Make a Spanish Will with Spanish Legal Matters.

It is highly recommended to draft a Spanish Will if you own any assets in Spain. Making a Will almost certainly mitigates the administration burden on the beneficiaries of your estate and ensures certainty for them upon your death.

Making a Spanish Will means first and foremost you have absolute peace of mind that your wishes will be carried out without interruption or errors. In addition, making a Spanish Will allows you to take the opportunity to dictate what law you wish to apply to your estate through the European succession regulation known as Brussels IV. Put simply this means If you live in the UK and have assets in Spain you can make use of the law stating you have freedom of disposition, meaning you can leave your assets to whoever you wish. Whereas if Spanish law would apply to your estate, your children have rights to at least 2/3rds of your estate through the rights of forced heirship. If you have a Spanish Will and are resident in Spain and wish English law to apply this must be shown by a clear and precise statement.

Lastly, Spanish Wills can be drafted to complement other Wills. For example, if you have assets in both Spain and the UK, correctly written Wills would allow you to have a Will for assets in each country only which intern would assist with the smooth running of the inheritance procedure.

When a person dies without a Will this means that the estate is “intestate”. The assets will then pass according to a set of rules called intestacy rules.

The main risk relates to the administration period of the estate. Not having a Spanish Will and relying on a Will that covers both Spanish and other worldwide assets mean there is a strong possibility of the process becoming far too confusing and intern making the process unreasonably longer.