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In the UK it is not uncommon to find persons bequeathing their wealth to a person outside their family. In recent times, some of the wealthiest persons in the world have hit the headlines for announcing that most of their wealth will be donated to a foundation. Not so in France - and it has nothing to do with French citizens not wanting to share their wealth. Rather, it is because of the inheritance law around French property.

According to French inheritance law, there are strict guidelines on how a person’s wealth should be distributed. The common thread is the emphasis on keeping wealth in the family. First, you cannot allot your entire estate to third parties. A certain minimum proportion must be reserved for your relatives. In French law, this minimum proportion is referred to as réserve légale.

The remaining estate is what can be distributed outside the family and is known as quotit disponsible. Note that the law envisages relatives as persons in the benefactor’s bloodline - meaning that the spouse does not directly qualify. However, a spouse would be considered if there are no children in the marriage.

There are fixed percentages for the réserve légale depending on the number of children. If the person that passed away had only one child, then the child is entitled to 50% of the estate and the rest can be distributed to the spouse and/or third parties. If there are 2 children, then the percentage reserved for the children goes up to 66.67%. With the three children, the percentage for the children will be 75%. With 9 children, the réserve légale will be 90%.

In short, the more the children, then the lower the proportion of the deceased’s French property that will be legally distributable to third parties. If there are no children in the union, the spouse is entitled to 25% of the estate. Another way that a couple can prevent the property automatically going to the children is join ownership. Any asset that was jointly owned by the two automatically reverts to the surviving spouse irrespective of the children in the relationship.

The question then would be, with such elaborate inheritance laws, are wills recognised under French law? The answer to that is yes but on one key condition – any part of the will that conflicts in one way or the other with the provisions of the inheritance law is automatically rendered null and void. There are additional conditions for a will to be enforceable. First, the will must be hand written - typed or printed wills are not allowed. Second, it must be written by the benefactor – not by their spouse, children or lawyer.