Advice on Wills

[costapacket]

We made spanish wills in 2003 where should one of us die then that share would be divided between the surviving spouse and our 3 children for inheritance tax purposes. Have we done the right thing? I thought we had but....

We know someone making there wills now and they have said that they have been advised to leave the share only to their spouse, and if they both die then it goes to their children. They also said that you have to make sure that you mention in your english will that you have a property in Spain. Our english will was made over 20 years ago so there will be no mention of a spanish property.

Any advice gratefully received.

[spanish_lad]

its a complicated subject, and im sure the advice of your lawyer would be better than that of a forum.

no doubt david will be able to give some information when he sees this thread.

[janda_grant2]

Can you actually have two valid wills? I know in the UK if you make a will it revokes all previous wills and testaments. So is the english will still legal?

[Julie]

We have a spanish and english will, leaving everything to the other person if one should die and then after naming the children/benifactors, we were told we didn't have to put spanish property in uk will and vice versa as the assets are in 2 different countries and dealt with accordingly, it was only 30 euro each for the spanish wills as we did it direct with the notary, the uk ones were a lot more !

[DavidSearl]

FROM DAVID SEARL

FOR COSTAPACKET

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

1. Spanish Lad's advice to see a lawyer is a good idea. Many, many complications arise.

2. Read the chapter on Wills and Spanish Inheritance Tax in You and the Law in Spain for a full explanation of the picture.

3. If you own property or have assets in the UK and also in Spain, make two wills. The British will notes that it disposes only of assets located in the UK. The Spanish will notes that it disposes only of assets on Spanish territory.

4. Leaving each spouse's half to the other and to the three children is okay. Perhaps the will should leave each spouse's half to the three children, with an usufruct, or lifetime right to use, to the surviving spouse. Then each child would inherit one-sixth and on the death of the last parent, another one-sixth. This would help to mitigate inheritance tax as each child has an exemption on the first 15,000 euros.

Good luck with it, David Searl

[costapacket]

Well to be honest I was happy with our wills but then a seed of doubt had been sown. I did wonder if perhaps there had been some change in laws etc with the EU or something since we made our original Spanish will. As far as I know there is some clause in the will that the surviving spouse is entitled to live in the apartment, if they wish, until they die. Thanks for the replies/advice