Most couples plan a Costa Rica move for two people. Fewer plan the version where one of them is doing it alone.
Someone I spoke with recently got most of the way through describing his plan, then stopped. "But what happens to my wife if something happens to me?" It's a good question, and it's a lot easier to answer while you're both around to sign things.
What happens to Costa Rica property when a spouse dies?
The house, or the company shares that own it, goes through Costa Rican succession. A US living trust usually won't cover those shares. Without a Costa Rican will, the spouse may share the estate with children and parents. And if the spouse who died was the company's only legal representative, the company's frozen until there's a new one.
Many US buyers hold Costa Rica property inside a Costa Rican company. Usually that's a sociedad anónima (S.A.) or a sociedad de responsabilidad limitada (S.R.L.). Some chose it on purpose. Others just signed whatever the closing attorney happened to set up. Holding title as a US person is its own topic.
Either way, your estate holds company stock, and the company's the one that owns the lot. Those shares follow their own paperwork, and it's rarely the paperwork the couple remembers signing.
Every Costa Rican company has a legal representative. So what happens if you're the only representative and you die? The company can't act. Not until the shareholders appoint someone new. And your shares can't vote until an executor called an albacea is named. That's done through a court or, when every heir is an adult and agrees, through a notary. Meanwhile your spouse can be living in the house and still can't pay the company's taxes or sign a sale. That's the gap.
It's fixable, and most of it gets fixed in advance. Know who the legal representative is, and whether there's a second one who can sign alone. Find out where the shareholder registry book physically sits. That's a ten-minute question for your Costa Rican attorney now, and a much harder one after a death.
Does a US will or living trust cover the Costa Rican shares?
Plenty of people I talk with have a revocable living trust in the US. Good. It covers the brokerage account and the house back in the States. Then I ask whether the Costa Rican shares are inside it. The answer's almost always no. Or it's a pause that means no.
A trust only controls the assets that have actually been transferred into it. Foreign company shares often get missed. Why? They're usually bought after the estate plan's been written, in a country the drafting attorney never thought about. So the trust can be perfectly drafted and still have no say over the asset your spouse needs most.
There's a wrinkle with wills, too. A US will can generally be used in Costa Rica once it's apostilled and translated. But it still runs through Costa Rican succession. So a lot of couples sign a second will that covers only what's in Costa Rica. Watch the revocation clause. A standard "I revoke all prior wills" line can cancel the other country's will if the two attorneys aren't coordinating. There's more on the two-will setup in the estate planning post.
What if there's no will at all? Then Costa Rican law has the spouse share the estate with any children and with the deceased's parents. The spouse's portion also depends on gananciales, the marital property split. So a widow can end up owning the company alongside her in-laws and her own adult children. Your Costa Rican attorney can confirm how it applies to your family (Código Civil art. 572).
How the shares are held matters:
| How the shares are held | What happens when one spouse dies |
|---|---|
| One spouse holds them all, no Costa Rican will | They pass by intestacy, shared with children and parents. An albacea must be named before they vote. |
| One spouse holds them all, a Costa Rican will names the other | They pass under the will, still through a court or notarial succession. |
| Both spouses hold shares | The survivor already owns their part. Only the deceased's shares go through succession. |
| Transfer terms written into the company's bylaws | They move under those terms, if enforceable. Confirm with your attorney. |
Which of these fits depends on what else you own and where you're a tax resident. That's a conversation for a Costa Rican attorney and a US estate attorney in the same room, not a thing to settle from a blog post.
Does the US filing change when one owner of a Costa Rican company dies?
A Costa Rican company carries US reporting every year. What you file depends on how the company's classified and who owns it. A death changes who owns it. Usually that happens when the estate passes the shares to the survivor. So the return the survivor's signed for years may stop being the right one.
But nobody's going to send a notice. The penalties for missed international information returns are real, generally $10,000 per missed return, per year. Tax rules don't stand still either. If you own a Costa Rican corporation, talk to a cross-border professional, me or someone else, about what you file now and what changes if one of you dies. Want to research it yourself first? That's fine too (IRC §6038(b)).
What happens to residency and health coverage for the surviving spouse?
When a couple applies for Costa Rican residency together, one is usually the primary applicant and the other's a dependent. What if the primary dies? Then the dependent's status rests on someone who's no longer there. The survivor may need to requalify. Your Costa Rican immigration attorney can confirm what the current rules require of a survivor.
