Can you give up part of your inheritance in advance?

Verified 04 August 2023 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Yes, under certain conditions. If you are heir in title, you may undertake not to contest the donations or bequest which could deprive you of your share of inheritance. To do this, you must sign an estate pact (also called early waiver of reduction action) before 2 notaries.

Example :

The succession pact may be used, for example, by a family in which a child is disabled. The other children undertake not to call into question the donations and bequests he has received, even if they deprive them of their reserve shares.

If you are the heir to the reservation presumptive, you may undertake not to contest the donations or bequest that could deprive you of reserve.

For that, you have to be major. You must also be sane, that is to say, possess mental capacities allowing a sufficiently enlightened discernment and will.

If you are emancipated minor you cannot give up the discount share in advance.

You must establish a succession pact.

The agreement of succession may concern part or all of your share of reserve.

You waive your right to challenge donations or bequest which could deprive you of that share of inheritance. You are doing this for the benefit of one or more persons specified in the covenant.

The succession pact is a authentic instrument which must be drawn up in accordance with the formalities laid down by law. In particular, it must specify the following information:

Identity of theheir in title who renounces a reduction action and what exactly he renounces
Identity of the person receiving the donated or bequeathed property
Legal consequences of the waiver for the waiver

The consent of the waiver shall not be flawed (for example, given under constraint).

The succession pact must be signed before 2 notaries. One of them is designated by the departmental chamber of notaries.

Who shall I contact

Notary

Warning

the donor or the testator must accept your decision to waive your estate rights.

The succession pact is a waiver of the action for reduction, but not a waiver of the succession. You're still heir.

The succession pact shall only affect the share of reserve that you have undertaken not to challenge.

The waiver produces none effect if your reserve share has not been affected. If a partial infringement has been made on your share of the hereditary reserve, the waiver only has effect up to the extent of that infringement.

You will have to pay notary's fee to establish an estate pact. The amount of fees is fixed by the notary.

Who shall I contact

Notary

If you have given up your share of the inheritance by signing an inheritance agreement, you can request the cancelation of the agreement in the following 3 cases :

The person you are entitled to inherit does not fulfill its maintenance obligations to you (example: parent who does not provide for their child). You must submit your application within1 year from the day on which the person no longer fulfills his maintenance obligations.
You are in financial difficulty on the day of the opening of the estate. You have 1 year from the day of the opening of the estate to make your request.
The beneficiary of the reserve share that you have renounced has been found guilty of a crime or a offense against you. You must apply within'1 year either from the day on which the crime or offense was committed or from the day on which you became aware of it.

In order to request the cancelation of an estate pact, you must to bring proceedings before the court of justice of the domicile of the defendant. You need to get a lawyer.