Wills
A will is made to protect the family estate and ensure its orderly transfer to heirs — whether descendants, ascendants, or siblings — preserving the family assets for future generations.
Contact us
A Will Also Allows You to Make Other Important Decisions
If you have minor children, you can appoint an administrator of assets to prevent, for example, your former partner from managing your estate and your children’s inheritance if something happens to you.
You can also include guidance or specific clauses to protect your spouse or registered partner.
A well-drafted will can help you avoid unnecessary risks, while remaining flexible enough to be applied properly and prevent future disputes.
Inheritance matters involve many different aspects, including lifetime gifts, assets subject to collation, and other estate-related issues. Over time, these matters have given rise to a wide range of cases and legal scenarios. Our experience allows us to help you avoid common problems and ensure that your heirs’ rights and your final wishes are properly respected.
Will in Favour of an NGO
The Spanish Civil Code provides for forced heirship rights in favour of certain legally protected heirs. However, some people may not have any heirs, in which case, upon their death, their assets may pass to the State.
Those who know that they do not have heirs under the legal line of succession — such as descendants, ascendants, or siblings — may prepare a will providing for their estate to be donated to the NGOs of their choice.
Make Important Decisions with Legal Certainty
We guide you through the process of organising your estate with clarity, peace of mind, and the confidence that your family and your wishes will be properly protected.
Does my foreign will work in Spain?
A will validly made abroad is generally valid in Spain as to its form. That is not the difficulty. The difficulty is that a foreign will frequently disposes of the estate in a way that Spanish forced heirship rules do not permit, and that the practical process of using it here is slow and costly.
An English or Irish will leaving everything to the surviving spouse, for instance, may collide with the legítima, the compulsory share that Spanish law reserves for children. And even where there is no conflict, the foreign document must be apostilled, translated by a sworn translator and, where applicable, accompanied by a grant of probate, which typically adds months to the administration of the estate.
The Spanish will for foreign nationals
For anyone who owns property in Spain, the practical solution is usually to make a Spanish will limited to their Spanish assets, expressly stating that it does not revoke wills made in other countries. It is a short document, executed before a notary, registered in the Central Registry of Last Wills, and it saves the heirs a great deal of time and expense.
The essential provision, however, is another one. Under Regulation (EU) 650/2012, a person may choose the law of their nationality to govern their entire succession. This is known as the professio iuris, and it must be stated expressly, normally in the will itself.
The consequence is significant: a British or Irish national who makes that choice may dispose of their estate under the law of their own country, with the freedom of testation it allows, and thereby avoid the Spanish forced heirship rules. Without that express choice, the default rule applies, and the law governing the succession is that of the country of habitual residence at the date of death, which for a resident in Spain means Spanish law.
One caveat that is frequently overlooked: the Regulation does not apply in Denmark or Ireland, and it never applied in the United Kingdom, which had an opt-out before Brexit. This does not prevent a British national from choosing British law in a Spanish will, but it does mean the interaction between the two systems has to be examined carefully.
What a will should deal with
Beyond the distribution of assets, a will can appoint an executor, provide for the guardianship of children who are still minors, establish a usufruct in favour of the surviving spouse, and set out how specific assets are to be allocated so as to avoid disputes between heirs.
It is also worth remembering that a will does not resolve tax. Spanish inheritance tax must be paid within six months of death, and that deadline runs whether or not the heirs have agreed on anything.
See our pages on inheritance and international succession for the position on cross-border estates, and on family business succession where a company forms part of the estate.