French wills & succession: why your UK will may not do what you think
It's the job everyone postpones, and in France that's a genuine mistake — because French inheritance law works nothing like Britain's, and a UK will drawn up on the assumption that you can "leave everything to each other" can be quietly overridden the moment you own a French home. Children have rights you can't sign away; an unmarried partner can face a 60% tax bill; and a 2021 law change undid a workaround many people still rely on. Here's what actually happens to your estate in France, and how to make it do what you intend.
The short version
- France reserves a share for your children — half your estate for one child, up to three-quarters for three or more. You can't simply leave it all to your spouse.
- You can elect UK law in your will (Brussels IV) to escape forced heirship — but a 2021 French change lets children reclaim their share from French assets anyway. It's weaker than it was.
- Spouses and PACS partners pay zero inheritance tax — but a PACS partner still needs a will to inherit at all.
- Children get €100,000 tax-free each, then rates up to 45% (usually ~20%).
- The 60% trap: an unmarried partner or non-adopted stepchild gets a tiny allowance and pays 60% — potentially forcing a sale of the home.
- Assurance vie is the key workaround — money passes outside the estate, up to €152,500 tax-free per beneficiary.
Of all the topics in this Library, this is the one people most want to skip — and the one where skipping costs the most, because the bill falls not on you but on the people you leave behind, at the worst possible moment. The trouble is that British and French inheritance law start from opposite instincts. In Britain, your will is close to sovereign: leave your estate to whomever you like. In France, the law decides first and your wishes come second, on the principle that children must be protected. Own a French house and you're pulled into that French logic whether your will mentions it or not. None of this is a reason for gloom — it's all manageable with a little planning — but it does need understanding, so let's take it calmly.
How French succession law actually works
Three things govern what happens to your estate, and the third — a 2021 change — is the one even well-informed people get wrong. Open each.
The big surpriseForced heirship — your children are protected
France doesn't let you disinherit your children. Under réserve héréditaire, a fixed share of your estate is reserved for them whatever your will says: half for one child, two-thirds shared between two, three-quarters for three or more. Only the remaining 'free portion' is yours to leave as you like. For British couples used to leaving everything to each other, this is the big surprise — without planning, the children can have a legal claim ahead of the surviving spouse.
Powerful, but…Brussels IV — you can choose UK law (but read on)
Since 2015, the EU Succession Regulation ('Brussels IV') lets you elect the law of your nationality in your will — so a British national can ask for English law, which has no forced heirship, to govern their whole estate. Making that election in a properly drafted will is a common and sensible step. But — and this is the part most guides stop before — France added a twist in 2021.
Crucial 2021 changeThe 2021 twist most guides miss (Article 913)
Since November 2021, French law (Article 913 of the Civil Code) gives children a compensatory claim over French-situated assets even when you've elected foreign law — if that foreign law would leave them with less than French forced heirship, and you or a child were an EU national or resident. In plain terms: electing English law no longer fully shelters your French house from your children's reserved share. It's still worth doing, but it doesn't do everything it did before 2021, and anyone relying on the old advice needs to know.
The advice that went out of date
"Just choose English law and you're fine" — no longer true
For years the standard tip was simple: put a Brussels IV election in your will choosing English law, and French forced heirship vanishes. Plenty of people did exactly that and assume they're sorted. But the 2021 change to Article 913 means a child left less than their French reserved share can now claim the difference back from your French assets — so the election no longer fully protects your French house. If your will was drafted before late 2021, or on pre-2021 advice, it's genuinely worth revisiting with someone who knows the current position. The old plan isn't wrong, exactly — it's just no longer the whole answer.
Who pays the tax — and the 60% trap
Separately from who inherits is the question of what they pay, and here relationship is everything. The gap between a spouse and an unmarried partner isn't a few percent — it's the difference between nothing and sixty percent. Open each.
Marriage/PACS mattersSpouses and PACS partners pay nothing — but need a will
Good news first: a surviving spouse or PACS partner pays no French inheritance tax at all, whatever the sum. The catch: a PACS partner doesn't automatically inherit — the tax exemption is worthless without a will leaving them something. Marriage gives inheritance rights and the exemption; a PACS gives the exemption but you must still write the will. An unmarried couple with neither is in the worst position of all.
