This is the time to have a trusted surveyor second check to see if there are overlaying maps on any property owned in Costa Rica. If there are contradicting maps, the uncertainty could soon cause big trouble.

Around three years ago, the Registro Nacional and its Catastro or plat map department started a plan to crosscheck properties. Before this time, there was little or no checking done. Now Registro workers are using sophisticated equipment, including NASA photographs to check map overlays.

Here is a true story that happened recently.

There was a guard watching a property for some expat property owners. A little old man kept coming by saying to the guard, “You are living in my house.” The guard thought nothing of it until one day a lawyer showed up with the police and told the guard to get out. The guard was not easily intimidated, so he ran everyone off with his machete.

The old man stopped coming by, and the guard felt at ease. However, in the last few weeks the attorney showed up with the police and said he now owned the house and served the guard legal papers. The peon – a term used in Costa Rica to mean a manual laborer – could not read or write, so he called the lawyer of the expats who owned the property.

As it turns out, there is a map registered almost 30 years ago that covers 700 meters that was subdivided off the property. However, this map was never registered as a deed.

In Costa Rica, anyone could make a map, and up until now could probably get it registered at the plat department. This is the very reason the Registro Nacional and the Catastro department are merging their efforts to help legitimate property owners.

In the case of the guard, the legal papers called him a squatter and said he needed to get off the property in four days or be thrown off by force. Since he could not read or write, he did not notice the person that served him the papers did not sign or stamp them.

A week of hell broke out. First, the officer who served the papers had to be found to sign and stamp the legal documents. Second, the legal owners of the property had to be found to sign all the paperwork to prove the guard was really a worker, enrolled in the Caja social security system and had workmen’s compensation.

Lastly, a lawyer had to draw up the legal paperwork to prove that the expats really bought the property and had a legal certified map for the land.

This whole ordeal is just a ruse to get possession of the house in which the guard is living. If intruders do get possession, to remove them would be a long, drawn out, expensive court battle.

As it turns out, the very old map does not even involve property close to the house where the guard lives but somewhere else down a long country road.

In another case, in another area of the country, a map showed a walking bridge crossing a river to an expats property. The bridge was washed away years ago. The owner of the property on the other side of the river sued the expat to rebuild the bridge.

A long court battle ensued. In the first decision of the court, the expat was told to rebuild the bridge. The appeals court overturned the ruling, stating that mother nature destroyed the bridge many years ago and it was too late to complain about it now.

Expats can do something about this problem of maps overlaying each other, but it does take a surveyor in most cases. Workers in the plat department at the Registro Nacional do not like outsiders in their midst. However, with this said, it is not impossible for a person to take the map of their property to the catastro department and ask if there are any other maps registered on top of the document or anywhere else on their property.

Usually, the normal procedure is that surveyors – referred to as topographers in Costa Rica – have access to the computers and can actually go in the computer room and look for themselves.

If a problem is found, the Registro Nacional will do an investigation on any abnormalities – in most cases – and nowadays will cancel maps that are not correct. Actually, that is their goal, to purge old maps that never turned into true deeds and only keep the maps that have been registered properly and have a legal deed attached to them.

Expats need to be aware to be a jump ahead of the scammers and have a current copy of the plat map that represents property along with the deed of purchase.

Again, a trusted surveyor can check to see if there are any other maps that have been registered — even a little map — if it exists on an expat’s property. If one is found, owners should get it canceled.

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Expats and everyone else holding assets in Costa Rica should check the documents pertaining to their properties as soon as possible to be sure everything is in order. Asset thefts are on the rise because of the digitalization of documents throughout the country.

The problem is that as the government institutions digitalize the workers are omitting important information from the original documents. One could wake up one morning and find the house stolen.

The new service provided by the Registro Nacional is great.  It is a fast way to get all kinds of Costa Rican certifications and other types of documents without having to travel to the Registro Nacional.  The service is relatively inexpensive, and most institutions will take the printed certifications without questions.

The system has hit a small roadblock because the Sala IV constitutional court has prohibited the Registro from accepting money, and online delivery of documents is on hold. The temporary ruling involved an appeal from a lawyer who objects to paying the money.

But either online or when issued in person, the digitized documents in many cases are just wrong.  The information in them is not always accurate because in either case the documents come from the digitized data base.

