Passing on wealth in the European Union, 2026: one regulation, forced heirship, and the rules in Germany, France and Spain

• Regulation (EU) 650/2012, in force for deaths since 17 August 2015, applies the law of the deceased's habitual residence to the whole estate unless the will chooses the law of their nationality; the European Certificate of Succession proves heirs' rights across member states (Denmark and Ireland are not bound).

• Forced heirship: Germany's Pflichtteil is a money claim of half the intestate share; France reserves half to three-quarters for children; Spain's national law reserves two-thirds, with the Basque Country, Catalonia, Navarre, Aragon, Galicia and the Balearics applying their own rules.

• Germany allows €500,000 tax-free to a spouse and €400,000 to each child; France exempts the spouse and allows €100,000 per child; Spain's regions relieve most of the state tax, Madrid by 99% for spouses and children.

Since 2015 the regulation answers the question the old rules fought over: the law of the country where the person habitually lived governs the whole estate, movable and immovable, unless their will chooses the law of their nationality. A British or American retiree in Spain who never chose is governed by Spanish law, including its reserved shares; one who chose English or a US state's law in their will is not, though the tax stays Spanish. A dual national may choose either nationality's law. The certificate lets heirs prove their rights in any participating member state without a second probate, and the courts of the country of habitual residence have jurisdiction over the whole estate.

The single largest difference between the continent and the common-law world. A French parent cannot disinherit a child: the réserve héréditaire gives one child half, two children two-thirds, three or more three-quarters, and the parent disposes freely of the rest (the quotité disponible); a surviving spouse without children is reserved a quarter. Germany's Pflichtteil is gentler in form and the same in effect: a disinherited child, spouse or parent claims half of what intestacy would have given, in cash, within three years, and gifts made in the ten years before death are added back on a sliding scale. Spain's Civil Code reserves two-thirds for descendants: one third in equal shares (the legítima estricta) and one third the parent may allocate among descendants as they choose (the mejora), with the surviving spouse taking a usufruct over the mejora third; the foral regions differ, with Catalonia reserving only a quarter and the Basque Country a third. Choosing another country's law in the will can avoid the reserve in some cases and not in others: France's 2021 law (article 913 of the Civil Code) lets children excluded under a foreign law that has no reserve take compensation from French assets where the deceased or a child was an EU national or resident, and the courts are still working out how far that reaches.

Most continental wills are notarial or handwritten (holographic, dated and signed in the testator's hand) and registered with the national wills register; there is no probate, heirs step into the estate directly, and the notary settles it within six months in France (the deadline for the tax declaration), with the German Erbschein and the Spanish declaración de herederos doing the job of proving who the heirs are. The certificate carries the settlement across borders. A family with assets in two member states usually needs one will with a choice of law, not two; a family with assets in a member state and in England or the United States needs one for each, drafted so that neither revokes the other.

All three countries tax lifetime gifts under the same scales as inheritance, and all three let the allowances be reused: every fifteen years in France, every ten in Germany, with regional relief in Spain (Madrid's 99% bonification applies to gifts). A parent who gives each child €100,000 at fifty and again at sixty-five has passed €200,000 per child tax-free in France, which is why continental families give early and often, and why the reserved share is calculated on the estate plus the gifts.

Germany's Vorsorgevollmacht (registered with the Zentrales Vorsorgeregister) and Patientenverfügung, France's mandat de protection future (activated by a doctor's certificate lodged with the court clerk) and Spain's poderes preventivos (notarial, under the 2021 reform of the Civil Code) do the power of attorney's job. The AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) requires AI-generated likenesses to be labelled from 2 August 2026; personality and image rights are national and, in France and Germany, strong, with Germany protecting the commercial components of personality for ten years after death under the Marlene Dietrich decision. Who owns your AI likeness.

The retiree whose will was written for the wrong law, and the family that discovers the reserved share at the notary's table. The second trap is the French tax deadline: six months from the death to declare and pay, with interest after.

A notary in the country of residence and, for a cross-border family, a succession lawyer who works under the regulation. Bring nationalities, residence history and the asset record.