Inheritance and succession
Inheritance law is an important topic that almost everyone has to deal with in the course of their life. Be it in your position as an heir or as a testator in the distribution of your own assets – complex legal and factual questions arise in all areas of inheritance law, and our team of experts will be happy to advise you on these.
Our main areas of advice in the field of inheritance and succession:
Succession can either be regulated in a will or in accordance with the statutory provisions. The allocation of the estate in a will is referred to in the law as an intended succession. The order of succession is made by a so-called disposition of property upon death. In principle, every person in Germany has the right to decide freely how their assets are to be disposed of after their death. Accordingly, a wide variety of arrangements can be made within the scope of testamentary freedom.
The freedom to make a will describes the constitutionally protected right of a person to make dispositions upon death as they wish. However, this constitutional protection is limited by the right to a compulsory portion. The law grants certain persons, such as spouses and children, special minimum protection in this respect. If the succession has not been determined by the testator in a will, the law determines how the estate is distributed.