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Inheritance...what if?


milkeybar kid

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The scenario if us 2 and only child were wiped out in a car crash... is it the same as UK the youngest would be deemed the last survivor and our daughters Will would stand.?

But then the question is as she is not French resident would she need to make a will in France for our house that she would have inherited?

This notaires site http://www.notaires.fr/notaires/en/page/wills?page_id=732

would u interpretate it that you can now leave estate to whom you desire rather than family automatically inheriting? As you can guess neither of us want our brothers or sisters to have anything, only our daughter but if she has gone with us!! then we want her partner to have all. Would appreciate any thoughts.
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Thanks for the comments, its all very interesting and I am determined not to bury my head in the sand !!

Yes, we are off tp Notaire in a couple of weeks but wanted a feel of whats what.

We are régime de communauté universelle but as our daughter does not have children and has a partner of many years ....we want him to inherit if we (daughter & us) should perish. As said we dont want our brothers and sisters to inherit . So you dont think she has to make a Will in France as well as her UK Will to make sure he inherits?
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[quote user="milkeybar kid"]Thanks for the comments, its all very interesting and I am determined not to bury my head in the sand !!

Yes, we are off tp Notaire in a couple of weeks but wanted a feel of whats what.

We are régime de communauté universelle but as our daughter does not have children and has a partner of many years ....we want him to inherit if we (daughter & us) should perish. As said we dont want our brothers and sisters to inherit . So you dont think she has to make a Will in France as well as her UK Will to make sure he inherits?[/quote]

Hi,

    The only way for the partner to inherit in a tax efficient way in this (unlikely) scenario is for him to marry your daughter.

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[quote user="milkeybar kid"]Thanks for the comments, its all very interesting and I am determined not to bury my head in the sand !!

Yes, we are off tp Notaire in a couple of weeks but wanted a feel of whats what.

We are régime de communauté universelle but as our daughter does not have children and has a partner of many years ....we want him to inherit if we (daughter & us) should perish. As said we dont want our brothers and sisters to inherit . So you dont think she has to make a Will in France as well as her UK Will to make sure he inherits?[/quote]

Bearing in mind Gardian's comment, all I can offer is to highlight a couple of issues.

1) Property in France can be dealt with via a UK will: whether it is sensible to do so is another matter entirely, and we have set up complementary UK and French wills. In your daughter's case, where she perhaps does not currently own any French assets, it may not be really necessary to go down the French will route  - but get advice on this.

2) With regards to French property, although in the absence of surviving offspring and ascendants, there would be no reserved inheritors, therefore allowing the entire French estate to be disposed of to whomsoever you wish, the problem is French inheritance TAX, which applies to the French estate regardless of whether a UK or French will is in place. Leaving French estate to unrelated persons results in a very low tax-free threshold followed by a punitive inheritance tax on all the excess. There may be ways around SOME of this (I understand that Assurance-vie products offer a way of passing on their contents to unrelated parties with no or minimal tax for example), but you ought to take into account the tax implications of what you wish to do.

French estates left to charities are not taxed.

(EDIT: as usual John and Parsnips have said the above in a much more succinct manner.)

Regards

Pickles

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Brilliant, thank you..most interesting and I am sure others might find it useful. As for the marriage bit... is there an equivalent to a PACS in the UK or is that the same thing in UK . Not really sure what I am asking but perhaps an alternative to marriage where her partner would be recognized with same rights as husband. Yes, marriage looks the easy way but I would like them to have an alternative. But at the same time we dont want to interfere!!!!!!!!!
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[quote user="milkeybar kid"]Brilliant, thank you..most interesting and I am sure others might find it useful. As for the marriage bit... is there an equivalent to a PACS in the UK or is that the same thing in UK . Not really sure what I am asking but perhaps an alternative to marriage where her partner would be recognized with same rights as husband. Yes, marriage looks the easy way but I would like them to have an alternative. But at the same time we dont want to interfere!!!!!!!!![/quote]

Hi,

     At present UK civil partnerships are only available for same-sex couples , but a court action to obtain the same rights for hetero couples was started on 21 Dec 2010.For more info see http://equallove.org.uk

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