Spanish Wills and Probate Ltd.
Spanish Wills
and Probate Ltd
P O Box 12
Lymm
Cheshire
WA13 9FE
Tel:
0845 257 7889
From Spain call:
951 190 488
For information on probate in Spain visit: www.spanishprobate.co.uk
Spanish Will issues
You probably would not dream of buying an English Will kit from a High Street stationery store.
So why take the DIY approach to your estate planning with a separate Will drawn up in Spain?
Spanish law
A Spanish citizen does not have the freedom to distribute his estate in Spain in the way that an Englishman does.
As a married person, he or she is obliged by law to follow the national Spanish succession provisions, which specify that: -
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A third has to be distributed equally amongst the children
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A third to his children or grandchildren as he wishes, with the surviving spouse retaining a life interest in this portion
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A third as he wishes in his Will
As a result of this, many Spanish lawyers writing Wills for UK married couples seem to give no thought as to how the estate should be distributed. They automatically write Wills with the following provisions:-
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Half is given to the surviving spouse
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Half is distributed equally amongst the children
Thus the surviving spouse finishes up owning three quarters of the holiday home, while ownership of the remaining quarter is divided equally between the children.
Would you write your Will this way if this were a holiday home in Bournemouth?
Why that's wrong
This approach may well save Inheritance Tax in Spain. However, as English Will writers, we consider the Spanish model to be very poor from a UK estate planning perspective, and would not recommend Wills with these provisions. There are several reasons: -
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Your children have to pay Spanish Inheritance Tax on the portion they inherit
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They become liable for the various taxes that must be paid in Spain
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Minority holdings of secondary property can cause difficulties in families, especially if one member wants to sell their share, and the others cannot afford to buy him or her out
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It takes no account of your overall Inheritance Tax planning strategy.
Thus a standard Spanish Will can put members of your family at a considerable disadvantage.
As a British citizen you are not obliged to follow Spanish succession laws. You can distribute your estate in Spain as you like.
We therefore discuss the various structures clients can adopt in their Wills so they can work out exactly how their estate in both Spain and the UK should be distributed.
Thus we can eliminate the potential family issues with standard Spanish provisions.
We always back up our Spanish Wills with a complementary English Will.
This prevents the following problems that can arise when buying separate standalone Spanish Wills: -
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Your English and Spanish Wills can contradict each other
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They may have holes between their provisions
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Your two Wills can even cancel each other out.