International Estate Planning in Costa Rica for Expats

International estate planning in Costa Rica becomes important the moment a person’s life crosses more than one legal system.

A U.S. citizen might live in Costa Rica, own a home in Guanacaste, hold quotas in a Costa Rican SRL, maintain an IRA and brokerage account in the United States, and have children living in several countries.

A Canadian retiree might own Costa Rican real estate while maintaining Canadian investments and beneficiaries abroad.

A European citizen might live permanently in Costa Rica while retaining property and family ties in Europe.

Those estates cannot be planned effectively by asking only:

“What does Costa Rican inheritance law say?”

The better question is:

“Which country has legal authority over each asset, which documents control it, and how do all of those rules work together when I die?”

For a starting point on the Costa Rican side, see our guide to Corporations and Estate Planning in Costa Rica.

Cross-Border Estate Planning Starts With the Asset, Not the Passport

A common mistake in international estate planning is trying to identify one country’s law as governing the entire estate.

Cross-border succession is usually more complicated.

The type and location of the asset can matter.

The deceased person’s citizenship or domicile can matter.

The terms of a will or beneficiary designation can matter.

Corporate ownership can matter.

And the conflict-of-law rules of more than one country can become relevant.

Costa Rica’s Civil Code provides an important starting point.

Article 24 states that Costa Rican law governs real estate situated in Costa Rica, even when the property belongs to a foreign national and even when the property is considered as part of an inheritance or another universal estate.

Costa Rican Civil Code — Article 24

That is a strong rule.

If a U.S. citizen living in Arizona owns titled property in Costa Rica, the fact that the owner is American does not transform the Costa Rican land into U.S.-governed real estate.

Costa Rican law remains central to the succession and transfer of that property.

Movable Property Can Raise a Different Conflict-of-Law Question

Costa Rica’s Civil Code treats movable property differently.

Article 25 provides that movable property belonging to Costa Ricans or foreigners domiciled in Costa Rica is treated under Costa Rican law in the manner established by that provision, while movable property belonging to foreigners not domiciled in Costa Rica can receive different treatment depending on the context.

Costa Rican Civil Code — Articles 23–25

This is why an international estate should not be reduced to the statement:

“Costa Rica governs Costa Rican assets and the United States governs U.S. assets.”

That can be a useful practical starting point, but conflict-of-law analysis can be more nuanced, particularly for intangible and movable property.

Real estate, bank deposits, corporate ownership, retirement accounts, securities, insurance, and trust interests should be analyzed separately.

Does Living in Costa Rica Mean Costa Rican Law Governs Your Worldwide Estate?

Not automatically.

The original version of this article stated that if a person is domiciled in Costa Rica, Costa Rican succession law may simply apply to the worldwide estate.

That is too broad.

Domicile can be relevant in private international law, especially in relation to personal and movable property, but Costa Rica’s own Civil Code contains specific conflict rules for different kinds of property.

At the same time, another country may apply its own conflict rules to assets located there.

For example, a U.S. state can have probate jurisdiction over real property located in that state even when the deceased lived abroad.

International estate planning therefore requires an asset-by-asset jurisdictional map, not a blanket assumption that one domicile controls everything.

Do Expats Need a Separate Will in Every Country?

No universal rule says that every person must have one will for every country in which assets are located.

Sometimes multiple coordinated wills are useful.

Sometimes one properly drafted will is more appropriate.

The correct structure depends on the jurisdictions, asset types, local recognition rules, and risk of conflicting testamentary documents.

This distinction matters because creating multiple wills can actually create problems if they are drafted independently.

Imagine a person who signs a U.S. will and later executes a Costa Rican will containing a standard clause saying:

“I revoke all prior wills and testamentary dispositions.”

If the documents were not deliberately coordinated, the Costa Rican will could create a question about whether the earlier U.S. will was unintentionally revoked.

The goal is therefore not:

one will per country.

The goal is:

a coordinated international testamentary plan.

When Can a Costa Rican Will Be Useful?

A Costa Rican will can be particularly useful when the person owns significant local assets.

Having a locally drafted testament can reduce the administrative work required to establish a foreign testament in Costa Rica.

The document is drafted under Costa Rican law, in a form familiar to Costa Rican notaries and courts, and can specifically address Costa Rican property.

That can be especially valuable for real estate, vehicles, corporate shares or quotas, and other registered rights.

For more detail, see our estate-planning discussion in Probate in Costa Rica for Foreigners.

