poollounger

When we bought our house the abogado said that although it was much simpler in the aftermath of a death if there were Spanish wills, English wills were definitely recognised in Spain, although one would need to have a Spanish translation commissioned. I have since heard differently... anyone authoritative out there ??

chrismortley

The Daily Telegraph did an in depth article recently stressing the need to have wills drawn up in other countries were property is owned, especially France & Spain, all though I believe France are relaxing IHT.
The way I understood the article was unless is made the government ( especially Spanish) may have a claim against some of the estate.
I spoke to our solicitor about this & she strongly recommends will being made.
Referring back to my thread I would seriously like to know who we can leave our estate to when we have no immediate family

Chris

lcortez

Would be better idea to make a seperate will in Spanish alongside the English one as direct translations from Spanish to English can be confusing,which is something you def dont want with something as important as a Will.
A case in point is when I recently inhereted the Spanish properties from my parents,we had the English copy of the will which needed translating,and without going into detail,confusion reigned.It was only after finding the Spanish copy that things started to go smoothly

Rosemary

Do either of you have a good cause that you are passionate about that you could leave your assets to?

You could look around the area and see if there is an amenity that would be of benefit to people and talk to the powers that be about them setting up a fund using your assets.

What about paying for local youngsters books or such like if they are undertaking a certain corse, I think there are probably a number of ways that you can ensure that your assets are used wisely to benefit the less well off or the gifted.

Rosemary

Kate45

Quote Referring back to my thread I would seriously like to know who we can leave our estate to when we have no immediate family .


I'll put my hand up...you can leave it to me!!!!!

Kate45

Sorry ...I'm sure a local charity would love to be a beneficary

chrismortley

That's exactly what we plan to, if the law allows

Chris

mikelincs

I have been led to believe that you can leave things to anyone, we certainly did when we had out house.

lcortez

How about a benevolent fund for elderly expats?Have seen and heard a lot of horror stories of elderly expats whose friends and family have left Spain (or passed away),who cant spk Spanish and dont know their rights to care or benefits etc,maybe a fund to make them aware of their entitlements under the Spanish system would be a good idea.
PS;hope this not a stupid idea

crispy

We made Spanish will, they just echoed our English ones, we were told that a translation would be sufficient but we thought by the time you pay for the translation you may as well go for the whole thing. Our Spanish wills are written with an English translation running side by side, we went to a local British lady who has lived in Spain for many years and she offers help to any that need it. Of course there was a charge of 120euros each and 2hrs spent in the notary office, we were told that we could leave money and property to whoever we wanted to anywhere in the world (they would be subject to any taxes) as long as they were fully named in the will. This gave us peace of mind as we are not married and have five children between us and obviously we wanted all our children to benefit equally.

Fred James

While in theory, you can leave your assets to whoever you like, it is possibly a problem if you disinherit your family.

Spanish inheritance law is very restrictive about who you can leave your property to. By a concession your Spanish will, so long as it does not conflict with the inheritance laws in your own country, will be honoured in Spain.

However is you leave it to the cats home and your children choose to contest the will in the Spanish courts, it is possible that the will will be overturned and the Spanish inheritance law could apply.

poollounger

Still no definitive reply. Fred I am a little confused....two wills, which takes precedence ?? The Spanish in Spain the English in England ?? Can they only then refer to property in that respective country ??

lcortez

Not sure either will take precedence,prob depends on which country your in at he given time,however owing to complexities of Spanish IHT,will probably be better ideaa to get wills read in England.

Fred James

It is not a question of precedence.

If you make a will in Spain it should quite specificaly refer only to your assets in Spain and again not revoke any other will concerning assets in another country such as the UK.

You have two very specific wills, neither of which have precedence over the other as they both refer to a different set of assets in a different country.

poollounger

Thanks for the clarification..one final question then, please. If the English will refered to all one's worldy goods, would this then be interpreted to include those in Spain if there was no separate Spanish will ??