Concept
Forced heirship is a rule under which part of an estate is reserved for a defined circle of close relatives regardless of the testator's wishes. A will cannot bypass them: the court cuts back dispositions that breach the protected share, and the heir receives what is due in money or in property. It is a direct limit on testamentary freedom in favour of the family.
This is the watershed between two legal families. Civil law — France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Russia — reserves a share for the family. Common law (England, the United States, most offshore centres) starts from testamentary freedom: the testator may leave property to anyone, and close relatives are protected only by narrow claims for reasonable provision.
Where the Reserve Comes From
The idea of a protected share comes from Roman law: a testator could not entirely disinherit his closest descendants, who were owed the legitima portio. Medieval Europe also knew the opposite custom — the majorat and primogeniture handed the estate to the eldest son so that the family holding would not fragment. The French Revolution saw injustice in that, and in 1804 the Napoleonic Code fixed the réserve — a mandatory equal share for all children. Continental Europe, and Russia after it, inherited this logic; England kept full testamentary freedom, and from there it passed to the United States and the offshore centres.
Russia: Statutory Share
Under Art. 1149 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, minor and disabled children, a disabled spouse and parents, and disabled dependants receive a statutory share — at least half of what they would have been entitled to under intestate succession, regardless of the will (before 2002 the threshold was higher, two-thirds). The share is drawn first from the untestated property. The court may reduce it or refuse it if it prevents the testamentary heir from using housing or working tools that the statutory heir did not use during the testator's lifetime.
Europe: Réserve and Legítima
France reserves the réserve héréditaire for children: half the estate with one child, two-thirds with two, three-quarters with three or more; only the quotité disponible may be given away freely. Since 1 November 2021 the droit de prélèvement compensatoire has applied (Art. 913 Code civil): where the applicable foreign law knows no reserve at all, children who are EU nationals or residents take their share from French assets. Spain reserves two-thirds for children (legítima), though Catalonia, Navarre and the Basque Country count it their own way. Italy has the legittima; Germany gives passed-over relatives a monetary Pflichtteil — half the statutory share.
UAE and Sharia
In the UAE, family and succession matters for Muslims fall by default under Sharia, with fixed shares. For non-Muslims the picture has changed: Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2022 on civil personal status, in force since 1 February 2023, removed their succession from the automatic operation of Sharia. By default the spouse receives half and the rest is divided equally among the children regardless of gender; a will under one's home-country law can also be registered through the DIFC or ADGM registries. Real estate in the emirates remains a sensitive area and requires separate work.
England, the US and Testamentary Freedom
In common law the testator is in principle free to leave property to anyone, but absolute freedom does not exist here either. In England the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 lets a spouse, children and dependants ask the court for reasonable provision out of the estate if the will left them with nothing. In the United States testamentary freedom is combined with the elective share — the surviving spouse's right to a part of the estate, usually around a third; Louisiana, with its French roots, still recognises forced heirship for children under 24 and those lacking capacity. Scotland stands apart: legal rights give the spouse and children a share in movable property.
Brussels IV: Choice of Law in Europe
Since 17 August 2015 the EU has applied Regulation 650/2012 (Brussels IV). By default the whole estate is governed by the law of the testator's last habitual residence, but a will may choose the law of one's nationality (professio juris). A British national living in France can use that choice to subject the estate to English law and escape the French reserve. The Regulation binds almost the entire EU except Denmark and Ireland. It does not close the subject completely: France answered with the droit de prélèvement compensatoire of 2021, and real estate still drags along the law of its location — the compatibility of that mechanism with the Regulation is still disputed. The text of the Regulation is published on EUR-Lex.
How This Is Handled in Practice
The planning tools are a choice of applicable law where it is allowed, trusts and private foundations, lifetime gifts, life insurance and matrimonial-property agreements. All of them work within the law: the task is to align the distribution in advance with the mandatory rules of every country whose law could reach the estate. Shifting the reserve after the fact almost never works — planning is done years ahead.
Trusts, Foundations and Firewall
Moving assets into a trust or private foundation during one's lifetime takes them out of the estate — formally the structure becomes the owner. Protection against the statutory share is built on this, but it does not always work. France and Italy apply clawback (réduction): lifetime gifts and contributions to trusts are pulled back into the reserve calculation. In response, offshore centres passed firewall laws — the Trusts (Jersey) Law 1984, and equivalents in Guernsey, the BVI, the Cayman Islands and Liechtenstein, expressly cut foreign succession claims off from local trusts and foundations. A conflict arises: one country's reserve against another's firewall, and the outcome depends on where the assets sit and where the litigation has to happen.
🧭 Check your case: Inheritance Navigator — which law applies, where the statutory share and the taxes fall.
This material is for informational purposes only and does not constitute individual legal advice.