Is France considering easing its 2021 inheritance law affecting foreign wills?

The French government may be planning to ease the situation for some foreigners affected by France’s controversial 2021 inheritance law, sources close to The Connexion have said.

More than three years have passed since the European Commission first acknowledged receiving multiple complaints about the 2021 law, which many lawyers say clashes with EU rules on choice of inheritance law.

EU rules state that people may opt in their wills for the inheritance law of their nationality to apply to their whole estate, potentially bypassing strict French-law set portions for children.

The 2021 law says where this is done, the notaire settling the will must contact any children set to ‘lose out’ and offer them a compensatory levy out of any French-situated estate.

The French law applies where a testator, or one of his or her children, was/is an EU citizen or resident of the EU, and where a foreign legal system that lacks obligatory heirs’ portions is set to govern the share-out. 

It was brought in with the stated aim of stopping daughters being disinherited under Sharia law.

This has affected many foreign couples in France who have wills aiming to protect each other, especially where there are children from previous marriages.

Some, such as Andrew and Elaine Greener (pictured), formerly from Lot-et-Garonne, told us how they were selling up as a result. 

Commission 'reluctant to criticise' France

Last summer the commission wrote to France proposing “a certain number of solutions to remedy the problem”, and France is known to have replied, but there has been silence since.

We have now been told that the commission may be reluctant to be seen to openly criticise France by launching an infringement case, but France may be edging towards making concessions.

This may involve, for example, allowing English law ‘family provisions’ to be regarded for practical purposes as a kind of reserved portion, so disapplying the 2021 law to people who chose English law. 

This refers to rules that allow children and spouses to claim compensation from a person’s estate in certain circumstances, notably if they had relied on the deceased’s support and are left in difficult circumstances after being left out.

It must be stressed that these are rumours only, and nothing has been decided yet, so the wait goes on for those concerned. 

Also, any change is not thought likely to apply retrospectively to wills that have already been settled.