French Inheritance Law: Who Inherits in France

Who inherits in France: the basics of French inheritance law

When someone dies without a will, French inheritance law decides who inherits. The estate passes automatically to the deceased's blood relatives and surviving spouse, in a fixed order set by the Civil Code, and no one can be added or removed simply because it would be fairer or more convenient. For a foreign owner of French property, this is often the single most surprising feature of the system: the law, not the family's wishes, chooses the heirs.

French inheritance law rests on two ideas that run through everything below. First, relatives are ranked into classes, and a closer class shuts out a more distant one entirely. Second, children enjoy a protected minimum share of the estate — the réserve héréditaire, or forced heirship — that a parent cannot freely give away. Understanding who inherits in France therefore means understanding both the order of heirs and the limits on what you can do by will.

When French inheritance law decides who inherits

The rules of legal devolution apply in the absence of a will. The Civil Code states that the estate "is devolved by law to the relatives and the surviving spouse of the deceased" on the terms it lays down. Where the deceased left a valid will, that will governs — but only within the boundaries French inheritance law allows, because the reserved share for children cannot be overridden by a testament.

The surviving spouse always has a claim on the estate, on the single condition that the couple was not divorced at the date of death. A marriage is dissolved by a judicial divorce once the decision becomes final, or by an extra-judicial (mutual-consent) divorce once the lawyers' agreement becomes enforceable. A separated-but-not-divorced spouse still inherits; a divorced former spouse does not.

A separate question — which law applies to a cross-border estate — matters greatly to foreign owners, because an EU regulation allows a foreign national to elect the law of their nationality to govern their succession. That choice can change who inherits in France entirely, and we deal with it in our dedicated guide to choosing your national law under Brussels IV. This article explains who inherits under French law itself, which is the default that applies unless a valid election has been made.

The four orders of heirs under French inheritance law

Where there is no surviving spouse, French inheritance law ranks blood relatives into four classes, called orders. The rule is absolute: the presence of a single heir in a higher order excludes every relative in the orders below. Within an order, relatives are then ranked by degree — the number of generations separating them from the deceased — and the nearest degree excludes the more remote, except in the mixed second order, which follows its own split.

The fourth order — ordinary collateral relatives such as uncles, aunts and cousins — inherits only where the first three orders are empty. These relatives do not inherit beyond the sixth degree of kinship; since 18 February 2015, that six-degree ceiling applies only to ordinary collaterals, not to the siblings' line in the second order. In direct line there is one degree per generation, so a parent and child are related in the first degree and a grandparent and grandchild in the second. In the collateral line you count up to the common ancestor and back down: brothers and sisters are related in the second degree, an uncle and niece in the third, and first cousins in the fourth.

How children inherit in France

Children are the first order of heirs and, when they are present, they inherit the estate to the exclusion of the deceased's parents, siblings and every other relative. They take in equal shares and per head, with no preference for the eldest and no distinction between sons and daughters. French inheritance law also makes no distinction according to how filiation was established: children born inside or outside marriage, and children of different unions, inherit on the same footing.

Where a child has died before the parent, the mechanism of representation allows that child's own descendants to step into their place and take the share collectively, dividing it between them. Representation operates without limit in the direct descending line, so grandchildren represent a predeceased parent alongside their aunts and uncles. It also allows the descendants of a person who has renounced the succession to inherit in their stead, which lets a family pass wealth down a generation. Representation does not apply to ascendants, and it does not apply in favour of someone the deceased deliberately disinherited by will.

Who inherits in France when there is no surviving spouse

Where the deceased leaves no descendants and no surviving spouse, the second order decides who inherits. If only the father and mother survive, they take the estate in equal halves. If the deceased leaves brothers and sisters (or their descendants) but no parents and no descendants, the siblings take the whole estate and exclude every other ascendant and collateral relative.

Where parents and siblings are present together, the estate is split: one quarter to the father, one quarter to the mother, and the remaining half to the brothers and sisters. If only one parent survives alongside siblings, that parent takes one quarter and the siblings take three quarters. Below this order, if there are no descendants, parents or siblings, the estate passes to ordinary ascendants such as grandparents, and then to ordinary collaterals up to the sixth degree.

The split (la fente) between the two family branches

When an estate reaches ordinary ascendants or ordinary collaterals, French inheritance law divides it in two by branch — one half to the paternal side and one half to the maternal side — regardless of where the assets came from. Within each branch the nearest relative excludes the more remote, and relatives of equal degree share per head. If one branch is empty, the split does not repeat: the whole estate goes to the other branch. The fente operates only in these more distant orders, in the absence of descendants and of a surviving spouse; it does not apply where the deceased leaves only brothers and sisters.

What the surviving spouse inherits in France

The surviving spouse is a full heir, and what the spouse inherits in France depends on which relatives they inherit alongside. The spouse always has a vocation to inherit in full ownership, but where there are children the spouse may instead take a usufruct — the right to use the property and receive its income for life, while the children hold the bare ownership.

