French succession law: forced heirship, explained calmly
No French rule surprises foreign residents more: your children are entitled to a reserved share of your estate — la réserve héréditaire — and a will from home does not simply override it.
French succession law reserves a share of an estate for the deceased's children, whatever the will provides. This réserve héréditaire is a rule of substance rather than of form, and it applies by default to the estate of anyone who dies habitually resident in France, whatever their nationality. A will drafted at home does not displace it on its own: doing so requires a deliberate choice of law, made in the will itself and subject to limits set out below. Foreign families usually discover this late, when it is expensive.
How the reserve works
Article 913 of the French Civil Code reserves a fraction of your estate for your children — half with one child, two-thirds with two, three-quarters with three or more — leaving only the remainder (the quotité disponible) freely disposable. As a French resident, this applies to your estate by default, and it can reshape arrangements that were perfectly valid at home: leaving everything to a surviving spouse, unequal shares, trusts.
The tools that remain
- The EU Succession Regulation: under Article 22 of Regulation (EU) No 650/2012, a national of any country may elect the law of their nationality in their will — powerful, but bounded by Article 913 paragraph 3 of the French Civil Code, introduced by the Law of 24 August 2021, which restores a compensatory claim for children in certain cross-border situations. Careful drafting is essential;
- matrimonial regimes: changing yours in France can protect the surviving spouse more effectively than any will, and Your matrimonial regime, and what moving to France does to it explains why the applicable law may already have changed without you acting on it;
- assurance-vie: death benefits pass outside the estate under their own regime — one of the cleanest planning layers available to residents of France, subject to one limit that must be understood: premiums held to be manifestly excessive relative to your means (Article L. 132-13 of the Insurance Code) can be brought back into the estate at the request of reserved heirs;
- lifetime structuring: gifts, dismemberment of ownership (usufruit / nue-propriété), family arrangements signed by the heirs themselves.
Unmarried and PACS partners have no reserved share, and no default right to inherit
The réserve héréditaire is written around children; it gives an unmarried or PACS partner nothing. A partner bound only by a PACS civil partnership, or by cohabitation without either marriage or a PACS, has no legal right to inherit anything under French law, however long the relationship — the estate passes to children or other blood relatives by default, and a partner in this situation receives nothing unless a will says otherwise. For unmarried and PACS couples, a will is not a refinement of the plan; without one, it is the only thing standing between a surviving partner and nothing. Assurance-vie beneficiary designations do the same protective work outside the estate itself, and are the tool most often used alongside the will, since they can also carry a materially more favourable tax treatment between partners than the estate's own succession-tax rules.
Building both — the will and the beneficiary designations — in the right order is what The cross-border succession toolkit covers, step by step.
Frequently asked questions
Can I disinherit my children if I live in France?
Not by will alone: French law reserves them a share. Depending on your nationality, an election under the EU Succession Regulation may restore some freedom, within limits France has reinforced in recent years — and other tools (matrimonial regime, assurance-vie, lifetime gifts) often achieve the family's real goal more reliably.
Does my home-country will remain valid in France?
Formally valid, usually yes. Effective, not necessarily: its dispositions yield to the French reserved share where French law governs the succession. A will drafted or reviewed for the French context avoids discovering this at the worst moment.
How is the surviving spouse protected in France?
The spouse is not a reserved heir in the presence of children, but a combination of matrimonial-regime choices, the quotité disponible spéciale between spouses, and assurance-vie designations can protect them very effectively. How well the spouse is protected depends on choices made in advance.
Does my partner inherit anything under French law if we are not married?
Not automatically. Unmarried and PACS partners have no legal right to inherit under French law absent a will — the reserved share exists for children, and a partner falls entirely outside it, receiving nothing from the estate itself without one. A will and, separately, assurance-vie beneficiary designations are how partners in this situation are protected in France.
What law governs succession if my children live in different countries?
France applies a single law to the whole estate under Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 — in principle the law of the deceased's last habitual residence, or the law elected in the will — regardless of where the heirs themselves live. Their own country of residence affects how each of them is taxed on what they receive, not which law decides who receives what.
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Book a callWritten by Stéphane Molère, Président d'Éthique et Patrimoine — page last reviewed on 2026-08-27 — rules quoted are those in force at that date.