Can a Foreign Will Be Used in Costa Rica?

A foreign will can be relevant to a Costa Rican succession.

But foreign documents do not simply arrive in Costa Rica and operate automatically.

They can require proof of authenticity, apostille or legalization where applicable, translation into Spanish, and compliance with Costa Rican procedural requirements.

Costa Rican procedural law contains rules concerning the evidentiary use of documents issued abroad.

The Civil Code and notarial system likewise contain specific formal rules applicable to testamentary matters.

Costa Rican rules governing foreign public documents

For expats, the practical question is not simply whether a foreign will is theoretically recognizable.

It is whether relying exclusively on that document creates unnecessary work for the heirs.

Costa Rican Real Estate Still Requires Costa Rican Succession Analysis

This deserves emphasis because real estate is the most common significant Costa Rican asset owned by foreigners.

Article 24 specifically subjects Costa Rican real estate to Costa Rican law even when:

the owner is foreign,

the owner lives abroad,

or the property forms part of an inheritance.

Civil Code — Costa Rican real estate and foreign owners

So a U.S. probate order does not simply retitle Costa Rican land.

A Costa Rican succession process must address the locally registered asset when the property remains part of the deceased person’s estate.

Our article How Inheritance Works for Foreign Nationals Who Own Real Estate in Costa Rica examines that issue specifically.

A Corporation Changes the Asset, Not Necessarily the Need for Succession

International estate planning also needs to look beyond the Registry title.

Suppose a Costa Rican SRL owns the property.

The deceased person may not personally own the real estate.

Instead, that person owns the quotas of the company.

At death, those quotas can become estate assets.

The property remains titled to the SRL, but ownership and control of the company must still be resolved.

Our guide to Costa Rica Corporation Inheritance and Heirs explains this distinction in detail.

This becomes especially important when foreign wills refer broadly to “all real estate I own” without accounting for the fact that the person does not technically own the underlying Costa Rican real estate at all—the company does.

A Sociedad Civil Requires Similar Coordination

A Sociedad Civil can be useful for family asset holding and estate planning, but it does not remove the need to understand what interest the owner personally holds.

Its constitutive agreement should address continuation, transfer, death of a member, and the role of heirs.

For international owners, the foreign-country tax classification of the Sociedad Civil also needs to be considered.

Our guide to Sociedad Civil in Costa Rica explains the structure and its use for long-term asset holding.

A Costa Rican Fideicomiso Can Add Another Layer

Costa Rica also recognizes the fideicomiso, governed expressly by Articles 633 onward of the Commercial Code.

Assets transferred into a fideicomiso become part of an autonomous patrimony administered according to the trust instrument.

That can create useful estate-planning flexibility.

But for international families, the foreign-country treatment of the arrangement must also be examined.

A Costa Rican fideicomiso may be classified differently under U.S., Canadian, or European tax law.

The structure should therefore never be designed solely from the Costa Rican side when the settlor or beneficiaries have significant foreign tax obligations.

U.S. Citizens: Worldwide Estate Tax Exposure

U.S. citizens living in Costa Rica remain within the U.S. federal estate-tax system.

The IRS explains that federal estate tax applies to the taxable estate and requires Form 706 when the applicable filing threshold is exceeded.

For people dying in 2026, the U.S. federal estate-tax basic exclusion amount is US$15 million.

IRS: 2026 Form 706 Instructions

The IRS separately confirms that the 2026 amount increased from US$13.99 million for 2025 decedents to US$15 million.

IRS: 2026 Estate and Gift Tax Changes

That means a U.S. citizen’s Costa Rican assets can be relevant to the U.S. gross estate even though the property is physically located outside the United States.

Does Costa Rica Have an Estate-Tax Treaty With the United States?

No.

This is an important correction to the original article.

Costa Rica does not appear on the IRS’s official list of countries having comprehensive U.S. income-tax treaties.

IRS: United States Income Tax Treaties — A to Z

More importantly for this article, there is no U.S.–Costa Rica estate and gift tax treaty providing the type of estate-tax coordination that exists between the United States and certain treaty jurisdictions.

The United States and Costa Rica do have other forms of tax cooperation.

For example, the IRS lists a Costa Rica FATCA Competent Authority Arrangement.

IRS: International Competent Authority Arrangements

But FATCA information exchange is not an estate-tax treaty.

The distinction is important.

An estate planner should not tell a U.S. client that treaty relief is available without identifying the actual treaty and provision.

