Choosing Succession, Insuring Your Rental and a Nice Nice Property For Sale

LAWS OF SUCCESSION

On August 17th of this year, the European regulation adopted July 4, 2012, will allow you to choose the law of the country that will govern the succession of your property. This regulation is applicable throughout the European Union except the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark.

Currently, the criteria determining the applicable laws governing an estate differ from one country to another. This may be the laws of your last domicile as it is in France, or the law of the deceased’s nationality, as it is in Italy.

As of August 17, 2015, the estate of a person shall be governed by the law of the country of his last residence, unless there is a will in testament to which a nationality refers.

This option has the advantage of stability since the change of residence does not challenge the settlement of the estate. Otherwise, at every change of residence, one would have to learn about the local rules of succession.

Several conditions must be met:

– the person must first choose the law of the country of which he is a national; the nationality that he has when making the choice or at the time of his death;

– the choice must be described in a will,

– the chosen law may be that of any country, a member of the European Union or not.

See the Paris Notaires site for more information.