Take for example a certification of ownership and powers of attorney.  The Registro Nacional document may show no limitations when in fact there are very specific limitations.

An old power of attorney may have given someone very limited rights, like the right to negotiate an easement with a water utility.  But because of Registro omissions, the individual could appear to have total control of the asset, an expensive property. That’s enough control to sell it.

This is dangerous because unscrupulous souls are using the incorrect information and transferring assets without owners even knowing about it.  Is the Registro Nacional responsible?  Of course, but one would probably be dead by the time the lawsuit ends to get the asset back.

What every expat should do today is get a current copy of their information at the Registro Nacional regarding the assets and check it with the actual records.  If it is wrong, they should immediately contact a legal professional — a trusted legal professional. The keyword here istrust — to fix the problem.

Believe it or not, the people at the Registro do not like to mingle with normal people, just with those in the legal profession.  There is one great department called reconstruction — this department fixes Registro mistakes — and they are all good people and will talk to human beings.

It is not just assets like property changing hands illegally.  Other things are disappearing too, like easements and trust agreements, to name a few.
A paperless world would be great.  Digitalization and cloud computing also are super. However, these wonderful innovations are giving the bad guys the tools they need to steal.

The Registro Nacional is trying to make a rojo,a thousand colón note, like everyone else.  Soon everyone will have to pay for most of the documents they provide.  However, in the institutional haste to make money, the Registro is hurting individuals by providing information in some cases that is just downright wrong, and there is no really good system to rectify problems.

Here is the situation:  Tomorrow, someone finds someone else has misused incorrect information to steal his or her house.  The Registro Nacional says go to the prosecutor’s office to file a complaint.

The prosecutor is busy with other matters of more importance, and one has to wait or beg to file the charge.  Once the paperwork is done at the prosecutor’s office, one goes back to the Registro and files the papers.  Since the Registro closes early, it will probably be closed.  Next day, one goes back and tries to find the correct person to handle the situation.

Well, once that person is found, he or she does not like these kinds of problems and to get them to move into action is like moving an elephant.   It is not their house.  Well, the story continues through tons of paperwork and talking to people that really do not want to hear about a Registro mistake.

The only way to go is to find a lawyer who knows his or her way around the Registro and moves fast.  If the mistake is not caught before theft advances into a resale, one gets caught up in the Costa Rican quandary of who has more rights:  The innocent third party – usually the crook in this case, or a friend of the same – or the victim.

Third party cases go to civil court and are full of years and years of legal mumbo jumbo.  Victim cases go to criminal court, which at this time is almost a complete meltdown.

The sad truth is if the crook gets to use inaccurate documents before one finds out, the honest soul will probably lose the asset or die in the process of trying to get it back.

In summary, expats should compare important documents that are published in the new digitized system with  the originals.  If the the new version is wrong, expats should get the error fixed by a trusted – again the key word here is trusted – legal professional.

The urgency of this matter to the Costa Rican community— and especially expats, because they often are singled out in swindles — is paramount.
There is another strange situation expats should understand when the Registro again begins issuing documents online.

Most online documents and certifications are issued printed in blue. But the Registro supplies a download that can be printed multiple times.

The original document is created in portable document format (PDF) in the color blue, and most institutions expect them to be printed in blue.  Unless they are in that color as prepared by the Registro Nacional, many clerks and aides think they are not valid.  If one is planning to use one of the documents created by the Registro Nacional Digital, the document should be printed in blue to avoid problems.

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Yes, there is more paperwork

Real estate buyers need a good checklist to stay out of trouble when buying property in Costa Rica. However, most people forget about what needs to happen afterwards. Here is a checklist for after the closing.

First, the property needs to be transferred at the Registro Nacional. This is the notary’s job, but many do not rush to get it done. Many drag their feet for days, weeks and some even months. This is dangerous. An unscrupulous seller can sell a property to someone else, or even sell it repeatedly. Sure, that is illegal, but it happens, and the first buyer has hell to pay to get the property back. When property is purchased in Costa Rica, transferring it to the new owner immediately is a must.

The Registro has been a mess lately. Transferring property can take time. The most important step is to get the paperwork presented. In Costa Rica, the first in line is first in right. First in line, means, having the Registro stamp the paperwork with a date and a “tomo” and “asiento” number.

