Which country's law should we use for our will in France? 

Reader question: We are US/British second-home owners. Living in California, we used Californian law for our will and bequeath our French home to my stepson, who is British and lives in the UK.  Can this be contested by our French notaire and must we lodge a copy of the part of the will regarding French property with him?

If you remain resident outside of the EU at your death, and no children are EU citizens nor EU resident, you can elect the law of your nationality (US or UK law) to apply to your estate, including France, and those wishes will take effect.

If, however, a child were disinherited, and at the time of your death they (or you) were living in the EU, under a French law introduced in November 2021 the notaire would invite the children to exercise reserved inheritance rights under French law, in relation to the French immovable property.

For more advice on legal issues in France visit French Law Consultancy Limited  

The French reserved rights are that one child is entitled to half of the estate, two children are entitled to a third each, and three or more share three quarters between them.

The remaining part – the quotité disponible (a half, a third or a quarter) – can be freely left in accordance with your wishes.

The choice of the law of your nationality is permitted under the EU Succession Regulation 650/2012, but France has gone against this. The EU Commission is pursuing a complaint against France about this.

The other issue is that anything you leave to a stepchild (or any non-bloodline beneficiary) gets a miserly tax-free allowance of just €1,594; the rest faces 60% French inheritance tax.

Regarding registering the will in France, this is not obligatory. However, many people do register the original will with a notaire and it is recorded on a Central Wills Register in France, so it can easily be found.

We recommend having a separate French will to deal with the French estate, so the notaire can easily recognise it as valid and can easily register the will. 

If you use one US will for the whole estate, it needs expensive technical legal drafting to explain validity and effect, and translations, and there can be complications around both jurisdictions wanting to register the same original will.

John Kitching is a director of French Law Consultancy Limited