Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Forced Heirship definition

What does Forced Heirship mean? Forced heirship describes rules requiring that a fixed share of a deceased person’s estate is reserved to protected heirs—typically the surviving spouse or civil partner and children—regardless of the will. In many civil law and Islamic jurisdictions these rules are set out in succession legislation and can override testamentary freedom, sometimes with clawback of lifetime gifts to satisfy the reserved portion. In the UK and Ireland the expression is descriptive rather than a defined statutory term. England & Wales and Northern Ireland do not have forced heirship: testamentary freedom applies, subject to family provision claims under the...

International succession and forced heirship: connecting factors (domicile, habitual residence, nationality), unity vs division, renvoi, matrimonial regimes, EU Succession Regulation, trusts and usufructs

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Practice notes

forced heirship

Forced heirship describes a situation where the children or other close kin of someone who has died are entitled, as a matter of right, to part of that person’s patrimony (broadly, the estate after reinstating any gifts made during lifetime), regardless of the testator’s intentions. In England and most common law systems, constraints on testamentary freedom are minimal, whereas civil law systems (rooted in Roman law) oblige testators to provide for their nearest family. In certain countries (eg France), forced heirship applies mandatorily so that a portion of the estate is automatically earmarked for the relevant forced heirs, while in others (eg Germany, Italy and Switzerland) those heirs instead hold a claim against the will’s beneficiaries. The succession law that governs a death will be identified differently from one jurisdiction to another, depending on the connecting factor recognised and applied in that forum. The connecting factor that prevails is determined by that jurisdiction’s conflict of laws, or private international law, rules. For guidance on English private international law rules, consult the Private client and private international law—overview subtopic. For guidance on countries, see the Practice Notes: UK-France estate planning—introduction, and How to obtain French Private Client legal advice—a practical...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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