In order to protect the children, spouse and parents of the deceased, the legislature has placed barriers on the testator’s right to leave his or her property to whomever he or she wants to. Our attorneys with their experience in inheritance matters, can inform you that the children, parents of the decedent, and the surviving spouse have a legal right to a legal fate in the heritage. The legal fate is half of what they would have received if the testator hadn’t left a will.
Legal fate is an important inheritance issue that our attorneys have dealt with. There are unfortunately many cases where elderly people have left their entire heritage to those who had contacts or even cared for them in the last years of their lives, forgetting their children.
In this case the legal beneficiary is entitled to supplement his or her legal fate to which he or she is entitled from the property left to others by the testator.
Our lawyers with their experience in inheritance matters can make the determination of the inheritance and its valuation as follows:
To determine the intestate share on the basis of which the legal fate is due, we shall count those who have been disinherited by will, those who have renounced the inheritance and those who have been declared unworthy to inherit.
The calculation of the legal fate shall be based on the state and value of the heritage at the time of the deceased’s death, after deducting the debts and expenses of the funeral and the heritage inventory. To the heritage shall be added – at the value they had at the time of the provision – anything which the deceased provided, while he was alive, free of charge to a legal sharer or by other means, and also any donation which the deceased made in the ten years preceding his death, unless it was necessitated by reasons of propriety or special moral duty. For the calculation of the legal fate of the parents, anything which comes to the surviving spouse as an “exquisite” in heritage, i.e. movable property which the couple used while living together, is not taken into account.
If you have been omitted by the testator but you have a legal right to the legal fate and he or she has made donations during his or her lifetime, then our lawyers specialised in inheritance matters will advise you to bring an action of intestate donation.
Under the law, any gift during the deceased’s lifetime can be reversed if the heritage existing at the time of the deceased’s death is insufficient to meet the legal fate. If successive gifts were made, the earlier one may be reversed when it is not sufficient to overturn the subsequent.
The right to legal succession is limited only when the testator has the legal right to disinherit the legal successor. In particular, the testator may, for certain reasons specified in the law, deprive the shareholder of the legal fate (disinheritance). Disinheritance is effected by a testament. The reasons are different depending on whether the heirs are children or spouse of the testator as our lawyers who have dealt with similar inheritance issues can advise you.