Anyone living abroad can elect home-country law for succession

A person who lives in a country other than their country of origin may elect the law of their country of origin to govern their succession as a whole, instead of the law of their country of residence.Service Public That election is no longer limited to French nationals electing French lawService Public: a Belgian national living in France may elect Belgian law, just as a French national living in Belgium may elect French law — but only the law of a state whose nationality the person holdsEuropa.

By default, the applicable law follows habitual residence.Europa A person residing in France is in principle subject to French succession law, while a person residing abroad is in principle subject to the foreign law of their place of residence, under the European Succession Regulation's general ruleService Public.

The election must meet two cumulative conditions. It must be expressed clearly in a valid will, as an express declaration in a disposition of property upon death.Europa And the person must hold the nationality of the state whose law they elect, either when the will is drawn up or at the time of deathService Public. A person holding several nationalities may elect the law of any of those states.Europa

The choice matters most where French law would apply. Under French law, children cannot be disinheritedService Public: a reserved share of the estate, the réserve héréditaire, passes to them free of chargesLegifrance. It is one half of the estate with one child, two thirds with two children, and three quarters with three or more children. With no descendants but a surviving undivorced spouse, gifts and legacies may not exceed three quarters of the estate. The remainder, the quotité disponible, may be given or bequeathed freely, to grandchildren, the surviving spouse, a friend, a neighbour or a charity.

Where a foreign law governs and that law permits children to be disinherited, two safeguards apply. The notaire handling the succession, or the court seized by the heirs, may refuse to apply the foreign law if it offends French international public policyService Public, though a foreign law that merely permits disinheritance is not automatically contrary to public policyService Public. And for successions opened from 1 November 2021, children disinherited under a foreign law may take a compensatory levy on the estate assets located in France at the date of death, so as to be restored to the reserved rights French law grants themLegifrance.

That levy is itself conditional: the deceased, or at least one of the children, must have been a national of, or habitually resident in, an EU Member State at the time of death, and the applicable foreign law must provide no reserved-share mechanism protecting the children. If the foreign law gives each of the children a right over part of the succession, the compensatory-levy mechanism does not apply.Service Public

Legal basis: the European Succession Regulation of 4 July 2012, articles 912 to 917 of the Code civil, and loi n° 2021-1109 du 24 août 2021 confortant le respect des principes de la République.