Inheritance entitlement · Portugal · Spain · Italy · France
Who inherits? Get it in writing.
A clear written answer from a lawyer — who inherits, what each heir is entitled to, and why — signed personally by Colin Carroll, for one fixed fee for the estate, agreed before we start.
Step 1 — choose your country
Portugal
The legítima, the spouse’s position, Brussels IV — answered for a Portuguese estate.
What it covers & the fixed fee →
Spain
The legítima and its regional variations, the usufructo viudal, which regional law applies.
What it covers & the fixed fee →
Italy
The legittima — which protects the spouse strongly — and whether an election displaces it.
What it covers & the fixed fee →
France
The réserve, the spouse’s options, and what an unmarried partner takes (without a will: no inheritance share).
What it covers & the fixed fee →
Not sure the opinion is what you need — perhaps the whole estate needs handling? Which service do I need?
What the written opinion does
When an estate touches Portugal, Spain, Italy or France, the first question is never the paperwork — it is who actually inherits, and under which country’s law. Our written Inheritance Entitlement opinion answers it for the whole estate, in plain English: the facts, the law that governs them, and a clear “what this means for you” at the end. Families use it to know where they stand before anything is signed; solicitors and notaries rely on it as formal confirmation of the position.
Every opinion is one fixed fee for the estate, agreed in writing before any work begins — never an hourly meter. Choose your country for what the opinion covers there and the published fee.
Not sure where to start?
If you don’t yet know which country’s law is in play — or whether the whole estate needs handling rather than one written answer — just tell us what’s happened, in your own words. A lawyer reads every enquiry and replies with the right next step and the exact fixed fee, before you commit to anything.
The background, in plain English
Start here
Habitual residence: the test that decides whose law governs an estate
Under the EU Succession Regulation, one question sets the default for everything: where was the person habitually resident when they died? The Regulation never defines the term — so here is how the test actually works, the borderline lives that make it hard, and why tax residence is the wrong answer to it.
Read the guide →
Which country’s law decides who inherits — and can I choose my own?
How the EU Succession Regulation (650/2012) decides the governing law, and how a choice-of-law clause works — and what it can’t do.
Read the guide →
Forced inheritance across Portugal, Spain, Italy & France
The reserved shares that protect close family in each of the four countries — and how they differ.
Read the guide →
Who inherits — and how it transfers: the two questions every foreign estate asks
Every estate with foreign assets turns on two separate questions: which country’s law decides who inherits, and which country’s machinery transfers the asset. A choice-of-law election answers the first; it never moves the second.
Read the guide →