Does Costa Rica Tax Inheritances?

Costa Rica does not impose a general inheritance tax comparable to those found in several other countries.

Costa Rica’s Ministry of Finance identifies inheritances and legacies as exempt in the relevant capital-gains framework.

That does not mean an international estate has no tax consequences.

Income produced by inherited assets can remain taxable.

A later sale can trigger capital-gains analysis.

Foreign jurisdictions can impose their own taxes.

Estate administration also has professional, registry, translation, appraisal, and procedural costs.

For Costa Rican tax issues affecting residents and investors more broadly, see What Taxes Apply to Foreign Residents and Investors in Costa Rica?.

Inheriting Costa Rican Rental Property as a U.S. Citizen

Consider a practical example.

A U.S. citizen inherits a Costa Rican rental home.

Receiving the inheritance does not automatically create Costa Rican inheritance tax.

But the property can produce Costa Rican-source rental income after the inheritance.

The U.S. citizen can also have U.S. tax reporting obligations because U.S. citizens are generally subject to U.S. federal income tax on worldwide income.

That creates a cross-border tax problem involving the income generated after inheritance, even when receipt of the asset itself was not taxed as inheritance in Costa Rica.

The planning should therefore distinguish:

the tax treatment of the estate,

the tax treatment of inheritance,

and the ongoing tax treatment of the inherited asset.

Retirement Accounts Require Their Own Planning

Foreign retirement accounts should not simply be lumped into a will.

U.S. IRAs, 401(k)s, pensions, and similar accounts often operate through contractual beneficiary designations and special tax rules.

The person named on the beneficiary designation can matter more than generic language contained in the will.

A cross-border estate inventory should therefore record not only the account but also:

the legal owner,

current beneficiary,

contingent beneficiary,

custodian,

country,

and tax character of the account.

An outdated beneficiary designation can undermine an otherwise carefully drafted estate plan.

Life Insurance Also Requires Separate Review

Life insurance is another example of an asset governed partly by contract rather than simply by testament.

The policy should be reviewed for ownership, insured person, beneficiary, contingent beneficiary, jurisdiction, and tax treatment.

Do not assume the will controls an insurance policy with a valid beneficiary designation.

This illustrates why international estate planning is an asset-coordination project, not merely a will-writing exercise.

Beneficiaries Living in Different Countries

Costa Rican law does not require every heir to live in Costa Rica.

But international heirs create practical considerations.

An heir abroad may need powers of attorney, authenticated civil documents, translations, banking arrangements, tax advice, and a strategy for receiving or selling Costa Rican property.

Currency transfers can also create compliance documentation requirements.

The fact that the beneficiary lives abroad is therefore manageable, but it should be anticipated.

International Guardianship Requires Separate Planning

Families with minor children face another level of complexity.

The parent might live in Costa Rica while the preferred testamentary tutor lives abroad.

Costa Rica became a contracting party to the 1996 Hague Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Co-operation in Respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children, which entered into force for Costa Rica on August 1, 2021.

HCCH: Child Protection Convention Enters Into Force for Costa Rica

The Convention helps coordinate jurisdiction, recognition, enforcement, and cooperation in international child-protection matters.

It does not mean a parent can simply write in a will that the child is to be moved internationally and assume the relocation happens automatically.

Family-law jurisdiction, surviving parental rights, passports, immigration, and recognition of protective measures can all matter.

Powers of Attorney Are Also Jurisdiction-Specific

An American durable power of attorney should not automatically be assumed to produce the same legal consequences in Costa Rica.

Likewise, a Costa Rican power of attorney may not automatically give the agent authority over a U.S. brokerage account or property located in another country.

An international incapacity plan can therefore require separate or coordinated powers appropriate to each jurisdiction.

Costa Rica’s Código Notarial also requires Costa Rican notarial instruments to be written in Spanish, with rules governing translation where a party does not understand Spanish.

Costa Rican Código Notarial — Articles 71 and 72

Create a Cross-Border Asset Inventory

One of the most useful international estate-planning exercises is also one of the simplest.

Prepare a list of every significant asset and identify:

the country,

legal owner,

form of ownership,

approximate value,

beneficiary designation if one exists,

company or trust involved,

location of the original documents,

and professional responsible for that asset.

For Costa Rican assets, confirm whether property is owned personally or through a company.

For company ownership, confirm the shareholder or quota records.

For financial accounts, verify beneficiary designations.

For real estate, confirm the registered title.

The family should not have to reconstruct this information after death.

