Domicile is the primary place that a person treats as their permanent home, or lives in and has a substantial enough connection with that the court uses it to apply certain laws and responsibilities.
What you need to know
Domicile is your legal "forever home" in the eyes of the court.
Your domicile is determined by the actions you take in an area and your intent surrounding that location
Domicile and residency are not the same thing— they differ by intended length of stay & depth of relationship
You can have multiple residences in multiple states or provinces, but you can only have one domicile
High earners usually domicile in the state or jurisdiction with the lowest tax rates.
Domicile is just your permanent “home base” from a tax & legal perspective.
Think of it as the place you'll always go back to. It's where all of your "real life" happens. Things like taxes, registering cars, where you bank, and so on. You can only have one, even if there are houses in multiple states, and it is determined by intent and the actions you take in a certain area.
Domicile is important because it determines what laws someone's estate are subject to. Probate laws change substantially between jurisdictions, so it can have a big impact on how many taxes an estate owes, who gets what when someone passes away without a will (known as dying intestate), and more.
Domicile is so important that we've written a pretty extensive breakdown on it — you can read all about domicile in depth here: Domicile Ultimate Guide — What it Means and How it Applies to Inheritance
What to do when a loved one dies
When people die, they leave behind a life that must be closed out. Don't tackle it all alone. From planning the funeral to tackling the legal & financial estate, here's an ultimate checklist of all the things an executor needs to do following the loss of a loved one.
Learn more
Even though Kelli owned a studio in New York City, she always came back to Boise to vote, pay taxes, and conduct more intensive financial affairs before she passed away. When her son, James, was trying to figure out how to begin the probate process, he realized that Kelli was domiciled in Boise but had an ancillary estate in New York. Now he knows he needs to initiate probate with the local Boise probate court and in NYC's local probate court.
In collaboration with
Nathan Phelps
Nathan is a Sr. Content Lead at Atticus and owner of Crafted Copy, a boutique copywriting and marketing shop based out of Nashville, TN. He has written hundreds of articles, white papers, and emails in industries like estate settlement, finance, and psychology, and his writing is read by millions of people across the internet each year.
In collaboration with
This could be you
Atticus values the expertise and professional experience of our partners and community of contributors. And we appreciate that's what makes the fiduciary industry so uniquely special.
After all, being a fiduciary isn't something that's just learned— it's a mindset that's demonstrated, tested and enduringly earned.
That's why Atticus is built around a community of passionate executors, attorneys, wealth advisors, probate clerks and other professional fiduciaries.
🤔 Who else are we missing? You!
Join our mission to support families through some of life's most difficult events as we foster financial literacy for fiduciary topics like probate, estate planning, estate administration & inheritance.
Everyone leaves a legacy... together, let's make the process easier.