Yep, amazing but true, in a multiple property selling scam, the first to get the paperwork stamped at the National Registry is first in right. Go figure.

Second, when the property shows up transferred at the Registro and is in the name of the new owner, one needs to get four original certifications — five originals in case the property is part of a condominium — of a certificación literal and a catastro of the property and a personería of the owner, if the owner is a company. All property should be in the name of a company and not in the name of an individual. However, if the owner is an individual, a certified copy of the identification document used to purchase the property is required.

One copy of the documents goes to the electric company and another to the water company to change the names on the billing accounts. Many people never do this and find that one day they need to get the service changed or modified and they run into a brick wall because the institutions will not make changes to accounts not in the name of the correct owner.

The third copy goes to the municipality where the property is located to change the municipal account information. Municipalities collect property taxes and other fees on properties. At the municipality, it is necessary to fill out a form, too, updating the declared value of the property. Most people do not fill in the real value.

For a condominium, a copy needs to go to the condominium association so administrators can update their records.

Phone lines are a different story. Before Sept. 29, 1995, phone lines were an asset and owned. Now they are leased to users. It is difficult to get the phone company to change the name of an account. However, it can be done by filing a “gestoría de negocios” with the phone company.

If one buys a property with a phone line, he or she should get a special power of attorney from the previous owner of the line so changes can be made to the service.

Without a power of attorney, the phone company — in its wisdom — wants a new owner to turn in an existing line and be put on a waiting list — which can take years — to get a new line.

Most new property owners just keep the existing line under the name of the previous owner. It is a good idea to be put on the waiting list so when another line comes available, the new owner can get another line in the correct name.

The left over copy should be filed for future reference or for when one of the institutions calls and says they have lost their first set — which invariably happens. Its part of living in Costa Rica.

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The rule of thumb in Costa Rica is when you cannot plan — or do not plan — panic.

This malady is part of the culture. People in the campo, the rural areas, learn this from childhood. Parents instruct kids sent to the pulperia, the corner mom and pop grocery, to buy one egg for breakfast. Not two, one for breakfast and one for lunch, or three, one for breakfast, one for lunch and one for dinner. Just one. One for breakfast.

Why, because the parents were not taught to plan and organize by their parents, so they do not teach their kids to do so.

What happens? The kids grow up into adults and this happens:

The country gets a Registro Nacional that has collapsed for the past month. It has been literally impossible to use online. This is an entity, that is in theory, the cornerstone of public records in Costa Rica.

Very poor, if any, planning went into designing the system in the first place. The day it came online — some years back — the organization’s computers could not handle the daily traffic. Today it is a disaster. Crooks use this fact to their advantage everyday. Fraud is rampant. Good people just twiddle their thumbs.

Now in a panic, Registro workers are trying to fix the ills of years applying band aid solutions to the problems, and nothing works.

Speaking of band aid solutions to real problems: Now there is insufficient electricity. There is no money to harness the power of Costa Rica’s rich thermal power resources, at least according to the local news reports.

It appears no one has converted plans to action. No one in power has correctly interpreted usage requirements or population growth. A union for the professionals at the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) said in a full page ad Sunday that the power shortage was not its fault. The Sindicato de Ingenieros y Professionales said they have been warning of shortages for two years.

Now the country is in a panic, rationing electric power. Some people have it, and some people do not. Every day it is a roulette wheel decision as to who gets it and who does not.

President Óscar Arias Sánchez is going to save the day with an executive decree to buy new oil burning electric plants for $150 million dollars. This sure reeks of a panic solution to a panic problem.

Oops, I forgot to mention cellular phones. When Millicom International Cellular S.A. set up an adequate cell phone system in Costa Rica in 1989 and people started to use it widely, panic mode struck fast. Costa Rica worked quickly to quash the license and take over the system with predictable results.

These are only three of a multitude of examples. Everyone has his or her own list, most starting right at home. How many times does one hear living in Costa Rica, the last of this or the last of that was used until the moment it was all gone.

Add a little graft to the no-planning, no-organization recipe, and what does one get?

A great way to make money. The reason, because there is never anyone to blame, nothing worked anyway.