Coordinate the Professionals

A cross-border estate does not necessarily require one lawyer who knows every legal system.

It usually requires professionals in the relevant jurisdictions who understand what the others are doing.

The Costa Rican attorney needs to know that a foreign will exists.

The U.S. estate attorney needs to know that Costa Rican real estate is held through an SRL.

The tax professional needs to know that a Costa Rican fideicomiso exists.

The person preparing beneficiary designations needs to understand how those choices interact with the rest of the estate.

Coordination prevents the documents from fighting each other.

Frequently Asked Questions About International Estate Planning in Costa Rica

Do I need a separate will in every country where I own property?

Not automatically. Multiple coordinated wills can be useful, particularly when significant real estate exists in different countries, but the documents must be deliberately drafted so they do not revoke or contradict one another.

Does Costa Rican law apply to Costa Rican real estate owned by a foreigner?

Yes. Article 24 of the Civil Code expressly provides that Costa Rican law governs real estate located in Costa Rica even when it belongs to a foreigner and even when considered as part of an inheritance. Costa Rican Civil Code — Article 24

If I live permanently in Costa Rica, does Costa Rican law automatically govern everything I own worldwide?

No. Domicile can matter, particularly for personal and movable property, but different assets can be governed by different conflict-of-law rules. Real estate in another country can remain subject to that country’s law and probate jurisdiction.

Can my U.S. will be used in Costa Rica?

Potentially. Foreign testamentary documents can be relevant in Costa Rican succession, but authentication, apostille or legalization, translation, and local procedural requirements can apply. A locally drafted will can simplify administration of significant Costa Rican assets.

Does Costa Rica have an estate-tax treaty with the United States?

No. Costa Rica is not listed among the United States’ comprehensive income-tax treaty partners, and there is no bilateral U.S.–Costa Rica estate and gift tax treaty. The countries do have other tax-information arrangements, including FATCA cooperation. IRS: U.S. Tax Treaty Countries

What is the U.S. estate-tax exclusion for 2026?

For decedents dying in 2026, the federal basic exclusion amount is US$15 million. IRS: 2026 Form 706 Instructions

Does a U.S. citizen include Costa Rican property in the U.S. estate?

U.S. federal estate-tax rules apply to the worldwide estate of a U.S. citizen, subject to the statutory rules and applicable exclusions. Costa Rican property can therefore be relevant to the U.S. federal estate-tax calculation.

Can heirs living abroad inherit Costa Rican real estate?

Yes. Foreign residence by itself does not prevent someone from being a beneficiary of Costa Rican property. The heir must still complete the applicable succession and registration procedures.

Does putting my Costa Rican property in an SRL eliminate international probate?

Not necessarily. If you own the SRL quotas at death, the quotas themselves can become succession assets even though the underlying property remains registered to the company. See Costa Rica Corporation Inheritance and Heirs.

Can a fideicomiso simplify an international estate?

Potentially. A Costa Rican fideicomiso can place assets into an autonomous patrimony and establish continuing administration rules. But its classification and reporting consequences in the settlor’s or beneficiaries’ other countries should be reviewed before implementation.

Are guardianship decisions automatically recognized internationally?

Not automatically in every case. Costa Rica participates in the 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention, which facilitates jurisdiction, recognition, enforcement, and cooperation among contracting states, but the facts and countries involved still matter. HCCH: Costa Rica and the 1996 Child Protection Convention

Build One Estate Plan, Even If It Uses Several Documents

An international estate does not need one document.

It needs one coherent plan.

That plan might use a Costa Rican will and a U.S. will.

It might use beneficiary designations for retirement accounts and insurance.

It might include Costa Rican real estate held personally, an SRL, a Sociedad Civil, or a fideicomiso.

It might require powers of attorney in more than one jurisdiction.

What matters is that the documents and structures complement rather than contradict one another.

For expats in Costa Rica, the essential questions are:

Where is each asset?

Who legally owns it?

What happens to it at death?

Which country’s law governs that transfer?

Is there a beneficiary designation?

Will Costa Rican succession be required?

What does the foreign jurisdiction require?

And do the tax rules in one country create consequences that the other country’s estate plan did not anticipate?

Answering those questions while the owner is alive is far easier than asking heirs to solve them afterward.

If you live in Costa Rica while owning assets in more than one country, reach us. We can review the Costa Rican side of your estate, identify the succession issues affecting local assets, and coordinate the structure with your foreign estate and tax advisors.