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can you disinherit a child under the French law?
Hello! Not your everyday question... Is anyone able to tell me if it is possible to disinherit a person under the FRENCH law? My husband's parents live permanently in France and own property there etc. The familial situation is such that we expect them to take actions to prevent my husband from being their legal heir. How difficult or how easy would it be for them to achieve this in France? (there's just my husband and one more sibiling in this family). I appreciate your insights. Thank you.
French law is very similar to Belgian law in this respect - you cannot disinherit a child.
But they might be able to give away what they have so their is nothing left to inherit.
There's no substitute for proper legal advice from a French lawyer in this case though.
My daughter-in-law comes from a wealthy French family with four children. Her retired parents have said that they intend to spend as much as possible of their wealth even to the extent of selling the family home and moving to a small apartment as they cannot disinherit their children but do not want them to have anything when they - the parents - die.
No-one has any idea why they have taken this course of action but one has to assume that they are correct in being unable to disinherit their kids.
Of course, there is no law that says you have to leave an inheritance! You can spend it all... But you can't legally desinherit your children in France. If they are rich enough, there are obviously other ways to desinherit your kids, by hiding your assets. I'm in the same situation here in Belgium (I used to live in France though), not talking to my family. I know they cannot desinherit me, but who knows they might be doing small donations to my sisters, pretending to be spending the money on themselves. So I have decided not to think about it, live my life, and be a huge pain in the ass (requiring proof of everything) when the time comes.
Im sure your husband , their only son, is great - but there are at least 2 sides to every story - but seemingly not in this case???
