The personal representatives ('PRs') are responsible for administering the estate following a death. The PRs will either be appointed under the Will (i.e., executors) or, in the absence of a Will, by the Court. The PR will be responsible for applying for the Grant of Representation (which gives them authority to deal with the [...]
Most European citizens living abroad ignore this fact. In the absence of a formal declaration to the contrary, their succession will be governed by the law of the country in which they reside. This rule, which replaced the old principle based on nationality, was introduced by the European Succession Regulation No. 650/2012, which [...]
In recent decades, many laws have been given a mandate by which an adult designates someone to look after them or manage their property when they are no longer able to do so. We speak of a mandate of incapacity, a springing power of attorney or even a mandate for future protection in France. [...]
With the entry into force of the new adult protection law on 1 January 2013, in Switzerland, a uniform legal basis has been established for the regulation of the Advance Care Directive and the Living will. The latter, being limited to the medical field and relating to the treatment to which he/she will consent [...]
The death of a person, and the transmission of his estate to his heirs, can trigger inheritance tax. The inheritance tax is calculated in the inheritance tax return, this is a form established by the tax administration. The calculation of inheritance tax goes through several stages. Once the heirs are identified, the taxable assets [...]
Often in life insurance policies, legal heirs are designated as beneficiaries. However, their rights will not be divided according to the shares they are entitled to by inheritance. According to case law, the benefit is divided among them in equal shares The effects of the designation, in life insurance policies, by the policyholder of [...]
The revised Swiss Inheritance Law will come into effect as per 1st January 2023. The statutory share of descendants is reduced from three quarters to half of the legal share of the estate (Art. 470 para. 1 and Art. 471 new Civil Code). In addition, the parents of the deceased are no longer protected [...]
The so-called "de facto family," a socially relevant and widespread phenomenon, occurs in the case of a stable affective union of a couple with mutual moral and material assistance between two persons of age not bound by relationships of kinship, affinity or adoption, nor bound by marriage or civil union In the Italian legal system, [...]
As a pillar of French inheritance law, the hereditary reserve for descendants (forced heirship) benefits, in international context, from varying degrees of protection through times. Very recently, the French legislator reaffirmed this protection by reintroducing, in internal law, a compensatory deduction right on property located in France in the event that the foreign law [...]
Planning through trusts remains the most flexible solution from a UK tax perspective for res non-doms (i.e., foreigners who live in the UK). Such trusts, created before the individual becomes UK deemed domiciled (i.e. before year 16 of UK tax residence) and funded with non-UK situs assets, offer potentially significant UK tax benefits, including [...]
