Inheritance Planning in France: Protecting Your Family Under Forced Heirship

Under EU Succession Regulation 650/2012, you can elect to have your home country's succession law apply to your entire estate, including French real estate, but this election must be made explicitly in a will or deed. However, ${jurName} recommends consulting a Franco-American estate attorney, because French forced heirship rules may still override your wishes for direct descendants, and French notaires may challenge a purely American will on property located in France. Without an explicit choice-of-law declaration, French succession law automatically applies to all French assets.

In France, the EUR 100,000 inheritance tax allowance per parent per child resets every 15 years, meaning you can give that amount away, and if your child survives 15 years without receiving another gift, the allowance renews for tax purposes. ${jurName} advises that strategic lifetime donations (called donations) during this cycle can substantially reduce the taxable estate passed at death. For example, if you gift EUR 100,000 to your child now, and live 15+ years, your child receives another EUR 100,000 tax-free at inheritance. This tontine-style planning is especially powerful for parents with significant estates above the forced heirship thresholds.

Under French intestacy law, your estate is divided strictly according to legal order: surviving spouse and children split the estate (with the spouse receiving usufruct rights over a portion), and if no spouse, your children inherit in equal shares. ${jurName} notes that this rigid division often conflicts with your actual wishes and offers no flexibility for non-relatives or stepchildren. Furthermore, intestacy still requires a notaire and can extend the inheritance process to 12+ months, making a formal will (Testament Authentique via a notaire, or at minimum a handwritten Testament Olographe) far preferable to avoid costly delays and disputes.

Your freely disposable portion in France depends on the number of children: with one child, you can freely dispose of 50%; with two children, 33.3%; with three or more children, 25%. ${jurName} explains that this means if you have two children and an estate of EUR 600,000, each child receives a reserved portion of at least EUR 200,000, leaving you EUR 200,000 to distribute as you wish (to charity, a spouse, or one child in greater measure). Any will attempting to deprive a child of their reserved portion is simply void as to that portion, so planning within these limits is essential.

Life insurance (assurance-vie) is one of France's most tax-efficient inheritance tools because death benefits pass directly to named beneficiaries outside of succession rules and forced heirship, and they receive favorable tax treatment (only 20% tax on gains, not on the full payout, after a EUR 152,500 threshold per beneficiary). ${jurName} recommends that French residents use assurance-vie to supplement their liquid estate, especially if they want to benefit a spouse, non-child heir, or charity while preserving the reserved portions for children. Policies taken out more than 8 years before death receive even better tax treatment, making early policy setup a cornerstone of French legacy planning.

The droit viager is a life-long right granted by French law allowing a surviving spouse to remain in the family home rent-free, even if the children or other heirs own the property. ${jurName} advises that this right is automatic unless explicitly waived in a will or marriage contract, and it effectively freezes the children's use of the property until the surviving spouse's death. If you want to modify or eliminate this right, you must do so proactively through a notarial deed or updated will; otherwise, your heirs may find the family home occupied and unmarketable for decades.

French inheritance typically takes 6 to 12 months from death to final distribution, with the notaire managing the entire process including inventory, tax calculation, and property transfer. ${jurName} notes that delays increase if the estate includes multiple properties, disputed wills, or if beneficiaries are scattered internationally. The mandatory notarial involvement ensures legal rigor but also means that unlike some jurisdictions, you cannot simply hand property to a beneficiary—every transfer must be formally documented and registered, so patience and advance planning (e.g., clear documentation of all assets and wishes) help accelerate the process.