Spain · Inheritance entitlement
Who inherits under Spanish law — and what each heir is entitled to
A clear written legal opinion on your Spanish inheritance question, prepared and signed by a lawyer practising in Spain.
Spanish succession turns on questions that rarely have an obvious answer to a family abroad: how much of the estate is reserved for the children (the legítima), what the surviving spouse takes, and which country’s law governs — because under Brussels IV a foreign national can often choose their own national law instead of Spanish forced heirship. A written Inheritance Entitlement opinion answers your specific question, in plain English, signed by your lawyer.
Want the background first? See Who inherits under Spanish law?
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.
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.
Why the opinion takes a few days
Before we give any figure, we obtain the official will-register certificate, 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.
Not ready yet? Try the free estimator
Or try it free, right here: choose a family situation for a general illustration of who inherits when Spanish law governs the estate. And does it govern your case? If the person made their home in Spain — yes, unless their will chose the law of a country whose nationality they held. If they lived in England or Ireland and their will expressly chooses their own national law — no. If that clause is missing, or there is no will, the house or flat in Spain usually comes back under Spanish rules after all — though money and other belongings generally follow the law of home. That is exactly what the written opinion answers.
This shows the Civil Code rules that apply in most of Spain, including Andalucía, Madrid, Valencia and Murcia. Catalonia, Galicia, the Basque Country, Navarre, Aragón and the Balearic Islands have their own rules, and which ones apply depends on the person's regional citizenship (vecindad civil) — not on where the property is. For those, we answer in writing.
If there is no will
If there is no will, the children inherit the whole estate, in equal shares (1/2 each).
Your husband or wife does not inherit a share outright, but has a life interest — a usufructo, the right to use it or its income for life — over one-third of the estate. The children own that third, but come into its full use only when the husband or wife dies.
What the law protects against a will or gifts
Two-thirds of the estate is the children's legítima — the part the law protects for them: one-third must go to them equally, and the parent may share the second third (the mejora) unequally among children or grandchildren. The husband's or wife's life interest sits on that second third. A will can freely pass the last third.
Not included in this estimate
- Shows the common Civil Code only — Catalonia, Galicia, the Basque Country, Navarre, Aragón and the Balearic Islands have their own rules.
- Married under shared property (gananciales)? The shared property is split first; only the deceased's half and own property is shared out.
- A husband or wife separated legally or in fact has no life interest.
- An unmarried partner (pareja de hecho), even if registered, is not an heir under these rules.
- 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 Spanish law?
Under the Spanish Civil Code that applies across most of Spain — including Andalucía, the Costa del Sol, Valencia and the Costa Blanca — the children are protected for two-thirds of the estate (the legítima), and the husband or wife has a life interest (usufructo) over one-third (art. 834). With no will, the children inherit the whole estate, subject to that life interest. A written opinion confirms exactly who inherits, and what share, on your facts.
Can I choose English (or my own) law instead of Spanish forced heirship?
Usually yes. Under the EU Succession Regulation (Brussels IV) a foreign national can elect the law of their nationality — a British national can elect English law in their will, which usually displaces Spanish forced heirship over the Spanish estate. 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.
Related guides
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 →
Who inherits under Spanish law?
Spanish forced heirship (the legítima) reserves two-thirds of the estate for the children, with a life interest for the surviving spouse — but foreign nationals can usually choose their own national law under Brussels IV, and several regions have very different rules.
Read the guide →
Catalan legítima vs Spanish legítima — which applies to my Catalan property?
In Catalonia the legítima is only one-quarter of the estate and is a monetary claim against the heirs, not a share of the assets — fundamentally different from the two-thirds reserved share of Spain’s common Civil Code. Which applies depends on regional citizenship, not where the property is.
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 →