NRI Will for Indian Assets: The Complete Guide

An “NRI will” is not a special legal category. It is an ordinary will, written by someone living outside India, that deals with assets situated in India. The phrase is useful because the practical problems are distinctive: the assets sit in one country, the family often sits in another, and the people who eventually have to act on the document are Indian banks, registrars, housing societies and registrars of companies.

A will covering Indian assets is usually drafted so that it is expressly limited to property situated in India. That limitation is what lets it sit alongside a will made where you live without the two documents cancelling each other out.

Yes. Under the Indian Succession Act, 1925, a person of sound mind who is not a minor may dispose of their property by will. There is no residency or citizenship condition, so NRIs, OCI cardholders and foreign nationals who own Indian assets can all make one. You do not have to travel to India to do it.

The Act sets out how the document must be executed: the will-maker signs it (or affixes a mark) with the intention of giving effect to the will, and two or more witnesses attest it, each having seen the will-maker sign.

Nothing stops a single worldwide will from covering Indian assets. In practice, many NRIs still make a separate India-only will for reasons that have more to do with administration than with law:

• Indian banks, depositories and sub-registrars are being asked to act on a document written in a foreign style, with foreign terminology and foreign asset lists. A short, India-only document is easier for them to process.
• The Indian estate can be dealt with without waiting for a foreign probate process to finish, or the other way round.
• Asset descriptions can be precise: survey numbers, flat numbers, society names, account numbers, folio numbers, demat client IDs.
• The signing formalities can be set up to satisfy Indian requirements, which is what matters for Indian assets.

The trade-off is that two documents must be kept consistent. That is a drafting problem, and it is solvable — see the next section.

The usual failure mode is a revocation clause. Most wills open with wording along the lines of “I revoke all former wills and testamentary dispositions made by me.” If your new Indian will says that without qualification, it can wipe out the US, UK or UAE will you signed last year. If you later update the foreign will, the same thing can happen in reverse.

The standard fix is a pair of matched limitations:

• The Indian will is expressed to deal only with assets situated in India.
• Its revocation clause is limited to earlier wills dealing with Indian assets, and it says expressly that it does not revoke wills dealing with assets outside India.
• The foreign will is given the mirror-image treatment by whoever drafts it.

Immovable property is the reason most NRIs finally make a will. A flat in Pune, a plot in Kerala, a share in a family house — each needs to be described well enough that a stranger can identify it years later. Useful identifiers include the full address, the flat and building name, the survey or plot number, the sub-registrar district, the area, and how the title is held.

Two situations need extra thought. The first is jointly held property: what you can leave by will is your own share, and how a joint holding devolves depends on how the title is held. The second is ancestral or coparcenary property, where your share may be determined by succession rules rather than by your own choice. Both deserve specific advice.

NRE, NRO and FCNR accounts, savings accounts, and fixed deposits are all part of your Indian estate and can be dealt with in an India-only will. List the bank, the branch, the type of account, and the last few digits of the account number rather than the full number, so that the document does not become a security risk in itself.

Repatriating money out of India after a death is governed by exchange-control rules administered under FEMA, and banks apply their own documentation requirements. If your beneficiaries live outside India, expect the bank — not the will — to set the process.

Shares held in a demat account, mutual fund folios, bonds, PPF or EPF balances, insurance policies and unlisted company shares each have their own transmission process run by the depository participant, the registrar and transfer agent, or the insurer.

A will helps by making your intention unambiguous, but the institution will still ask for its own forms, a death certificate, and often a probate or succession certificate depending on the value and the institution’s policy. Name each holding by folio number or client ID where you can, and say who you want it to go to in plain words.

This trips up more NRI families than any other point. A nomination is an instruction to the bank, depository or insurer about who they may deal with after your death. Naming a person as nominee is not the same as deciding who is entitled to the money.

The executor is the person who collects the Indian assets, deals with the institutions, and distributes what is left according to the will. For an NRI estate, the practical question is who can actually turn up: visit the bank branch, sign the forms, deal with the housing society, and, if needed, apply to court.

There is no requirement that an executor live in India, and an NRI can be named. But an executor who lives overseas will usually need someone on the ground, so many NRIs name a trusted India-based relative as primary executor and a family member abroad as the alternate — or the reverse. Always name an alternate; executors decline, move, or die first.

