Dealing with wills in France: should we have more than one?

Reader question: We are an English married couple living in the UK, with children only from our marriage. We have a holiday home, bank accounts, and a car in France. My UK solicitor has suggested preparing a UK will for UK assets only, leaving all to my spouse and excluding France, so that French intestacy laws leave the French estate to my spouse and our children. Is it workable?

I can see the appeal of trying to simplify things, but this scenario is far from that.

Having a UK will for UK assets only and then leaving intestacy laws to deal with France (and potentially any other non-UK assets that may arise) is very complicated. It basically creates a cross-border partial intestacy, and is highly complex and expensive to deal with.

If you die as an English resident, then English law applies to your global estate. However, as the UK did not sign the EU Succession Regulation, the rules of Private International Law then determine that the immovable assets in France fall under French intestacy law, and the movable assets (bank accounts, contents, car) fall under English intestacy law.

French intestacy law (given the children are from the marriage) allows the spouse the choice of quarter in full ownership or 100% life interest. The children then get either three-quarters in full ownership or 100% bare ownership.

The English intestacy laws generally leave most of the estate to the spouse, including personal possessions, then all to the spouse up to a certain limit, after which it is held partly for children and partly for the spouse.

If there are other non-UK assets and non-French assets – which may crop up unexpectedly, perhaps inherited from other people – then the intestacy laws relating to those assets need to be considered too.

You need a certificate of law (certificat de coutume) to explain the devolution of the estate, taking into account the will (with translation) and the effect of the different asset classes and values. 

This must be from an expert, translated into French or written in French, and bearing the Apostille certificate of legalisation from the FCO, now called the FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office).

My advice is to get a simple French will to deal with the French estate, and have the UK will deal with all assets other than France, rather than limiting it to the UK only.

John Kitching is a director of French Law Consultancy Limited