Changes to UK and French Inheritance Law in 2025: What You Need to Know

In the UK, we have three separate legal regimes:

• England and Wales
• Scotland
• Northern Ireland

Both in England and Wales and in Northern Ireland, a person can, broadly speaking, leave their assets to whomever they wish when they die. This is known as ‘testamentary freedom’.

There are a few exceptions to this, such as when an asset will pass automatically to someone, for example, if it is owned with another person as ‘joint tenants’, or where a certain category of person (such as a spouse) has been excluded from the Will. They can make a claim, asking the court to make financial provision for them from the deceased person’s estate. This is far from an automatic right and each case will be determined by the court on its own merits.

Where you have made a Will and have children or are married/in a civil partnership, testamentary freedom is limited in Scotland by ‘legal rights’. Children and the surviving spouse/civil partner are entitled to a percentage of the deceased’s ‘movable assets’ (assets which are not land or buildings).

Although there are changes to inheritance tax law coming into force in April 2025 for the UK (which will be discussed in a separate article), there are no expected changes to inheritance law anticipated.

French inheritance law is very different to that in the UK.

In France if you have children, you must generally leave your children a percentage of your assets when you die; you can’t simply exclude a child by choosing not to name them in your Will. This is known as forced heirship.

In England and Wales the most common way of leaving assets for a married couple with children is as follows –

• On the first spouse’s death, they leave all their assets to the surviving spouse.
• When the surviving spouse then dies, they leave all their assets to the children.

Whilst this is a very common planning technique in the UK, and can be achieved by making a straightforward Will, it won’t always work in France, due to the French forced heirship rules.

The European Succession Regulation (650/2012) gave British individuals the opportunity to choose for the law of their nationality to apply to their Wills in France – meaning that a British national most closely associated with England and Wales could choose English and Welsh law, instead of being obliged to follow the French forced heirship rules. This had the effect that they could, instead of having to leave a percentage of their French property to their children, instead leave it to all to their spouse.

In 2021, a controversial law (an amendment to article 913 of the French Civil Code) was introduced. If a person making a Will, or any of their children, are resident or a national of any EU country, then their ability to choose English and Welsh law is curtailed. Although it is still possible to make a choice of UK inheritance law to apply in the Will, the notaire dealing with the inheritance (the succession) in France will be required to confirm with all the individual’s children that they are happy to follow the terms of the Will, rather than French forced heirship.

The consequence of this, is that for many people, they are no longer able to leave their assets as they had hoped in their Will.

The changes to Article 913 are controversial. Because of the way the law is written, notaries find it tricky to deal with, and it appears on the face of it, to be in conflict with the EU Succession Regulation.

The European Commission is currently considering whether France has breached EU law by bringing in its changes to article 913 and restricting the ability of people to choose the law of their nationality to apply to their Wills in some cases.

The European Commission has not yet made a decision; however it is possible that one could be reached in 2025. If so, and it finds that France has breached EU law, then it is possible that article 913 will be amended to once again allow full recognition of a choice of English and Welsh law in the French Will of a British national.