How to Make a Will in Belgium: The Three Forms a Testament Can Take

A will lets a person decide, in advance, who receives their property after death. In Belgium that choice is bounded from the start: the law recognises only three forms a valid will can take, and even a perfectly executed will cannot touch the share the law reserves for certain heirs. This page covers the three forms, what happens when a will is changed or revoked, and how a bequest, a legs in French or legaat in Dutch, is classified once it takes effect.

Will-making is governed by federal civil law, specifically Book 4 of the Civil Code (Burgerlijk Wetboek Boek 4 / Code civil Livre 4), in force since 1 July 2022. The rules are identical whether the will is made in Antwerp, Liège or Brussels. A notary is not legally required for every form, but the notarial profession sits at the centre of the system anyway, both through the notarial will itself and through the central register that records where a will can be found after death.

Information last verified on 22 July 2026. This page provides general legal information and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.

The three forms a will can take

Article 4.180 of the Civil Code sets the boundary: a will can be made eigenhandig (by hand), by notarial deed, or in the international form, and no other way. A typed document that is merely signed, with no notary and no compliance with the international-will procedure, is not a valid Belgian will, however clearly it states the person's wishes.

The three forms differ mainly in cost, privacy and security against loss or challenge. A handwritten will costs nothing and requires no notary, but it depends entirely on someone finding it after death, and it is never checked for validity while the testator is alive. A notarial will costs a notary's fee but is verified, kept, and automatically registered. The international form exists mainly for people whose life, assets or heirs cross more than one country's border, since it is designed to be recognised in every country that has ratified the treaty behind it. The Civil Code also permits, in article 4.179, only one testator per will: a single document cannot serve as the joint will of two people, even spouses.

The handwritten will (eigenhandig testament / testament olographe)

A handwritten will must be entirely written, dated and signed by the testator's own hand (article 4.181). Nothing else is required by law: no witnesses, no notary, no registration. That simplicity is also the form's main weakness. Because the will is not checked while the testator is alive, and because its only copy usually exists wherever the testator kept it, a handwritten will can be lost, destroyed by accident, or simply never found. A part typed on a computer, filled in on a printed form, or signed on the testator's behalf defeats the form entirely: the requirement is that the whole document, not just the signature, be in the testator's own hand.

Article 4.182 lets a testator hand a completed handwritten will to a notary for safekeeping, without any formal deed of custody being drawn up. Depositing it this way allows the will to be entered in the CRT (below), which substantially reduces the risk that it goes undiscovered, while leaving the document itself exactly as informal as it was when it was written.

The notarial will (notarieel testament / testament authentique)

A notarial will is the testament that is executed before a notary (article 4.183, paragraph 1). It is drawn up on paper in accordance with article 13 of the law of 16 March 1803 on the notarial profession, following the wishes the testator expresses, and is then read back to the testator, who confirms that it reflects their last wishes (paragraph 2). The testator signs the deed; if they say they cannot sign, or are unable to, that statement and its cause are noted in the deed itself instead (paragraph 3).

Because a notary prepares, reads back and keeps the original, and because the will is registered in the CRT the moment it is made, the notarial will is the form least exposed to being lost, forged, or discovered only after it is too late to act on it. It is also the form most people reach for when the estate, the family situation or the wording is anything but straightforward, precisely because a notary is involved from the drafting stage rather than only after death.

The international will (internationaal testament / testament international)

An international will is made in accordance with the law of 2 February 1983 introducing a will in international form (article 4.184), and a notary attaches a certificate to it confirming that the formalities of that law were followed (article 4.185). Book 4 itself does not set out every formality for this form; they come from the 1983 law, which implements a wider international convention. In practice, and per Fednot's own guidance, the document can be typed or handwritten, is declared by the testator to be their will before a notary, and is then kept sealed among the notary's files.

The international form's advantage is portability: it is designed to be recognised as valid in every country that has ratified the convention behind it, which matters for a testator with property, heirs or a life split across more than one country. For a purely domestic Belgian estate with no foreign element, the notarial will generally serves the same purpose through a simpler, purely domestic procedure.

The Central Register of Wills (CRT)

The Centraal Register van Testamenten / Registre Central des Testaments, known as the CRT, is a computerised database whose purpose, set out in article 4.260, is to make a will easier to discover after the testator's death and to reduce the risk that its existence stays unknown or surfaces too late. It also covers succession agreements (mentioned below) and certain gifts between spouses. The Royal Federation of Belgian Notaries (Fednot) administers the register.

Article 4.261 sets out what goes into it: every notarial will and every international will is registered automatically, along with any withdrawal, revocation or later change to a registered will. A handwritten will is only in the CRT if the testator chose to deposit it with a notary and asked for it to be registered; a handwritten will kept at home, in a drawer or with a family member, is not in the register at all, and nobody can register it on the testator's behalf without that deposit.

Revoking a will or changing your mind

A will can be revoked at any point before death, but only through one of two acts: a later will, or a declaration made before a notary stating that the testator's intentions have changed (article 4.215). Deciding privately that a will no longer reflects your wishes, without taking one of those two steps, does not revoke it.

Making a new will does not necessarily wipe out an old one entirely. Article 4.216 revokes only the provisions of the earlier will that are actually incompatible with the new one, unless the new will expressly revokes everything that came before it. Two wills can therefore sit alongside each other, each covering a different part of the estate, as long as they do not contradict each other.