Spouse inheriting with the couple's own children

Where all of the deceased's children are children of both spouses, the survivor chooses between the usufruct of the whole of the existing estate and one quarter of it in full ownership. The choice is a personal right that can normally be made at any time up to the division of the estate. The other heirs can force the issue by inviting the spouse to choose in writing; if the spouse does not answer within three months, they are deemed to have chosen the usufruct, and the same applies if the spouse dies without having chosen. Until the choice is made, the spouse may not sell the assets they take. In practice the usufruct of the whole is often the most advantageous option, because it lets the survivor keep the enjoyment of every asset for life.

Spouse inheriting where there are step-children

Where the deceased leaves at least one child who is not also the child of the surviving spouse, the survivor takes one quarter of the estate in full ownership only, with no option for the usufruct, and the children share the other three quarters. The law removes the usufruct option here to avoid tying step-children's inheritance up in a life interest held by their parent's new spouse.

Spouse inheriting with the deceased's parents

Where there are no descendants but both of the deceased's parents survive, the spouse takes one half in full ownership and each parent takes one quarter. If only one parent survives, the spouse takes three quarters and that parent takes one quarter. Where there are neither descendants nor parents, the surviving spouse takes the whole estate — subject to two limits: ordinary ascendants in need may claim a maintenance allowance from the estate within the year, and the deceased's brothers and sisters have a limited right of return over certain family property their parents had given to the deceased.

The surviving spouse's rights over the home

Separately from these shares, the surviving spouse has rights over the home they actually occupied as their main residence. A temporary right gives free enjoyment of the home and its furniture for one year after the death; it is a matter of public policy, applies automatically, and cannot be removed even by will. A lifetime right of occupation may then be claimed within one year of the death. For tax, the value of that lifetime right is set at 60% of the value of a usufruct calculated on the age scale in Article 669 of the tax code. On a home worth €500,000 where the survivor is 62 a year after the death, that gives a usufruct of 40% and a lifetime right valued at €120,000. The lifetime right is not a matter of public policy: the deceased can remove it, but only by an authentic will drawn up before a notaire.

Forced heirship: the limit on who can inherit your estate

Even with a will, French inheritance law limits who can inherit, because a fixed portion of the estate — the réserve héréditaire — is reserved for the children and cannot be freely given to anyone else. Only the remaining quotité disponible, the disposable portion, is genuinely free to leave by will or lifetime gift.

The reserved share grows with the number of children: with one child, half the estate is reserved; with two children, two thirds; with three or more, three quarters. The disposable portion is what is left over — one half, one third or one quarter respectively. Where there are no descendants, the surviving spouse becomes a reserved heir for one quarter of the estate. Gifts and legacies that eat into a reserved share can be cut back by the protected heirs. We explain how this works, and how far you can plan around it, in our dedicated guide to forced heirship in France.

Unmarried partners and PACS: who inherits without a will

French inheritance law treats couples very differently depending on their legal status, and this is where the biggest traps lie. A civil-partnership (PACS) partner, since 1 January 2007, is under a regime of separation of property: each keeps the assets they owned before and acquire during the partnership. Crucially, a PACS creates no inheritance right at all between the partners, in either full ownership or usufruct. Without a will, the surviving partner inherits nothing.

A will is therefore essential for a PACS couple. Where one is made, the transfer is highly tax-efficient: PACS partners are exempt from inheritance tax on what they receive on death. The surviving partner also has the same one-year temporary right over the home as a spouse, but — unlike a spouse — that right is successoral rather than a matter of public policy and can be removed by will, and there is no lifetime right of occupation. Preferential attribution of the home is only available to a surviving partner if the deceased provided for it by will. Lifetime gifts between partners benefit from an allowance of €80,724, renewable every 15 years.

Who inherits in France? Work through your situation

Answer a few quick questions in the tool below to see who would inherit your French estate — the shares, the governing article of the Civil Code, and where planning is worthwhile. It assumes a death with no will and no valid election of a foreign law; a will, a marriage contract or a lifetime gift can change the outcome, and forced heirship still protects the children.

How French inheritance law affects foreign owners

For a foreign national who owns a home or other assets in France, the default is that French inheritance law governs the devolution of those assets — with the order of heirs and the forced-heirship rules described above. That default can come as a shock to owners from common-law countries, where a will can usually leave an estate to whomever the testator chooses.

The important point for planning is that the outcome is not always fixed. Under the EU Succession Regulation, a foreign national can, in principle, elect the law of their nationality to govern their whole estate, which may displace French forced heirship. That election has to be made properly, and it interacts with a compensatory mechanism introduced in French law. Because it can change who inherits in France completely, we treat it in a separate guide devoted to Brussels IV and choosing your national law — and it is the first thing to review before relying on a foreign will over French assets.

Frequently asked questions about who inherits in France

This article is a general guide to French inheritance law and does not constitute legal advice. The rules summarised here apply in the absence of a will and may be altered by a will, a marriage contract, a lifetime gift or a valid election of a foreign law under the EU Succession Regulation. Individual outcomes depend on the composition of the family and the estate at the date of death. For advice on your own situation, consult a qualified French avocat or notaire.