A company in México sold the Registro its computer system by winning a bid during the presidency of one of those presidents currently on the hot seat facing a corruption investigation.

The U.S.-based Millicom set up the first cellular telephone system in Central America in Costa Rica, and without even a “thanks” was booted out of the country in May 1995. The company had to stop its operations because the Sala IV found that its activities with cell telephones was contrary to the Costa Rican Constitution that gives the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad a telephone monopoly.

This which made room for one of the biggest frauds to the public involving almost every level of government. Former president Miguel Ángel Rodríguez is still under investigation for his role, if any, in a kicback on a contract to a French telephone company. Agents of the French firm have been indicted in the United States.

Of course, a lot of people say that when things go wrong and panic sets in, its just part of living in Costa Rica.

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Crooks are getting smarter

A good detective can catch crooks in Costa Rica. The court now voids contracts, deeds, documents and deceptive acts more than before based on mere indications and clues of wrongdoing. Good thing too, because day by day the wicked get worse and believe that they can get away with anything here.

Even expats get caught up in stealing property and other assets that are not theirs because they believe they will not get caught by the law. It is true the judicial system is slow and inefficient at times, but it is equally true the country is striving to make it better.

Legal issues in Costa Rica involving theft and fraud usually form a triangle of players: the victim or plaintiff, the defendant and a third party. For example, in property fraud, the victim represents the true owner, the defendant is the crook, and the third party the person who bought land from the crook.

The civil and criminal courts treat legal issues pertaining to fraud differently. Civil courts protect the third party and the criminal courts protect the rightful owner.

The playing field is different too. Civil courts treat defendants and plaintiffs on a 60-40 basis. This means they give defendants a preconceived reasonable doubt rating they are right of 60 percent, plaintiffs get a 40 percent rating that they are right. Criminal courts preconceived notion is defendants get a 75 percent reasonable doubt rating they are not guilty and a 25 percent estimate that the defendant is guilty.

Smart criminals try to cover all their bases as they do in a good murder mystery, getting rid of all the evidence. This makes prosecution difficult, so the courts now look at more than just the testimony. They look at the circumstantial evidence as well.

Simulation and dissimulation are the key elements to asset crimes in Costa Rica.

Simulation in legal terms means the act of giving a false appearance as in making something look legal when it is not. Simulation is to imitate. Forgery is an extreme example of simulation. Another example of an act of simulation is holding a mortgage on one’s own property using a fictitious name or company. Holding a mortgage on ones own property is illegal in Costa Rica. Holding mortgage certificates over one’s own property is not.

Dissimulation is the act of deceiving as in hiding or camouflaging. Dissimulation is to disguise. An example of dissimulation is to put ones assets in a wife’s or friend’s name to hide it from creditors.

Many times clues to an illegal transaction are easy to find as in a Quepos case where a politicos’ spouse figured in a land fraud. The true owner was not in Costa Rica when the property transaction theoretically took place. This was easy to prove with immigration records. The criminal judge gave this clue more importance then proving the signature to the deed was false because the transfer document in the notary’s protocol book magically disappeared, another clue of wrongdoing.

Surprise private contracts or plat maps over properties that magically appear from nowhere are also indicators of a swindle or fraud. Transferring assets to friends, girlfriends, or relatives at an unrealistic low price are suspect by most judges.

A classic sham in Costa Rica is faking a general assembly meeting in a company where shareholders are changed, powers of attorney are given to strangers or assets are transferred without the consent of the real owners.

Worse yet is where a shareholders’ meeting takes place and legitimate owners forge the signatures of other shareholders in the corporate legal books to take control or dilute ownership.

In both of these cases, it is common that the company’s books go “poof” into thin air and disappear. When this happens, judges start looking for other clues to prove foul play.

For those involved in illegal activities in Costa Rica including, but not limited to, property fraud, faking company legal books, or other documents, the courts are changing direction and do not necessarily need hard evidence to void the illegal transaction.

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It’s the law, officials say

The Registro Nacional confirmed its policy last month of turning its back on fraud. The government institution stated in its publication “Materia Registral” that fraud is the exclusive responsibility of the courts and not of the Registro Nacional. The ruling came from the administrative directorate of the organization.

Property records at the Registro Nacional are under daily attack by fraudsters. The director, Roger Hidalgo Zúñiga, is under suspension while a thorough study of strange property transactions takes place.

