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Italian estates,
across borders.
Italian succession law is civil-law, not common-law: it forces minimum shares on family members and reserves jurisdiction over Italian assets. We plan before death and we litigate after. For clients whose lives or assets cross more than one country.
Forced shares, foreign wills, deadlines.
Italy reserves a minimum share of every estate, the legittima, for the spouse and direct descendants (and, in some configurations, ascendants). A will, Italian or foreign, cannot dispose of that share. On top of the substantive rules sit deadlines that catch many international families off guard: the dichiarazione di successione is due to the Agenzia delle Entrate within twelve months of death; inheritance tax is calculated on Italian-situs assets; and the EU Succession Regulation lets, or does not let, you escape Italian law depending on how the will was drafted. We work upstream and downstream.
From planning to litigation.
Scroll through, or use the arrowsItalian wills
Holographic, public and secret wills under Italian law. Drafting, witnessing, deposit with the notary, foreign-language translations and legalisation.
Wills & forms →Cross-border planning
For families whose lives, assets and heirs sit in more than one country. Coordinated structuring with your home-country counsel.
Cross-border planning →Forced heirship (legittima)
What the legittima requires, who is protected, and what an azione di riduzione can recover when the will tried to bypass it.
Forced heirship →Inheritance tax
Imposta di successione, mortgage and cadastral taxes, exemptions, allowances by relationship. And the structures that lawfully reduce them.
Tax planning →EU Succession Regulation
Regulation 650/2012 lets a testator choose the law of their nationality. It also defines jurisdiction and the European Certificate of Succession.
EU regulation →Estate litigation
Contested wills, claims to the legittima, partition disputes, foreign judgments to enforce. We argue Italian estate cases before Italian courts.
Litigation →
- Day 0
Apertura della successione
Succession opens automatically at death. Italian-resident notaries collect the will; foreign-resident testators rely on their home-country probate plus an Italian recognition route.
- Months 1–6
Acceptance or renunciation
Heirs decide whether to accept (pure or with benefit of inventory), or renounce. The decision affects personal liability for estate debts.
- Month 12
Dichiarazione di successione
The succession tax return is filed with the Agenzia delle Entrate within twelve months of death. It triggers cadastral updates and unlocks transfer of Italian-situs assets.
- Months 12+
Transfers, partition, possible litigation
Property is transferred at the catasto, bank accounts are released, and any forced-heirship claims (azione di riduzione) can be brought within ten years of acceptance.
A succession, across one or many countries.
A confidential call to map the heirs, the assets, the wills already in place. And the work that is needed.