Relatively gentleChildren: a €100,000 allowance each, then rising rates
Each child can inherit €100,000 tax-free from each parent, then pays on a sliding scale from 5% up to 45%, though most estates land around the 20% mark. The allowance refreshes periodically, so lifetime gifts can be a planning tool. Compared with the eye-watering rates further down the family tree, children are treated relatively kindly.
Avoidable disasterThe 60% trap: unmarried partners & stepchildren
Here's the one that ruins lives. An unmarried partner — together for decades, but not married or PACS'd — is treated as a stranger: an allowance of just €1,594, then 60% tax on the rest. The same brutal 60% hits stepchildren you haven't adopted. Leaving your home to a long-term unmarried partner can mean they must sell it to pay the tax on inheriting it. This is the single strongest argument for marrying or PACS-ing, and for the workaround below.
Assurance vie — the expat's succession Swiss-army knife
The French tax-efficient investment wrapper, assurance vie, passes outside your estate to named beneficiaries — up to €152,500 each tax-free for premiums paid before age 70. It's how an unmarried partner or stepchild can receive real money without the 60% hit, and a cornerstone of expat planning. Worth proper advice.
Explore assurance vie & planning →Pimpernel may earn a small commission if you use this — it never changes what we recommend, and there's nothing to sell you.
Putting it right: the tools that work
The good news is that every problem above has a well-worn solution, and used together they let you shape your estate close to what you actually intend. A properly drafted French will (or a UK will that correctly covers French assets) is the foundation. A Brussels IV election still helps, even post-2021, especially for non-French assets. Marriage or a PACS transforms both the inheritance rights and the tax. And assurance vie — money passing outside the estate to named beneficiaries, up to €152,500 each tax-free for premiums paid before 70 — is the flexible workaround that can get real value to an unmarried partner or stepchild without the 60% wrecking ball. Adjusting how a property is owned at purchase (the tontine clause, or buying via a family SCI) is another lever, best pulled at the outset.
None of these is a DIY job. Cross-border succession is precisely the field where a good notaireA state-appointed legal officer who handles property sales and estates. or specialist adviser earns their fee many times over, because the interactions — French law, UK law, two tax systems, your particular family — are genuinely intricate. But the worst outcome by far is the common one: doing nothing, assuming the UK will covers it, and leaving your partner or children a mess and a tax bill. An afternoon with the right professional, while you're well and unhurried, is one of the kindest things you can do for the people you'll leave behind.
Got a French house, a UK will, and an unusual family?
Second marriages, stepchildren, an unmarried partner, assets in two countries — these are exactly where a UK will quietly fails in France. Pimpernel can map your situation and connect you with a cross-border notaire or adviser to get the will, the Brussels IV election and the assurance vie working together.
The one piece of admin people put off — and shouldn't
A French will, a Brussels IV election, an assurance vie set up in good time — none is urgent until, suddenly, it is. Pimpernel Pro keeps succession on your radar with the guides and the prompts to get it sorted while it's easy, not left for those you love to untangle.
- Succession & will prompts
- The tax & property wizards
- Cross-border adviser referrals
- Every Library guide, in depth
Own or buying a French home?
How you buy and hold a property shapes what happens to it later. Our buying guide covers the purchase, the notaire and the ownership choices.
Read: Buying property in France →The wider inheritance picture
Our inheritance guide covers the surrounding ground — the notaire's process, the practicalities, and what to do when someone dies.
Read: French inheritance, explained →Straight from the source
French inheritance rules and the notaire’s role are set out on notaires.fr and service-public.fr; the tax side is on impots.gouv.fr.
Inheritance rules, tax rates, allowances and the 2021 legal change described here are current for 2026 and drawn from official and specialist sources, but succession law is complex and depends entirely on your family, assets and residence. Pimpernel are not notaires, lawyers or tax advisers. This is general information, not legal or financial advice — take qualified cross-border advice on your own situation before acting or drafting a will.