Portugal · Inheritance entitlement

Who inherits under Portuguese law — and what each heir is entitled to

A clear written legal opinion on your Portuguese inheritance question, prepared and signed by a lawyer practising in Portugal.

▶ Start — tell us what’s happened in Portugal

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One written opinion, one fixed fee

1 · Tell us what’s happened

In your own words — it costs nothing to ask.

2 · Your fee, in writing

One fixed fee for the estate, confirmed in writing before you commit.

3 · Your signed opinion

Signed by Colin Carroll, once the official will-register certificate is in.

What you get. One written Inheritance Entitlement Opinion for the estate, signed by Colin Carroll. From the facts and documents you give us, it answers:

which country’s law governs the inheritance;
how a married couple’s property is split first, where there was a marriage;
who inherits;
each heir’s share;
how lifetime gifts count;
the surviving spouse’s right to stay in the family home, where it applies.

It ends with what this means for you and the next steps.

One fixed fee for the estate: €750 plus VAT where it applies.

We confirm it in writing before you commit.

Is your whole family dividing the estate together? Order the legal baseline on Accorda instead (accorda.eu): the same price, shared between you, and one opinion for all of you.

VAT: if you live in Portugal or anywhere else in the EU, Portuguese VAT at 23 % is added to our fee. If you live outside the EU — for example in the UK or the USA — no Portuguese VAT is charged. Businesses registered for VAT in another EU country pay no Portuguese VAT and account for it themselves.

Not included. A second opinion on another lawyer’s work is a separate service (€1,000). Anything else your matter needs — for example a claim to reduce a will or a gift, tax returns, or running the estate — is quoted in writing before any work starts.

Credit towards running the estate. If you ask us to handle the Succession Administration of the same estate within 90 days, we credit 50 % of the opinion fee against that work.

Before you order. We will act for you alone. If your family later wants to agree the division together — for example on Accorda — we cannot then act for the whole family on the same estate, unless every heir agrees in writing after being told we first acted for you. Your opinion is yours: your family may read it but may not rely on it.

▶ Start — tell us what’s happened in Portugal

Why the opinion takes a few days

Before we give any figure, we obtain the official will-register certificate from Portugal’s central will register, so the opinion rests on the official record, not on assumptions. It arrives at the registry’s pace; we tell you when it is in.

When the whole family wants to agree

Some families would rather settle an inheritance together than each instruct a separate lawyer. Accorda is an online table where the heirs see the same facts and work towards an agreement on how to divide what was left.

When the family asks for it, Carroll Law prepares and signs the legal baseline on Accorda: who inherits under Portuguese law, and each person’s share. Nothing is binding on anyone until every heir has signed.

If you want a lawyer’s opinion for yourself alone, that is our Inheritance Entitlement Opinion.

Visit Accorda →Our Inheritance Entitlement Opinion →

Accorda is a technology platform of Niva Tech Ltd (Ireland), founded by Colin Carroll, which does not provide legal services.

Not ready yet? Try the free estimator

Try it free, right here: choose a family situation for a general illustration of who inherits when Portuguese law governs the estate. And does it govern your case? If the person made their home in Portugal — yes, unless their will chose the law of a country whose nationality they held. If they lived in England or Ireland and their will chooses their own national law — no. If that clause is missing, or there is no will, the house or flat in Portugal usually comes back under Portuguese rules after all — though money and other belongings generally follow the law of home. That is exactly what the written opinion answers.

Where is the property?Does a spouse survive?Children of the deceased

If there is no will

If there is no will, your husband or wife and the children share the whole estate equally — 1/3 each.

What the law protects against a will or gifts

Two-thirds of the estate is the legítima — the part the law protects for close family, here the husband or wife and the children together. A will or lifetime gifts can freely pass only the remaining third.

Not included in this estimate

Married under a shared-property regime (comunhão)? The couple's shared property is split first: half belongs to the husband or wife already (the meação). Only the deceased's half, plus his or her own property, is shared out as above.
A husband or wife who was divorced or legally separated by a court is not an heir.
A partner who was not married to the deceased (união de facto) is not an heir under these rules — the partner has other, narrower rights.
A husband or wife may also have the right to stay in the family home — not shown here.
Lifetime gifts count against shares (colação · colación · rapport · collazione).
A child who died before the parent is replaced by his or her own children — not shown.
Debts, tax and the value of each asset are not assessed.
Which country's law governs at all is not assessed — see below.

This estimate is for the textbook family only: a husband or wife still married to the deceased, the children all living, no will, no lifetime gifts, and one country's law governing the estate. If anything else is true — a will, gifts, a child who died first, a divorce or separation, a partner, a second family, property in another country — the answer is our written opinion, on your family's real facts.

For your family's actual facts, a lawyer's signed written opinion — fixed fee, confirmed in writing before you commit.

Which country's law applies? These rules govern when the person lived in that country — unless their will chose the law of a country whose nationality they held, which the EU Succession Regulation allows. A British citizen choosing English law, for example, is then free of these fixed shares, though English law has its own family claims, and France can still let children take back their protected share from French property in some cases. Whether a clause works for your family is part of our written opinion.

Broad national default rules, for orientation only — and true only for the textbook family. In real life, few estates are: gifts made during a lifetime count against shares (colação · colación · rapport · collazione), the marriage property regime decides what is even in the estate before anyone inherits, the family home carries special rights for the widowed spouse, regional regimes (notably in Spain) rewrite the fractions, and foreign wills, usufructs and earlier deaths bend every number above. And “spouse” here means a married spouse: an unmarried or de facto partner — união de facto, PACS or concubinage, pareja de hecho, convivente di fatto — generally takes no automatic share, with narrow national and regional exceptions. That is why the answer that matters is a lawyer’s written one, on your family’s actual facts. This is general information, not legal advice on your situation. Read the full guide or tell us what’s happened.

Common questions

Who inherits under Portuguese law?

With no will, a husband or wife and the children share the whole estate equally, the husband or wife never taking less than a quarter. Against a will, Portugal protects a share for close family — the legítima. It depends on who survives: half of the estate for one child alone, or for a husband or wife alone; two-thirds for a husband or wife with children, for two or more children, or for a husband or wife with parents. A written opinion confirms exactly who inherits, and what share, on your facts.

Can I choose English (or my own) law instead?

Usually yes. Under the EU Succession Regulation (Brussels IV) a foreign national can elect the law of their nationality in their will, displacing Portuguese forced heirship over their estate — and if that law has forced shares of its own (Ireland's legal right share, for example), those apply instead. We confirm whether it has been done, and whether it works, as part of the opinion.

What does an Inheritance Entitlement opinion cost?

One fixed fee for the estate: €750 plus VAT where it applies — we confirm it in writing before you commit. A second opinion on another lawyer's work is a separate service (€1,000); anything else your matter needs is quoted in writing before any work starts.

Who prepares your opinion

Your work is signed personally by Colin Carroll — a dual-qualified solicitor, admitted in both England and Ireland, who has lived and worked on the European continent for twenty-five years. Today he is the registered, insured lawyer with the Ordem dos Advogados (the Portuguese Bar) and the bars of Spain, Italy and France, under EU Directive 98/5/EC, with professional-indemnity insurance in each country of practice.

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