CAJA, the public health system, is tied to that residency, and new residents often wait a year or more before their coverage is settled. Most carry private insurance at first. Voluntary CAJA contributions generally run 10 to 12 percent of declared income. A survivor re-establishing their own status may face both again, right when household income has dropped (CCSS voluntary-insured rate table; confirm the current rate).
Medicare has no pause option for Part B. Drop it and re-enroll later, and you'll pay a 10 percent surcharge for every full 12 months you went without, for life. Re-enrollment only opens January through March. Coverage starts the month after. Some couples keep Part B on one spouse and drop it on the other. Whoever dropped it carries that surcharge whenever they re-enroll. And a death is often what forces it. The Medicare post walks through the keep-or-drop math (Medicare.gov, Part B late enrollment penalty).
Social Security shrinks too. After a death, the household keeps only the larger of the two benefits. So a budget built on two checks needs a one-check version (SSA, survivor benefits).
What goes in an "If something happens" file?
One person usually runs the money. They know the custodian, the logins, the Costa Rican bank, the attorney's WhatsApp, and which account pays the company's taxes. The other knows almost none of it. Sound familiar?
The fix is one document your spouse can open and use without you. Update it once a year. It'll take an afternoon.
The If Something Happens file
- Where the company shares are: the registry book and any share certificates.
- The company's legal representative, and whether a second one can sign alone.
- Your Costa Rican attorney's number.
- The will in each country, who drafted it and where the original's kept.
- The US trust, plus a list of what's actually titled in it.
- Powers of attorney in each country.
- Every account, US and Costa Rican: the institution, whose name it's in, who can sign, and how to log in.
- Which account pays the company's annual tax, and the last year it was paid.
- Where the passwords are kept.
- Your cross-border tax preparer, and what the company files in the US every year.
- Each spouse's residency file number.
- CAJA, Medicare, Social Security and any private insurance details.
Four account details catch cross-border couples off guard, so they belong in the file too:
- A Costa Rican bank account belongs to whoever opened it, so if it's only in one spouse's name, the survivor's locked out until the succession releases it. Non-residents can often open only a basic account, with deposit limits and extra paperwork.
- Foreign account reporting doesn't stop at death. If the surviving spouse can sign on, or has a financial interest in, foreign accounts over $10,000 combined at any point in the year, they file FinCEN Form 114, and the non-willful penalty runs up to $16,536 per missed report (31 CFR 1010.821; Bittner v. United States, 2023). US tax obligations when living in Costa Rica covers the rest.
- Some brokerages restrict foreign-address accounts. Check your custodian's written policy on non-US addresses before the survivor needs to update one.
- Required minimum distributions keep running. The RMD age is 73 for people born 1951 through 1959 and 75 for 1960 or later. A surviving spouse who inherits an IRA has options other heirs don't, and the choice has real tax consequences (SECURE 2.0 §107).
What are the most common mistakes couples make?
- Assuming the US trust covers Costa Rica.
- Skipping the Costa Rican will.
- Leaving one spouse as the company's sole legal representative, with nobody else who can sign.
- Signing a new will in one country with a blanket revocation clause that cancels the will in the other.
- Letting the company's annual tax lapse. Three consecutive unpaid years are grounds for the Registro to dissolve the company, and a dissolved company still holding your house is a hard thing to hand a grieving spouse (Ley 9428).
Where should a couple start?
It matters most for couples who own through a company, or where one spouse handles all the money. Renting, with your assets in the US? Then most of this won't apply to you, and the estate stays a lot simpler.
Start with two questions. Who's the legal representative of your Costa Rican company? And could your spouse log into every account tomorrow without you? If you couldn't answer both in under a minute, that's worth a conversation, and it's better to have it now.
I spend a lot of time on the ground in Costa Rica. A big part of my work is sitting down with couples who own property there and mapping who holds what on both sides of the border, and what the survivor would actually inherit. If that's you, reach out here. Want a quicker first step? The readiness quiz takes about three minutes, and you'll see where the gaps are.
This post is educational and does not constitute personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Vitality Wealth Planning, LLC is a registered investment adviser. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Tax laws change; verify current rules with a qualified professional.