However, the organization does not feel legal matters, like transferring property fraudulently, are its problem.

Recently, a person representing a company affected by an illegal property transfer wanted the Registro Nacional to object to the registration of a property. The transaction involved a double transfer: First to Company A and then to another company, B.

The notary presenting the documentation was under suspension and the sale to Company B preceded the sale to Company A.

The Registro did not stop this obvious funny business and let the property transfers go through.

During the last weeks of August, another group was trying hard to put a fast one over on the Registro, and the effort almost succeeded. However an aggressive lawyer put a stop to the foul play. The people in the property division of the recording office did nothing to help.

According to the Registro Nacional, by law, workers cannot solicit current information regarding the current status of public notaries. The agency also states, by law, it cannot question information regarding who is the rightful owner of a property upon its sale, only upon its presentation to the registry. This is why they did not stop the property transfer in the example above.

The Registro Nacional is the official registry of lands of Costa Rica. However, the agency states that to insure judicial security, it cannot act alone to police property trafficking. They can only collaborate and cooperate in the team effort to control the activity.

The members of the team are notaries, the courts and the registry. The Registro states that none of the members can weaken the system by doing the job of the others. Thus in their conclusion they are not responsible for stopping illegal property transfers even if such funny business is obvious, because this is not their job.

The Registro’s responsibility is limited to inscribing documents that meet the legal requirements of registration. If a document has a misplaced comma, the Registro will reject it. But workers are not responsible for questioning the job of notaries because this would mean invading their space. Registry people are qualifiers not police persons, they say.

The courts exist to do the policing, the Registro says.

Under Costa Rican law, Article 480 of the Civil Code states that only an agreement between parties is necessary for a transaction to be complete. No ceremony or even inscribing the act in the national registry is necessary.

The registration of documents at the Registro Nacional is to protect third parties by providing a place where others can view transactions. It is the responsibility of notaries to make sure they are correct and of the courts to insure they are honest. Of course the courts are overwhelmed, and some notaries are crooked.

All this boils down to the fact that workers at the Registro Nacional will not place an administrative alert on a property transaction without an order from a court even if the deal is obviously fraudulent.

Workers there will not check on notaries to be sure they are current and not under suspension or verify that the person presenting a property for registration is, in fact, a notary.

The Registro Nacional will only annotate properties with an alert where the institution itself makes an error in registration.

In summary, there are three parts to the property transfer puzzle, not one. This entity wants people off its case and points fingers at the other two components.

For property buyers, this means taking extra doses of due diligence and protecting real estate with mortgage certificates and voluntary immobilizations to avoid fake sales and transfers.

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Officials decline to act on suspect document

The supposedly secure property records at the Registro Nacional are under daily attack. Computers make up what amounts to a virtual vault, securely holding titles to trillions of dollars of Costa Rican properties. Paperwork and other computers are the attackers commanded by crooks stealing the assets of others.

The thieves are smart and know how to beat the honest out of assets in a fell swoop. They use the weaknesses of the registro to their advantage. The over-burdened organization’s computers collapse under pressure almost on a daily basis. There are those who work there willing to risk their career for a fast buck.

In the past few weeks, registro officials sloughed off obvious fraudulent activity as unimportant when a suspicious case was presented at the institution because the officials said to the filer, “We have too many of these fraud cases to work on.”

This case involves a stolen property, and the records at the registro are supposed to be annotated to show that a court action is in progress. This annotation, signed by a judge, is supposed to freeze any transfers of the property to other persons.

In this case, the bad guys have greased the wheels of the registry machine to clean off most the annotations of the courts so they can sell the property off quickly to an innocent party, robbing them of their money by selling them something dirty.

The Sala IV in vote 29-2001 requires the Registro Nacional to immobilize a registered asset when a properly filed complaint, suggesting improper or potentially illicit movement, signals an alert.

In this case, for three weeks Registro workers inexplicably have failed to freeze a certain property record despite daily urgings and valid legal paperwork. They claim they are too far behind in their work.

To understand how the system is vulnerable to fraud. it is important to understand how the system works:

Notaries obtain a notary book, official security paper, security tickets and a crimping metal seal upon graduation. People making contracts meet in front of a notary. The notary transcribes the agreement in his or her official book, and the parties sign it under the textual representation of the facts. This makes the contract legal but not registered.