Name beneficiaries by full legal name and relationship, and add a second identifier where names repeat within a family. If you are dividing an asset, state shares as percentages that add up to 100 rather than vague phrases like “equally among my children, subject to needs.”

Then include a residuary clause: a single line saying who receives everything not specifically mentioned. It catches the account you opened after signing, the jewellery nobody listed, and the refund cheque that arrives two years later. A will without a residue clause leaves those items to be distributed under succession rules regardless of what you intended.

If you have minor children, appoint a guardian in the same document, and say who should manage a minor’s share until they are old enough to receive it.

Two witnesses are required. Each must see you sign the will (or see you acknowledge your signature), and each must then sign the document in your presence. Ordinary, capable adults are fine; they do not have to be lawyers, doctors or notaries.

Do not use a beneficiary, or a beneficiary’s spouse, as a witness. Under the Indian Succession Act a bequest to a person who attests the will is void, even though the will itself survives — so the gift you intended is the thing that fails. Pick neutral witnesses: colleagues, neighbours, friends who inherit nothing.

Record each witness’s full name and address on the document. Years later, someone may need to find them.

An Indian will can be signed outside India. What matters is the manner of signing rather than the country: you and both witnesses in the same room at the same time, one original document, blue or black ink, every page initialled, and the date written on the document.

Notarisation and embassy attestation are not part of the statutory execution requirements, but some families add a notary’s stamp as extra evidence that the signing happened when and where it says. That is an evidentiary choice, not a validity requirement.

• Print one clean copy. Do not sign several “originals”.
• Sign in the presence of both witnesses, then have them sign in front of you.
• Do not staple, unstaple, or later reattach pages.
• Tell your executor where the signed original is kept, and make sure it is somewhere they can physically reach.

Registration of a will is optional under the Registration Act, 1908. An unregistered will is not invalid for being unregistered. Registering it — done at a sub-registrar’s office in India — creates an official record of the document and its date, which can make a challenge harder to mount.

Because registration is done in India, NRIs usually either register on a visit or decide it is not worth the trip. Neither choice affects whether the will is valid.

Registration is also different from probate. Registration is a record-keeping step during your lifetime; probate is a court process after death that confirms the will and the executor’s authority. Confusing the two leads people to assume a registered will needs no court step, which is not how it works.

• A blanket revocation clause that silently cancels the foreign will.
• Beneficiaries used as witnesses, voiding the gift to them.
• Assets described so loosely that the bank or registrar cannot identify them.
• No residuary clause, so later-acquired assets fall outside the will.
• Nominations that contradict the will.
• Shares that do not add up, or overlapping gifts of the same asset.
• No alternate executor.
• The signed original left in a country the executor cannot easily reach.
• Never updated after a marriage, divorce, birth, or sale of the property named in it.

The executor collects the death certificate and the original will and approaches each institution. Banks, depositories and fund houses each run a transmission process and will list the documents they want. Immovable property usually involves the local revenue or registration authority and, often, the housing society.

Whether a court step is needed depends on where the assets are and which institution is asking. Probate — a court confirming the will — is required in some parts of India and for some estates, and elsewhere a succession certificate or a simpler process may be used. Institutions also apply their own value thresholds. Expect the executor to take local advice at that point; it is not a question a will can answer in advance.

Can an NRI make a will for assets located in India?

Yes. Indian succession law does not require the will-maker to be resident in India or to hold an Indian passport. Any adult of sound mind can make a will covering property situated in India, and it can be signed in the country where they live.

Does an Indian will have to be on stamp paper?

No. A will is not a stamp-duty instrument in India. Plain paper is used. What matters is that the document is in writing, signed by the will-maker and attested by two witnesses.

Does an NRI will have to be registered in India?

Registration of a will is optional under the Registration Act, 1908. An unregistered will can still be valid. Registration creates an official record, which some families find helpful if a challenge is likely.

Should I have one worldwide will or a separate Indian will?

Both approaches are used. Many NRIs keep a separate India-only will so the Indian estate can be dealt with by Indian institutions without waiting on a foreign estate. If you do that, each will should be expressly limited to its own assets so neither revokes the other.

Is a nomination on a bank account the same as leaving it in a will?

Generally not. A nomination tells the institution who may receive or hold the asset after death; who is ultimately entitled is decided by succession law or your will. Treat nomination and inheritance as two separate things and make your intentions explicit in the will.