Cross-border succession law · Italy
Someone you love has died,with property in Italy.We handle everything.
English & Irish solicitor · for inheritance in Italy
Losing someone is hard enough without a foreign legal system and in another language. We take care of the whole Italian side for you — remotely, under a power of attorney, so you never need to travel — for a fixed fee agreed before we start. Every matter is signed off personally by Colin Carroll, a lawyer of 20 years’ standing.
A Italian estate on your desk? Keep your client — send us the Italian leg.
For solicitors & professional advisers
Where are you right now?
Two clear paths — choose the one that fits:
🕊 Someone has died.
We handle the whole Italian side: who inherits, the acceptance strategy, the succession filing, releasing the accounts, putting the property into the heirs’ names — and selling it later if you wish. One thing before anything else: don’t touch the Italian assets yet — in Italy, dealing with them can count as accepting the estate, debts included. Tell us what’s happened first.
After a death →
🌱 No one has died — yet.
Planning ahead. Protect your family before anything happens: who would inherit today, an Italian will, what your marriage means for inheritance, and whether your UK trust still works in Europe. Tell us what you’d like to protect and we’ll guide you.
Planning ahead →
1888
a family of lawyers — almost 140 years
4
countries in southern Europe
20+
years as a solicitor
6
working languages
There’s no UK-style probate in Italy — so how does it work?
Italy has no probate in the English sense, and no executor administering the estate. The estate passes to the heirs themselves, who must accept the inheritance — and acceptance can even be tacit, by conduct. A foreign will must first be deposited and published before an Italian notary (the pubblicazione); heirship is proved by the atto di notorietà; the estate is declared to the Agenzia delle Entrate (the dichiarazione di successione, within twelve months of the death); and the property is transcribed to the heirs at the land registry, with the cadastral records updated (the voltura). We do all of it for you.
▶ Read: Forced heirship across Portugal, Spain, Italy & France
After a death
What we can help with
Every fee is fixed and agreed in writing before work begins, plus third-party costs shown up front. (+ VAT.)
Settling the whole estate
Transfer an Italian property after a death
when the person who died lived abroad
€5,000
See the full service
Or just one part on its own
Who inherits? — Inheritance Entitlement opinion
a standalone written legal opinion
€900
See the full service
Registering inherited property into the heirs’ names
a standalone transcription and voltura
€1,500
See the full service
Selling an inherited property
fixed-fee legal work, by the value of the property
from €2,900
See the full service
Also: how cross-border inheritance works, and certificates of foreign law (for the notaio here, or for an England & Wales grant) — for solicitors and advisers.
For lawyers & professional advisers
A foreign estate on your desk? Keep the client — instruct the foreign leg.
Our job here is simple: to help you help your client. Solicitor in Leeds, attorney in Boston, Rechtsanwalt in Munich, notary in Rotterdam — whoever your client trusts at home, you remain lead on the estate; we handle the Italian leg and report to you at every step. And two assurances worth stating plainly: we do no domestic work in your country at all — there is nothing on your side of the border for us to compete for, and your client comes back to you; and foreign law handled in-house is a quiet risk on your own indemnity record — referred to us, it is insured specialist work on ours, in every one of the four countries. Everything a referring professional needs is written down — starting with a walkthrough written for exactly the file in front of you.
The English solicitor’s guide to the Italian estate
Why there is no resealing, the route that runs instead, the deadlines that bite, and what to send on day one. Written for English solicitors — and used just as well by any lawyer with a client who owns property here.
Certificates of foreign law
Signed, notary-ready proof of the foreign law your file needs — produced in-house, in the right language.
Refer or instruct us
How the hand-off works, what it costs your client, and what you receive back — in two minutes.
A common situation — and why it really matters
Peter and Carol, both British, retired to Liguria in 2019. They married in England, and each has two adult children from an earlier marriage — four children across two families. They own a villa worth €450,000 near Sanremo in their joint names.
What most people assume — their English wills control what happens to the villa.