The notary, who in Costa Rica has fé pública, or public faith, must make a written testimony identical to the content in the notary book on his or her security paper and attest that everything is correct. The professional glues a security ticket to the testimony, signs the document and seals it with the crimping seal.

Filing this official document at the Registro Nacional starts a registration process. The process begins by running the paper through a computerized stamping machine giving it a number with two parts, a “tomo,” a volume number, and an “asiento,” or entry number.

A registrar gets the document next and checks the details of the content. At this point, which can take days, weeks or even months, the paperwork is registered or returned as defective. If it is registered, the paperwork is microfilmed and returned to the notary as a deed of the transaction. If it is defective, the document is returned to the notary where the professional fixes the defects and resubmits the documentation when corrected.

The registro records all registered documents in a history of movements. The result of all movements make up a single record of the asset.

This is how the system breaks down.

First, dishonesty pays more these days. It was not that many years ago when, a fraudulent transaction, forged signature, or fictitious paperwork might have brought a few hundred dollars. This is when land values were not gold.

Today, foreigners are driving property values skyward.

Now this same kind of activity can reap thousands upon thousands of dollars. Most dishonest professionals never go to jail because they know their way around the law.

Second, the dishonest know more about how the registro works than do the honest, and they know most people never do their homework to check or follow-up on transactions. So a fake document can be filed and not be noticed for years. Or a document can say something much different than the contract in the notary’s book.

Third, but not last, the Costa Rican culture has an “anything goes if you can get away with it attitude.” Two ex-Presidents being arrested reflect poorly on the country’s social ethics.

Many legal leaders are screaming for digital signatures because they say it will curb the stealing of property. The country now has a digital signature law, but it is years away from implementation. A digital signature would show who filed a document that turns out later to have been a fake or a misrepresentation.

Costa Rican property owners — especially absentee owners — must watch their property using their computers as well as other resources until and if the Registro Nacional improves its security and efficiency. Mortgage certificates remain a great protective measure. One cannot be too cautious.

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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 is going to 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 very 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 Nacional 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.

This has happened to many Costa Ricans. The national registry now makes a check to see if the person transferring a property is dead or alive, but this process does not work for foreigners because the national registry computers are set up for Costa Rican identification numbers and no others.

A crook can actually move a property faster than one can do it legally, without worrying much about conviction. Suing the notary responsible for the transfer can even be harder.

During the probate process, heirs sit on pins and needles, never knowing whether assets will be lost to the unscrupulous. Once a property moves illegally to another person, the law is unclear who is protected.

There are three basic probate processes in Costa Rica: A “sucesorio judicial,” or court probate, a “sucesorio notarial,” or a probate performed by a notary without the normal court process, and a “fidecomiso testamentario” or the execution of an existing last will and testament trust.

“Sucesorio judicials” are the norm, take time, and are processed by a slow court system through a type of lawsuit.

“Sucesorio notarials” are rare. They are only used in certain circumstances when no one is fighting over assets and all beneficiaries are of legal age. The professional liability for an attorney and notary is enormous in using a sucesorio notarial. Documents need to be perfectly prepared.

“Fidecomiso testamentario” are the easiest to execute but assume that an existing last and will testament trust is in order.

No one thinks about walking around a corner and into a bus with their name on it, but today would be a good time to consider the possibility.

Some people insist on having property registered in their personal name. If this is the case, think about the possibility of using a usufruct right to protect loved ones, referred to as a “rights of survivorship” benefit.

This provides the ability to transfer a property to others, reserving the usufruct right so they cannot use the property until one’s death.

Using legal structures like limited companies and trusts are much better. Simple but effective succession plans written into a limited company structure work well. However, trusts provide more comprehensive succession structure with tax savings benefits to beneficiaries.

If a person dies with no plan, the law decides the beneficiaries. First line heirs with equal rights are parents, spouse and all children. When there are no heirs found in Costa Rica, the government could take everything.

A good will still needs a succession plan, meaning the ways and means to execute the will without difficulty. The choices when organizing ones demise are not the hard part. Making the decision to do so and stop putting it off until tomorrow is.

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