Most conversations about international estate planning are conversations about death. Which country’s law governs a succession. Whether a trust will be recognized. How property abroad passes, and to whom.
This one is about being alive.
Of everything in a well-built estate plan, two documents are designed to be used while you are still here: your financial power of attorney and your advance health care directive. They are also the two most likely to be handed to an institution that has never seen anything like them — a bank in another country, a property registry, a hospital in a city where you happen to be when something goes wrong.
That is a different question from what happens at death, and it tends to get far less attention.
A Power of Attorney Meets a Foreign Institution
A California power of attorney is drafted for use with American institutions. Even here, acceptance is not automatic — banks and custodians have their own requirements, and a document sometimes has to be worked through before it is honored.
A bank in another country may have no such procedure. It may decline to act, or accept the document only after translation, authentication, and formalities specific to that jurisdiction.
There is a structural reason for this. A document drafted under California law carries no automatic standing in another legal system. Whether it is accepted generally depends on that country’s own rules and, very practically, on the institution in front of you.
Authentication helps but does not resolve this. An apostille confirms that a signature and seal are genuine. It says nothing about what the document contains, and it does not oblige a foreign bank or registry to act on it.
In some countries, part of the answer may be a locally executed instrument that sits alongside your California documents rather than replacing them — drafted with the existing plan in view, so that the two operate together.
An Advance Directive Meets a Foreign Hospital
A hospital abroad may not act on a US advance health care directive, particularly one that is untranslated or unfamiliar in form. Rules on medical consent and on who may speak for a patient are set country by country, and a document drafted to California standards is not automatically what a foreign clinician is authorized to rely on.
This is worth thinking through in advance rather than at the moment it matters, which is generally the moment nobody has the time or the language to sort it out.
The Footprint Is Usually Wider Than People Expect
You do not have to live abroad for any of this to apply. It shows up in situations most people would describe as entirely domestic:
- Property held abroad — a vacation apartment, inherited land, or a family home, each of which may need someone with local authority to deal with it while you are living.
- Dual citizenship or residency — often held for the mobility it offers, with little thought to how it interacts with a plan drafted entirely under US law.
- Extended time abroad — retirees who winter overseas, or anyone who spends loosely structured months in one country, can approach residency thresholds without ever intending to.
- Accounts or business interests outside the US — which may require someone able to establish authority with a foreign institution on short notice.
None of these makes a person an expatriate. All of them can place a document in front of an institution that was never designed to read it.
California Community Property Meets a Different Marital Regime
California is a community property state, and community property carries its own logic about what belongs to whom. Many other countries — including much of Europe and Latin America — apply their own marital property regimes, and those regimes do not always describe ownership the way California does.
For couples who married abroad, lived abroad, or acquired property abroad, the character of an asset may be less settled than it appears. That matters during life as much as at death, because it shapes what one spouse can direct, sell, or authorize without the other.
Authority Is Only as Broad as the Document Says
An agent can do what the document authorizes and no more. When the anticipated situation involves another country, the authority to deal with a foreign institution, to engage counsel abroad, or to spend what such matters require has to be written in — not assumed from the general grant.
A plan drafted without that in view can leave a capable, willing, properly named agent standing in front of an institution with nothing to show that they are permitted to act.
A Note on the Other Half of This
Everything above concerns lifetime authority. The succession questions — how foreign property passes, which countries recognize trusts, what happens when a beneficiary lives abroad — are their own subject, and I have discussed them at length elsewhere on this site in a three-part conversation on international estate planning.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will my California power of attorney work in another country? It may, and it may not. Nothing obliges another country to honor a document drafted under California law, so acceptance depends on that country’s own rules and on the institution involved. Some situations are handled with translation and authentication; others may call for a locally executed instrument drafted to work alongside your California documents.
Should I sign a separate power of attorney in the country where I own property? Sometimes. The consideration is scope. A second instrument drafted without knowledge of the first can overlap or conflict with it, so each should be prepared knowing the other exists and limited accordingly.
Will a hospital abroad follow my advance health care directive? Not necessarily. Rules on medical consent and on who may speak for a patient are set country by country, and a US document may be unfamiliar in form or untranslated. Where extended time abroad is planned, this is worth addressing beforehand.
I only spend a few months a year abroad. Does this apply to me? It can. The question is not how you describe yourself but where your assets sit, which passports you hold, and where you are likely to be if something happens. Extended stays can also raise residency questions that were never intended.
Is This the Right Conversation for You?
If your life crosses a border — property abroad, a second citizenship, months spent in another country each year — the lifetime half of your plan deserves to be examined with that in view.
The Right Fit Conversation is where that begins. It is a focused, paid conversation in which your situation and this practice are evaluated together. If it is a fit, we move forward. If it is not, we will tell you honestly, and often point you toward an attorney who is a better match.
Schedule Your Right Fit Conversation — or contact our Los Altos office at (650) 325-8276.
Janet L. Brewer is a Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law, certified by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization, and a member of STEP, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.
This article is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change over time. You should consult a qualified attorney regarding your particular circumstances.
