and farmhouses.
Can inherit from a person resident in India. Some steps, such as sending sale proceeds out of India or holding certain property, can need extra conditions or RBI permission. We check before drafting.
Usually the simplest route. The bequest passes as a domestic matter, with the tax consequences on any later sale.
Nine points that decide whether banks, registries and courts accept it.
Handwritten or typed, signed at the end by you. Initial every page so pages cannot be swapped.
Both present when you sign, each signing in your presence. Choose adults who are not beneficiaries or their spouses.
You understand what you own and who your family is, and nobody pressures you. Where age or health makes a challenge likely, we add a doctor’s note.
Full address and survey or flat number, bank and branch, account number, demat DP and client ID, folio numbers. “My house in India” is the commonest cause of dispute.
Written in clear English so officials can follow it. A will in another language needs a certified translation before Indian authorities will use it.
An executor and an alternate who can act in India. A relative abroad can be added, but an executor who can visit a bank is worth more.
The will works inside the limits of your personal law, so it is not partly undone later.
Nominations on accounts, funds and insurance should match the will, or the family faces competing claims.
The original is stored somewhere your executor can reach, and copies are shared. A will nobody can find does not help.
You do not have to come to India to make a valid will. You do have to sign it properly. These are the routes we set up.
What does not work: an e-signature, a will witnessed over a video call, or a will signed in a different order from the one the rules set out. Indian law excludes wills from the electronic signature rules, so the signing has to be done in person, on paper.
Registering is optional. If you want it and cannot travel soon, we tell you what is possible from your country at that time, because the position depends on the registrar and the type of document.
NRI estates tend to hold the same types of asset. Each has its own trap.
Banks ask for the will or a legal heir certificate, and the nominee is often not the owner. We name the heirs, keep nominations consistent, and note which funds may be sent abroad.
Transmission needs the will or heirship documents and forms for each depository and company. Listed and unlisted shares follow different routes. See corporate lawyers in India for company interests.
Each fund house has its own claim process. We list folio numbers and align nominations.
Needs a clear description and a clean title. If you are unsure of your title papers, an Indian legal opinion on property title can be done before you draft.
You can leave them to an NRI or OCI heir, but the heir generally can only sell them to a resident Indian citizen. We plan for who will hold them.
These often pass by nomination, not by will. We map them, so the will does not contradict them or leave a gap.
Needs a plan for who runs it and how shares move. Charter documents and partner agreements can limit what a will can do.
Bank lockers need a nominee and a record of contents. We include movable items and digital accounts so nothing is overlooked.
Executor. The person who carries out your will in India needs to be able to go to banks, a sub-registrar and, if needed, a court. Name a primary and an alternate, and choose at least one who is in India and is willing to act. A professional executor is possible when no family member can.
Guardian for minor children. Where your children live decides who has custody, and that is usually the law of the country they live in. A guardian clause in your Indian will may not bind a court abroad. We coordinate it with your will there.
Power of attorney. A registered power of attorney helps a relative manage your Indian property while you are alive. It ends when you die, so it does not replace a will.
For years, the usual advice was that an NRI will needed probate from an Indian court. Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 made probate mandatory in some cases, mainly for wills of Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists and Parsis in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. The Repealing and Amending Act, 2025, which received assent on 20 December 2025, removed that section. Probate is no longer a legal precondition to claiming under a will. It is still available. The detail is on our page about will writing services in India.
In practice some banks, housing societies and registries may still ask for probate or letters of administration, and a will made abroad often draws more questions than one made in India. We build the will so that it can stand without probate, and we tell your executor when probate is still worth seeking: a contested will, a high-value property in Mumbai, Chennai or Kolkata, or an office that will not move without it.
The steps we explain to your executor, so nobody works it out in the middle of a crisis.
Death certificate, in an attested or apostilled form if issued abroad, the original will, and ID of the executor and the heirs.
Banks, depositories, fund houses, insurers and the property society, with a certified copy of the will.
Mutation of the property records in the heirs’ names, and the sub-registrar or society records where needed.
Closure or transfer of each account, with funds credited to an NRO or resident account as the rules require.
Clear tax dues and file the returns that apply to the estate before money is sent abroad.
Remittance through an NRO account with the CA certificate and the forms the bank requires, within the annual limit that applies. We confirm the current limit at the time.
We are not tax advisers. Where the structure turns on tax, we work with your chartered accountant.
We reply with a scope and a fixed fee, usually within 2 hours. The fee depends on how many assets and heirs there are and whether a trust or a second will needs checking. We tell you the timeline with the quote.
This page is general information and is not legal advice. An advocate-client relationship starts only when we confirm an engagement in writing.
Local registration and practical help.
Wills where the property or executor is in Mumbai.
Wills where the property or executor is in Delhi.
Wills where the property or executor is in Bangalore.
Wills where the property or executor is in Hyderabad.
Wills where the property or executor is in Pune.
Wills where the property or executor is in Ahmedabad.
Wills where the property or executor is in Jaipur.
Wills where the property or executor is in Gurugram.
Drafting and registration support in Lucknow.
For the work around an NRI will.
Wills for people who live in India, personal law and registration.
Title and FEMA opinions on Indian property.
Company interests, shares and business succession.
All our services across India.
This page is written and reviewed by Prakhar Rai, an advocate enrolled with the Bar Council of India, an alumnus of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore, with a Master of Business Laws, and the founder of My Legal Pal. His practice covers wills and succession planning alongside corporate and commercial work for clients in India and abroad.
Reviewed for legal accuracy by Prakhar Rai, Advocate (Bar Council of India). Last updated: November 2026.
A will under Indian law, signed correctly from abroad, planned for the banks and registries your family will meet. Bar Council-enrolled advocates, fixed fee, quote in 2 hours.
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