Wills and Estates in France: Inheritance, Forced Heirship, and Succession Tax

Inheritance in France is governed by the Code civil, and the single feature that surprises readers from common law countries most is that a French estate is not fully the testator's to distribute. A portion of it, called the reserved share (reserve hereditaire), belongs to protected heirs by operation of law. Under Article 913 of the Code civil the freely disposable share is one half of the estate where there is one child, one third with two children, and one quarter with three or more children. Everything else is reserved.

That reversal shapes everything else on this page. A French will operates inside the freely disposable share rather than over the whole estate, lifetime gifts are pulled back into the calculation, and tax is charged heir by heir rather than on the estate as a whole. The pages below cover who inherits by default, how far you can direct that outcome, what the transfer costs, and what happens when several heirs end up owning the same property together.

Information last verified on 20 July 2026. This page presents general legal information, not legal advice.

Who Inherits by Default

Where there is no spouse, French law calls heirs in four successive orders under Article 734 of the Code civil: children and their descendants first, then parents together with siblings and their descendants, then other ascendants, then other collateral relatives. A closer order excludes the ones behind it, so the structure decides most estates before any will is read.

A surviving spouse is handled separately, and the share depends on the family shape. If every child is common to both spouses, the spouse chooses between usufruct of the whole estate or one quarter in full ownership. If any child is not common to both spouses, the spouse receives one quarter in full ownership. With no descendants, the spouse takes one half where both parents survive, three quarters where one parent survives, and the entire succession where neither does.

Inheriting is also a choice, not an automatic event. An heir may accept the succession outright, accept it only up to the net value of the assets received (acceptation a concurrence de l'actif net), or renounce it entirely, which matters when the estate carries debts. An heir cannot be forced to choose within the first four months after a death, and the right to choose expires after ten years, after which the heir is treated as having renounced.

How Inheritance Works in France: Heirs, Spousal Rights, and Succession Rules sets out each of those situations in order, along with what happens when no heir comes forward at all: the succession first becomes vacant, and the State does not inherit automatically but must ask a court for formal possession.

The Reserved Share, the Rule Everything Else Works Around

Forced heirship is the reason a French estate plan looks different from an English or American one. Children are protected heirs, and the reserved share cannot be removed by will or by lifetime gift. Expressed the other way round from Article 913, the reserved share is one half of the estate with one child, two thirds with two children, and three quarters with three or more.

Where the deceased leaves no descendants but a surviving, non-divorced spouse, Article 914-1 caps gifts and legacies at three quarters of the estate, giving that spouse a one quarter reserved share. A gift or legacy that cuts into a reserved share is not automatically void: it can be reduced back to the freely disposable share through the action en reduction under Article 920, which a protected heir has to bring.

Cross-border estates raise a further layer. Choosing a foreign law to govern a succession does not automatically remove French protections for children in every situation, and a specific mechanism, the droit de prelevement compensatoire under Article 913, can let a child claim compensation from French-situated assets in some cases. Current French notarial guidance treats it as rarely applicable where the foreign law already has its own protective mechanism for children, including the family provision regimes recognized under English law. Forced Heirship in France: The Reserved Share Explained covers the mechanics and the cross-border position, including the fact that the reserved share was unchanged as of 19 July 2026.

Directing the Estate: Wills, Gifts, and Life Insurance

Within the freely disposable share, three instruments do most of the work, and they behave very differently from one another.

A will is the most direct. French law recognizes three forms: the holographic will under Article 970, valid only if written entirely by hand, dated, and signed by the testator; the notarial will under Article 971, received by two notaires or by one notaire with two witnesses; and the mystic will under Article 976, which is rare and largely disused. A will can be freely changed or revoked at any time before death, but it cannot override the reserved share. Wills in France: The Three Legal Forms of a Testament explains the formalities and why a will left at home may not be found through the FCDDV register.

Lifetime gifts shift assets earlier, and French tax law measures them against a rolling window. Gifts made more than 15 years before death drop out of the inheritance tax calculation entirely, and the giver's allowances reset in full once that window has passed. The 100,000 EUR direct line allowance under Article 779 CGI can be used again every 15 years for gifts rather than only once at death, and a separate cash gift allowance of 31,865 EUR is available every 15 years under Article 790 G where the giver is under 80 and the recipient is an adult. Lifetime Gifts in France (Donation de Son Vivant): Allowances and the 15 Year Rule also covers the donation-partage, which values gifted assets at the date of the gift rather than the date of death, and a temporary housing gift exemption running from 15 February 2025 to 31 December 2026.

Life insurance sits in a category of its own. Proceeds paid to a named beneficiary fall outside the ordinary succession under French insurance law, with their own allowances: 152,500 EUR per beneficiary for premiums paid before the insured turned 70, and a single shared 30,500 EUR allowance for premiums paid after 70. Life Insurance and French Succession Tax (Assurance Vie Succession) explains the two regimes, why investment growth on post-70 premiums stays exempt, and the manifestly excessive premiums exception.

What the Transfer Costs

French inheritance tax (droits de succession) is charged on what each heir receives, not on the estate as a whole, so the relationship between the deceased and the heir drives the bill more than the size of the estate does.

Children and grandchildren inherit up to 100,000 EUR tax free from each parent, an allowance fixed since 17 August 2012 and not adjusted for inflation since. A surviving spouse or PACS partner pays nothing at all, whatever the amount. Above the allowance, the direct line scale runs from 5% to 45% across seven brackets, and reaches 45% only on amounts above 1,805,677 EUR. Siblings receive a 15,932 EUR allowance and can qualify for a full exemption only under narrow conditions.

Timing matters as much as the rate. A succession must be declared within 6 months of a death in France or 12 months of a death abroad. Heirs facing an estate that is hard to liquidate can ask to pay in installments or, in narrower cases, defer payment, subject to 2% annual interest starting 1 January 2026. French Inheritance Tax (Droits de Succession): 2026 Rates and Allowances gives the full scale and a worked example.

Co-Owning What You Inherit

When several heirs inherit the same property, they hold it in indivision, and that is where French successions most often stall. Article 815 of the Code civil lets any co-owner request partition at any time, since no one can be forced to remain in indivision, unless a court judgment or an agreement among the co-owners has suspended that right.

Day to day decisions run on a two thirds majority of undivided rights under Article 815-3, which covers administration acts, a general administration mandate, sales of movable property to pay indivision debts, and most leases. That power stops short of the co-owned real estate itself. Selling the property over a minority co-owner's objection is a separate route under Article 815-5-1, in force since 1 January 2020: co-owners holding at least two thirds of the indivision rights can ask the tribunal judiciaire to authorise the sale. The process starts with a notaire and allows the other co-owners three months to respond, and the court may authorise the sale only if it does not cause excessive harm to the other co-owners' rights.

Joint Ownership in France: Indivision, the 2/3 Majority, and When a Sale Can Be Forced sets out both routes, the exclusions under Article 836, and the alternatives: amicable partition, judicial partition, and licitation, a court-ordered public sale.

For the other areas of French law covered on this site, including property, family, and consumer matters, start from the France legal guide.