What the law may actually say — under the EU Succession Regulation (Brussels IV), if Peter dies while living in Italy without a choice-of-law clause in his will, Italian succession law may govern his estate — not English law. Italian law reserves fixed shares (the legittima) of what Peter leaves for his closest family — and here that means Peter’s own two children, not Carol’s, become legally entitled to part of his estate, including a share of the family home, regardless of what his English will says — so Carol could find she is not free to sell or remortgage it without them, at the worst possible moment.
What could have been done differently — a single clause electing English law under Brussels IV would have restored full freedom: Italian courts do not treat the legittima as a matter of public policy, so the election genuinely works — and Carol would have inherited exactly as the English will intended.
Read more: Which country’s law decides who inherits? · Forced heirship across Portugal, Spain, Italy & France.
Try it yourself
Who would inherit? A quick estimate
One thing first: these rules apply in full when the person made their home in Italy. If they lived in another EU country — Germany or Belgium, say — that country’s own rules apply instead, not these.
Lived in England or Ireland, with a home in Italy? Then find the will and look for one clause: a line saying which country’s law should apply — usually “the law of England and Wales”. If that clause is there and chooses the law of a country they were a citizen of, that law decides who inherits — under English law, for example, there are no fixed shares, though some family claims remain. We check the clause and confirm what it achieves. If the clause isn’t there, or there is no will at all, the Italian property usually falls under these rules after all — and who inherits may not be who the family thinks. Answering that one question is exactly what we do: a clear written answer from a lawyer — who inherits, and why — for a fixed fee.
Now choose the country and the family situation, and see how the reserved share works — the rule that surprised Peter and Carol above. Two minutes, and you don’t need to give us any details.
If there is no will
If there is no will, your husband or wife takes one-third and the 2 children share two-thirds equally (1/3 each).
On top of this, your husband or wife has the right to go on living in the family home and to use its furniture, if the home belonged to the deceased or to both of you.
What the law protects against a will or gifts
The legittima protects one-quarter for your husband or wife and one-half for the children together. A will can freely pass one-quarter.
Not included in this estimate
- "Husband or wife" includes a partner in an Italian civil union (unione civile). An unmarried partner (convivente di fatto) is not an heir, but may stay in the home for a limited time.
- Married under shared property (comunione legale)? The shared property is split in equal halves first; only the deceased's half and own property is shared out.
- The right to live in the family home comes on top of the shares and is not valued 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.
Try it yourself
What tax would be due? A quick estimate
The second question every family asks. Your relationship to the person who died, roughly what you expect to receive — and what the local rules do with it. Two minutes, no details needed.
€0 — inside the tax-free allowance.
- Spouse and direct line: each person has a €1,000,000 tax-free allowance, then 4% on the excess.
Where the estate includes Italian property, mortgage and cadastral taxes are also due at filing — 2% and 1% of the cadastral value (at least €200 each), or €200 each where the "first home" relief applies.
And in practice: when we administer an estate, this tax is not your problem to work out — we compute it, prepare the return and file it on time, as part of the work.
The local rules, for orientation only — reliefs, prior gifts, property registration charges and your home-country tax (UK inheritance tax, Irish CAT) all change the picture. General information, not tax advice on your situation. Read the full guide or tell us what’s happened.
Which story is yours?
A whole estate
John lived in Manchester and left an English will. In Italy he owned an apartment in Liguria and one bank account, and his two children agree on everything. We handled the Italian side — the will published before the notary, the filings, the records — working alongside his solicitor at home.
Brian made Italy his home: a house near Imperia, one account here and one in the UK, and two children. Two legal systems, joined up cleanly.
Diane also made her life here, and left a portfolio, a pension and a life policy, with three children. Everything Brian’s family needed — with the cross-border tax coordinated too.
Or just one part
Margaret’s mother rented her home in Liguria, so all she left in Italy was one frozen bank account. There was no need for a full estate service — we proved the heirs, made the succession filing, worked through the bank’s checks, and the bank paid Margaret directly.