A legacy can also be revoked without any new will at all, simply by the testator disposing of the bequeathed item during their lifetime. Under article 4.217, selling, exchanging or otherwise transferring the item revokes the legacy for whatever was transferred, even if the transfer is later found to be void and the item ends up back in the testator's hands. Separately, article 4.218 allows an heir to seek revocation of a testamentary disposition on largely the same grounds available for revoking a gift for the recipient's non-performance or ingratitude, subject to strict time limits running from the underlying event.

Legacies: universal, general title, and particular

Belgian law sorts every bequest (legaat / legs) into one of three categories, and the category decides both how much a legatee receives and how quickly they can act on it.

A universal legacy (algemeen legaat / legs universel, article 4.193) is a bequest of the whole of whatever the testator leaves at death to one or more people. Where reserved heirs also exist, the universal legatee must formally request that they hand over the estate property. The legatee's enjoyment of the bequeathed assets runs from the day of death only if that delivery request is filed within one year of the death; filed later, enjoyment begins only from the day the request is made, or delivery is voluntarily granted (article 4.194 §1).

A legacy under general title (legaat onder algemene titel / legs à titre universel, article 4.195) is a bequest of a fraction of what the testator leaves, such as half, a third, all of the immovable property, all of the movable property, or a defined fraction of either. A legatee under general title must request delivery from the reserved heirs first, then from any universal legatee if there are no reserved heirs, and only then from the heirs called under the ordinary order of succession (article 4.196).

A particular legacy (bijzonder legaat / legs à titre particulier, article 4.201) is everything else, essentially a bequest of a specific item or sum rather than the whole estate or a share of it. A pure and unconditional particular legacy gives the legatee a right to the item from the day of the testator's death, a right that passes to the legatee's own heirs if the legatee dies first (article 4.202, paragraph 1). In practice, though, the legatee generally cannot take possession of the item or claim its income until they have formally requested delivery, or delivery has been voluntarily granted (paragraph 2), except where the will expressly says otherwise or the legacy is a life annuity or pension paid as maintenance (paragraph 3).

A will cannot override the reserve

Every form of will described on this page is subject to the same limit: it can only dispose of the freely disposable part of the estate. Since the reform in force from 1 September 2018, that disposable part is the same regardless of how many children a testator has, because the reserve owed to children collectively is now fixed at one half of the estate. A will, however carefully drafted and however formally executed, cannot reduce a protected heir's reserve; a gift or bequest that tries to exceed it can instead be reduced after the testator's death. The mechanics of the reserve itself, who is protected, how much is guaranteed, and what happens when a will or a gift oversteps it, are covered in detail on our forced heirship page.

The order of heirs when there is no will, and the surviving spouse's and cohabitant's positions, are covered on our who inherits in Belgium page. Gifts made during a person's lifetime, rather than left by will, are covered separately on our lifetime gifts page, since a lifetime gift and a legacy are reduced under the same disposable-part ceiling.

This page describes the general rules for making, changing and revoking a will under Belgian federal civil law and does not constitute legal advice for an individual estate. Family circumstances, marriage contracts, prior gifts and cross-border elements can all change what a particular will can achieve, and the underlying law changes from time to time. Check the current text on ejustice.just.fgov.be, or consult a notary, before acting on anything here.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many forms of will does Belgian law recognise?

Three: the handwritten (eigenhandig / olographe) will, the notarial (notarieel / authentique) will, and the international will, set out in article 4.180 of the Civil Code. A document made outside these three forms is not a valid Belgian will.

What makes a handwritten will valid in Belgium?

Under article 4.181, a handwritten will is valid only if it is entirely written, dated and signed in the testator's own hand. No witnesses, notary or other formality is required, but any part typed, printed or written by someone else can put the will's validity in question.

Is a notarial will automatically registered?

Yes. A will executed before a notary under article 4.183 is entered in the Centraal Register van Testamenten / Registre Central des Testaments (CRT) as a matter of course. A handwritten will is only in that register if the testator separately deposited it with a notary and asked for it to be registered.

Can I write more than one will?

Yes, and a later will does not automatically cancel everything in an earlier one. Under article 4.216, a new will only revokes the parts of an earlier will that conflict with it, unless the new will expressly says it revokes the earlier will in full.

Can I change my mind after signing a will?

Only by taking one of two formal steps: making a later will, or making a declaration before a notary that your intentions have changed (article 4.215). Selling or giving away a specifically bequeathed item during your lifetime also revokes that particular legacy, under article 4.217.

What is the difference between a universal legacy and a particular legacy?

A universal legacy (article 4.193) bequeaths the whole of what the testator leaves at death. A particular legacy (article 4.201) is everything else, typically a specific item or sum. The category affects who the legatee must ask to hand the property over, and, for a particular legacy, when the legatee can take possession of it.

Can a will give away more than half the estate if there are children?

No. Since the reform in force from 1 September 2018, children are collectively entitled to a reserve of one half of the estate, regardless of how many children there are. A will cannot reduce that reserve; a bequest that tries to exceed the disposable half can instead be reduced in value after the testator's death.

Who administers the Central Register of Wills?

The Royal Federation of Belgian Notaries (Fednot) administers the CRT. Its purpose, under article 4.260 of the Civil Code, is to make a will easier to find after death and reduce the risk that its existence remains unknown or is discovered too late.