Neb

I was hoping that someone could help with the following as it seems to fit in with this thread: We bought a property in France 3 years ago and had a Tontine clause inserted into the contract. Of note we are married (under English Law) and have three children (all under 8 yrs old) - none of whom are from a previous marriage. Our reasons for having a tontine were: 1) If either of us dies we would like the property to revert to the other so that the property could be sold with ease should the need for money arise. As noted the tontine essentially ignores any surviving children so the usual rules of succession don't apply. We didn't do this for mercenary reasons, we simply did it so that the surviving spouse could sell the property with the greatest ease should the need arise. I believe that buying en division would make this harder to do with surviving children as their consent would be required to sell it. The age of our children would suggest that this could be a long drawn out process. 2) We weren't really sure what to do but knew enough to know that a Tontine was only possible at the time of purchase not at a later date. We decided we could look into the matter at a later date (i.e. now) and take out the clause if need be. We are now wondering if we did the right thing in having a tontine and whether we should adopt the French marriage regime of 'universal community' as outlined in this thread. I like the idea of a 'universal community' as there is no inheritance tax to pay (beyond the 1% transfer tax) on transferring the whole property to the surviving spouse. However, I have one question on this that I hoped someone might help with: Although the 'universal community' overcomes the problem of inheritance tax upon death of one of the spouses, do the French rules of succession still apply? Would the remaining spouse (who now owns the property out right, received without paying inheritance tax) be able to sell the property with the same ease as under the tontine, or do the rules of succession apply and the surviving spouse is prevented from selling the property to protect the rights of the children? I guess it boils down to whether or not the 'universal community' ignores children in the same way that the tontine does? Regards Neb