by Matthew Cameron, Partner, Ashtons Legal
When a notaire is charged with the administration of a deceased’s estate, one of the first steps will be to establish what law will be applying to the succession. If the deceased was married, and French resident, then the notaire will be checking the his or her matrimonial regime.
A French resident couple can declare a matrimonial regime to suit their wishes. They can, for example, impose a universal community regime under which neither of them is treated as having a separate interest in their assets: everything is owned by their marriage community. It follows that when one of them dies, everything will pass into the sole ownership of the survivor
Such a rule can be compatible with the French legal requirement that a deceased’s estate passes to his or her children – provided that there are no children from other relationships
When a couple marries in France, if they do not make a specific contract they will be subject to a community regime in relation to anything that they would acquire after the marriage, including any inheritances. This is the default position in France. It can also apply if not specific matrimonial contract is chosen at any point, and a couple have lived in France for more than 10 years.
People who were married in the UK are generally treated under French law as being subject to a regime of separation of assets. That means that each spouse will have his or her own share of their assets, which is capable of passing down their own family lines.
This may sometimes be perfectly suitable, but that is not always going to be the case – especially if there might be a risk of an automatic adoption of a universal community regime on long term permanent residence.