Costs aside - but even then perhaps they cannot advise about assets outside France or if you intend to give anything to anybody who is outside France.
My parents died resident in France with assets in France and the UK. They wrote wills in the UK before emigrating to France. In France they did the rounds of the local notaires, benefitting from their 45 minute free consultations. They were advised to hand write wills with their wishes and did so, but did not state that the orthographic wills replaced the previously written UK wills.They also both signed one written will, invalidating it. So here we are, 2 years after their deaths and their assets frozen and a UK based juriste employed to assist the notaire navigate the UK wills, while following the laws of forced heirship. A lot of Hague Conventions, translations and certifying documents, plus question marks over which laws to apply is proving extremely expensive. The later orthographic will with their true wishes cannot be used. Fines for late succession and no end in sight. Soon going to have to employ a UK solicitor to do probate. I havenāt mentioned doing tax returns as a Brit, in France for worldwide assets- capital gains and inheritance. (Kindly helped by posters here.) Pay a very good lawyer who understands the laws of the UK and France- or where ever you have assets (better still, move all assets to France ), and make sure it is ship shape and registered. Your family will bless you.
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I thought of that and the quote was ā¬2500. So instead Iām trying to make sure I understand what is needed so can be sure that my cheap French notaire and free UK solicitor are doing the right things.
It sounds as if your problems arose because your parents didnāt understand and their notaire didnāt check that they understood some critical issues. Which is a huge shame. Hope you get it sorted soon.
Yes an elderly brit friend got a bill of over ā¬16,000 for tax on her dead husbandās UK bank account payable here because they were both residents at the time of his sudden death. It was a declared world wide asset in the UK, on their tax returns here to the fisc and came as a big shock when the succession started. We had nothing in the UK so no point in us having a will there and when OH died, the French succession took over immediately as has to be done within four months after the death.
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That is very odd! There is no inheritance tax between French resident spouses whether the assets are French or English. And the double taxation treaty means that the UK cannot charge it either.
The only wrinkle might be if they were recent residents as I recall there are some difference for those not resident here for more tha X years in last 10.
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My parents spoke to multiple notaires. Our legal bills are much higher than that. ā¬2500 well spent, Iād say. Notaires also all have different opinions when giving it freely. Ours is super cautious now he has to do the successions and hasnāt started, 2 years later.
Wouldnāt been a problem if it was a joint account.
That is dreadful that not a single one of them checked the basics with them! Since Iāll be dead Iām going to do my best to sort it simply, and keep the ā¬2500 for fun before I die.
That could be the thing, they lived here for many years and then sold up and moved back to Devon when the pound dropped in the 90ās. Then several years later they moved back to the village again where we all lived for a few years and then he dropped dead. They were away for at least five years so maybe his bank account to which she had no title to was subject to the inheritance tax they charged here because it was known via their French return
No, it was in his name only hence the tax for her to inherit the contents. He was a bit of old school whereby women stayed at home and the men earned and kept what they earned usually not letting the wife know how much either in the account.
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