Cross-border inheritance: the EU Succession Regulation in practice

Since 2015 one regulation decides which country’s law applies to an estate with assets in more than one EU state. It is used less often than it should be.

Habitual residence, not citizenship

The default connecting factor is the deceased’s habitual residence at the time of death. A Czech citizen who lived in Austria for the last decade leaves an estate governed by Austrian law unless a choice of law was made.

The choice of law is one sentence

A testator may choose the law of their nationality. One clause in the will, correctly worded, prevents most of the disputes we see: forced-heirship rules that surprise the family, and two notaries applying different law to the same account.

The European Certificate of Succession

One certificate, recognised in every member state, replaces the parallel probate proceedings that used to take years. It is issued by the authority of the state whose courts have jurisdiction — in practice, the notary where the deceased was habitually resident.

We coordinate the notary, the local counsel and the banks so the family deals with one file, not three.