If your main residence is in France on the day of your death, you are subject to French inheritance laws.
What is the French law if you have not made a Will?
You are married and have children:
- Your spouse will inherit either a life interest of all your assets or a quarter of your assets and…
- Your children (or their descendants) will inherit the remainder as equal shares.
You are married and have no children:
- Your spouse will inherit all your assets. However, if your father or mother survives you, they receive a ¼ of your assets each, and your spouse inherits the remainder.
You are not married and have no children:
- Your father and mother inherit a quarter of your assets each.
- Your brothers and sisters (or their descendants) inherit the remainder equally.
If you make a Will, how can it change the situation?
- Increase, with some limits, the share of your spouse.
- Increase, with some limits, the share of one child.
- Choose your national law for the settlement of your inheritance (even if, since the law of the 24th of August 2021, it is much less favourable – read our post on The Reform of the French Hereditary Laws)
- Leave your assets to who you want (with some limits if you have children or a spouse), or with no limit if you have neither children nor a spouse.
To grant better protection to a surviving spouse, you can also make a matrimonial contract; for more information, please read the post: Matrimonial regimes and inheritance.
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