Making a will in France (British family)

[EmGee]

We need to make a will. Main issue is the default French inheritance laws which protect the children's rights as main inheritors. So if one of us passes away, the remaining spouse inherits 50% of our joint assets, 1/4 of the spouse's 50% share of joint assets with the rest going to the children. Apparently any assets acquired before we were married go to the children and none to the surviving spouse.

I have no desire to cheat my kids of their rightful inheritance. However both DH and I want to be able to protect ourselves in the following hypothetical situation:

• one of us passes away before our time and the remaining spouse wants to sell up our property in France and return to the UK to settle there and buy a house.

As it stands, we were married in the UK but have only lived in France as a married couple. Kids born here but like us British nationals.

Any ideas?? We are really only concerned about the issue of assets. We have been told to draw up a will with a solicitor in the UK to state our wishes re guardianship of the children - as both our families are over there.

The remaining person would be able to sell up, with the agreement of the children, but any profit made on the sale would be split according to the % you mentioned. I'm pretty sure there's no way around this under French inheritance law.

Under EU rules on succession, I think you can now ask for the estate to be processed under the law of your citizenship. However, I'm not sure this would apply if a) Brexit goes ahead or b) only one of you died. Information is here: europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/family/inheritances/index_en.htm

FWIW, my Mum lives in France and when my Dad died some years ago my brother (as oldest child) had to sign a document saying that we allowed her to stay in the house. Shocking, I know, as it's her money, but that's the law in France. It's also pretty much the same where I live (another EU country).

You need to talk to a notaire who has experience in dealing with foreigners. If you don't have a contrat de mariage, ot might be an idea to look into getting one now, eg communauté universelle rather than communauté réduite aux acquets, for example, it makes a difference. You can also donthings lile a donation entre vifs with nu-propriéte which can help with the hoo-ha over property. Go and see a notaire!

Argh so many typos: it not ot, and 'do things like a donation entre vifs', not what I wrote.

I second what madamfrog says, get a good notaire and/or seek advise from someone who knows both systems, we are now starting to think about this since have been putting it off - cant give anymore concrete advise at the moment since we are waiting for someone to get back to us. However discussed this with french friend who seemed to think this was not a major issue if the children signed the donation entre vifs. If I find out anymore I will let you know.