Asian Pacific American Law Journal

Asian Americans historically have been underrepresented in the estate planning community, partially due to the decision of Asian Americans to forgo will execution. This Article focuses specifically on the estate planning experiences of East Asian Americans, mainly from South Korea, Japan, and China. This Article begins by examining some of the reasons which motivate East Asian Americans to forgo estate planning, including the cultural sensitivities that may not be accounted for by the current composition of estate planning attorneys, in which East Asian Americans are underrepresented. Next, this Article examines case law to demonstrate that East Asian Americans have had their estate planning documents challenged, mainly through accusations that due execution was not achieved because the documents were written in a different language than spoken by the testator or party to the agreement (if not a will). Subsequently, this Article briefly addresses some of the differences which exist in the probate systems between East Asian countries and the United States to demonstrate that such discrepancies may create confusion and frustration for recent East Asian immigrants looking to create testamentary documents in the United States. This Article then transitions by glimpsing ahead at efforts to remedy both the lack of inclusion and the challenging situations that have been faced by East Asian Americans in the estate planning community, mainly by observing recent efforts to engage and educate East Asian Americans on the importance of estate planning. Finally, this Article provides solutions to reduce the likelihood of will contests for East Asian Americans, as well as solutions for improving the experiences of East Asian Americans in will execution overall, considering the international differences and cultural sensitivities that impact East Asian American testators.