Today could be your last day. The end could come fast, a collision with a bus or a whack from a coconut from a palm tree.
What happens then to all those assets accumulated in Costa Rica?
If the assets are in a personal name. . . Ouch! The process will be difficult for heirs. Probate in Costa Rica is a long and tedious process involving a court case, which means finding a lawyer one can trust with tenacity to stay on top of the process. How do heirs know if an attorney is a lazy lawyer who will just exacerbate their situation?
Heirs also need to understand what is going on. This is the hard part, beginning with the different types of probate. Sucesorio is the word for probate here. Translated into euphemistic English, it means “a big headache.”
A serious concern that most people do not know about is there are “gavilanes” or vultures reading obituaries and cross-referencing the information with the Registro National to see if a deceased person owns a property. Those assets are the best to steal by notary fraud. How does a dead person sue a thief? Yes, heirs can sue, but the burden of proof is so great the process becomes almost impossible.