David’s father died years ago, but the flat near Imperia was never transcribed into the children’s names. Now they want to sell — so we moved the records across.
Helen and her brother inherited a house near Sanremo, already in their names, and both live in the UK. We took the sale all the way from the offer to the deed before the notaio.
▶ See the full Italy pricing — what’s included, what’s not, and the third-party costs
What will it cost to settle an estate?
Our cost estimator is for settling an estate — tell us a little about it (the property, the accounts) and it shows a fixed-fee range straight away, before you give us any details about yourself. No login, no obligation.
The other services are each a simple fixed price: bank & asset release from €1,750, title registration €1,500, and selling an inherited property from €2,900.
How it works — from wherever you are
01
Tell us what’s happened
Our short online form — no obligation, nothing to pay to find out where you stand.
02
A fixed quote, in writing
The full price and what it includes, before you decide anything.
03
We handle everything remotely
Under a power of attorney, in plain English — you never need to travel.
04
The estate reaches you directly
Property registered, accounts released bank-to-heir. Your money never sits with us.
How you pay
We agree your fixed fee in writing before any work begins. To open your matter we ask for the first part of our fee — invoiced and receipted immediately — then further instalments at the milestones, so there’s never a single large bill. Third-party costs (the notary, the registries, taxes) are never part of our fee and are never held by us: we prepare each payment for you and you pay it directly. We never hold client or estate money.
▶ How you pay, and who pays the lawyer — the full picture · Why we never hold your money
Who prepares your work
In Italy, much of what passes for “inheritance help” is sometimes done by people who are not lawyers at all — agents and intermediaries who are not regulated or insured. We are the regulated, insured lawyer — which, for an estate that matters to your family, is the difference that matters.
Your matter is handled and signed off 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 Ordine degli Avvocati (the Italian Bar) and the bars of Portugal, Spain and France, under EU Directive 98/5/EC, with professional-indemnity insurance in each country of practice. He works in English and speaks fluent French, Portuguese, Spanish and German.
Common questions
Is there probate in Italy?
No — Italy has no probate in the English sense and no executor. The estate passes to the heirs themselves, who must accept the inheritance; heirship is proved by the atto di notorietà, the estate is declared to the Agenzia delle Entrate within twelve months, and the property is transcribed to the heirs at the land registry. We handle all of it for you.
Who inherits under Italian law?
Italian law reserves fixed shares (the legittima) for the closest family — and in Italy that includes the surviving spouse as well as the children, together with the spouse's right to stay in the family home. Under the EU Succession Regulation (Brussels IV) you can usually elect the law of your nationality — for example English law — by a clause in your will, and in Italy that election genuinely displaces the legittima.
Do I have to travel to Italy to deal with the estate?
No. We act for you under a power of attorney with special powers and handle the whole Italian side remotely, in plain English — including each heir's Italian tax code (codice fiscale), obtained by proxy wherever they live.
What does it cost?
A fixed fee agreed in writing before we start: €5,000 to transfer an Italian property, €6,000 to settle an Italian estate, and €8,500–€10,500 for a cross-border estate. Standalone services are fixed too — releasing a bank account from €1,750, title registration €1,500, and selling an inherited property from €2,900.
Is there inheritance tax in Italy?
Yes, but a gentle one by European standards: spouse and children pay 4% only above a €1,000,000 tax-free allowance each; siblings 6% above €100,000. On real estate, cadastral and mortgage taxes (2% + 1% of the cadastral value) also apply. We compute, prepare and file the succession tax return as part of the work; tax back home is not ours, and we say early where an adviser at home is needed. The tax itself is never part of our fee.
Should the family touch the Italian assets before the estate is settled?
No — in Italy acceptance of an inheritance can be tacit, by conduct: an heir who starts dealing with the assets may be treated as having accepted, estate debts included. Tell us what's happened before anyone touches anything.