Forced inheritance across Portugal, Spain, Italy & France

Each country has its own name for it: the legítima in Portugal and Spain, the legittima in Italy, the réserve héréditaire in France (and the Pflichtteil in Germany).

First: do these rules apply to you at all?

Settle this before reading a single percentage. It comes down to one question — where did the person make their home? — and, in one case, to one clause in their will. Three situations cover almost every family we hear from. Find yours.

Situation 1 — they made their home in the country

A retired couple who made their life in the Algarve or on the Costa del Sol: yes, the rules below apply in full — unless their wills expressly choose the law of their own nationality instead. Under the EU Succession Regulation that choice is open to them, and it changes everything; how the election works.

Situation 2 — they lived in England or Ireland, and owned a home in one of the four countries

This is the family we hear from most, and here everything turns on one clause in the will. By default their own law governs their estate. But the UK and Ireland sit outside the EU Succession Regulation, and the interaction of the two legal systems can send the local property back under the local rules — unless the will expressly chooses their national law.

So if this has just happened in your family — there is an apartment abroad, and a will in a drawer in London or Dublin — the first job is to find the will and look for that clause: a line expressly electing the law of the person’s nationality. If it is there, the law of their nationality decides who inherits, and the local rules below do not. Reading the clause and setting out what that law gives is a certificate of foreign law — included when we handle the estate (Succession Administration); otherwise a separate fixed fee, quoted before we start. If it is not there, or there is no will at all, the property in Portugal, Spain, Italy or France usually falls under the local rules below — reserved shares and all — and who inherits may not be who the family thinks. That is what our Inheritance Entitlement opinion answers: a clear written answer from a lawyer — who inherits, and why — for a fixed fee, confirmed in writing before you start (available for each country; France from January 2027). And for anyone still planning, the complete cure is the same single clause, put in now.

Situation 3 — they lived elsewhere in the EU

Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and most of the rest (not Ireland or Denmark, which sit outside these rules — see situation 2): the same EU rules apply in your country too, so your own country’s law governs your whole estate, the foreign apartment included — no bounce-back to the local rules. But most EU countries protect family with rules of their own (Belgium’s réserve, Germany’s Pflichtteil), so a reserved share may still reach your estate — just your own country’s version of it, not Portugal’s, Spain’s, Italy’s or France’s.

Two identical flats, two different answers

Two owners of identical Algarve flats show the whole difference. A Manchester owner with an English will and no choice-of-law clause: English law governs his estate — but the flat itself can be sent back to Portuguese law, and the legítima can reach it (situation 2). A Munich owner in the same position: German law governs everything, flat included, with no bounce-back — but Germany’s own Pflichtteil applies to it instead (situation 3). Same flat, same missing clause, two different family-protection regimes — and one identical fix: a will expressly electing the law of your nationality.

One last distinction: whichever law governs who inherits, the local property still transfers through the local machinery — the two questions. Everything from here on describes each country’s rules as they apply when they apply.

Portugal — the legítima

Portuguese law reserves a share for the spouse, descendants and ascendants. Broadly, under the Civil Code:

• Spouse and children together: two-thirds of the estate is reserved (Art. 2159(1)); one-third is freely disposable.
• Children only: one child — one-half reserved; two or more children — two-thirds reserved (Art. 2159(2)).
• Spouse and parents/grandparents (no children): two-thirds reserved (Art. 2161(1)).
• Spouse alone: one-half reserved (Art. 2158).

A surviving spouse also keeps their own matrimonial half-share (meação) of jointly-owned property — set aside before the estate is divided — and, when the estate is divided, the right to be given the right to live in the family home and use its contents (Art. 2103-A), counted against their share.

Spain — the legítima (with regional variations)

Under the common (común) Spanish Civil Code, the law reserves two-thirds of the estate for the children (the legítima; Código Civil arts 806–808) — but that two-thirds is split: one-third must pass to the children equally (the legítima estricta), while the middle third (the mejora) can be distributed unequally among children or grandchildren. The surviving spouse is typically entitled to a usufruct (a life interest) over part of the estate rather than an outright share (art 834). Crucially, several regions have their own succession law — and they differ sharply. Catalonia’s llegítima is only one-quarter of the estate, paid as a value claim rather than a share of the assets (Codi Civil de Catalunya, Llibre IV); the Basque Country, Navarre, Aragón, the Balearics and Galicia each differ again. So the answer depends on which region’s law governs (the vecindad civil). (Regional review needed per matter — it changes the result.)

Italy — the legittima

Italian law reserves shares (the quota di legittima) for the spouse, children and (in their absence) parents (the legittimari; Codice Civile arts 536–542), with the exact fractions depending on how many of each survive — broadly, the more children, the larger the reserved portion and the smaller the freely-disposable part (the quota disponibile). A will that cuts across these shares is valid until challenged — a protected heir who is left short can bring a claim (the azione di riduzione) to claw their share back. Italy also lets an heir accept “under benefit of inventory” (accettazione con beneficio d’inventario) to avoid inheriting the deceased’s debts — an important protection where the estate’s liabilities are unclear.

France — the réserve héréditaire

France protects children most strongly of the four (the réserve héréditaire; Code civil art. 913). The reserved share depends on the number of children: with one child, half the estate is reserved; with two children, two-thirds; with three or more, three-quarters — leaving only the remainder (the quotité disponible) freely disposable. The surviving spouse is generally not a protected heir where there are children (the spouse’s reserved share arises mainly where there are no descendants). France also has a distinctive claw-back rule — the prélèvement compensatoire introduced by the Loi of 24 August 2021 (Loi 2021-1109) — that can let a child recover a reserved share from property in France where the deceased or at least one child was an EU national or lived in the EU, and the chosen law gives children no protected share.

Can you switch forced inheritance off?

Sometimes — and this is where cross-border planning earns its keep. Under the EU Succession Regulation (Brussels IV), you can make a will that elects the law of your nationality to govern your succession instead of the law of the country where you live. A British national habitually resident in Portugal, Spain, Italy or France can, by an express choice in their will, have English law applied — and English law has no forced inheritance, so you regain the freedom to leave your estate as you wish.

One thing the election does not do is move the administration of your estate to England. Where your estate is administered is fixed by your habitual residence — broadly, the country where you had genuinely made your home — and that is the key at all times; it does not change because you chose a different law (it is the rule under Brussels IV). So if you were habitually resident in Portugal — or Spain, Italy or France — your estate is administered there, through that country’s own process and before its notary and registry; what the election changes is only that the authorities apply the English law you chose to decide who inherits. They are shown what that law provides by a certificate of English law; they do not send your family to obtain an English grant of probate for the local assets. In short, your habitual residence decides where the estate is wound up, while your choice of law decides which inheritance rules apply — two different things. (Any assets you hold in England remain a separate English administration in the usual way.)

Two honest limits: Brussels IV governs who inherits, not tax (each country still taxes the estate under its own rules); and France’s 2021 claw-back can undercut the election for families where the deceased or a child was an EU national or lived in the EU. So the election is powerful but not absolute, and it must be drafted expressly and correctly.