If I'm French and I live in Spain, do French inheritance taxes still apply?

Potentially yes. French inheritance tax applies based on several criteria — notably your tax residence, the location of assets and the tax residence of heirs. A bilateral France-Spain tax treaty from 8 January 1963 addresses these cases to avoid double taxation, but its application is technical. Consult a cross-border tax specialist before any significant change to your situation.

Can I choose French law for my succession if I'm an expat in Spain?

Yes — that's precisely what Article 22 of Brussels IV allows. You can, in a written declaration (typically in your will), choose that "the law of the State whose nationality [you possess] at the time of making the choice or at the time of death" applies to the whole of your succession. As a French national, choosing French law gives you the French forced-heirship structure you know, instead of the Spanish regional system whose application can be unpredictable depending on your autonomous community of residence.

Cross-Border Succession in Spain: A Guide for Expats

Q: What happens to my digital assets if I don't plan?

Legally, digital assets are in a grey zone in Spain. They aren't covered by traditional succession frameworks. In practice, they become **irrecoverable** — 24% to 90% of them are lost to bereaved families according to various studies. Crypto wallets whose seed phrases are lost are gone forever. Cloud accounts are deleted for inactivity. This isn't a legal problem you solve with a better will. It requires a **living inventory** approach.

Q: How often should I update my cross-border estate plan?

At minimum once a year, plus after any major life event: marriage, divorce, birth of a child, purchase or sale of a significant asset, change of country, significant change in financial situation. Cross-border planning ages badly — a will drafted five years ago may reference banks that no longer exist, heirs whose contact details have changed, or laws that have been amended.

Q: Can Sucesio replace a Spanish notary?

No, and it's important to say this clearly. A Spanish notary is legally required to authenticate your will, register it at the *Registro General de Actos de Última Voluntad*, and issue property transfer deeds. Sucesio is the **living complement** to that legal foundation — it keeps your inventory up to date day-to-day and hands it over to your heirs at the right moment, along with a PDF your notary can use directly. Both are needed.

Reading time: 11 minutes · Last updated: 14 July 2026

If you're a British, French, German, Dutch, or Belgian expat living in Spain, the death of a loved one — or your own future succession — is not going to be a simple matter of "the will covers it." It's going to be a cross-border succession, and it's one of the most misunderstood areas of European private law.

This guide covers what actually happens, why the standard advice ("just get a Spanish will") is often incomplete, and the practical steps most expats miss until it's too late.

What "cross-border succession" actually means

A cross-border succession is any inheritance situation where at least one connecting factor crosses a border. In practice, if you're an expat in Spain, that almost always applies to you:

You hold assets in more than one country (Spanish real estate + a UK pension + French bank account = three jurisdictions)
Your nationality differs from your country of residence (British by nationality, Spanish resident since 2018)
Your heirs are scattered (children in the UK, spouse in Spain, siblings in the US)
You change country during your lifetime and don't update your estate planning

Any one of these triggers what EU law calls a "cross-border succession." Two of them, and you're firmly in Brussels IV territory.

Brussels IV Regulation 650/2012: the framework you didn't know applied to you

Since 17 August 2015, the EU Succession Regulation (formally Regulation (EU) No 650/2012, informally "Brussels IV") governs the succession of anyone dying within an EU Member State — except Denmark and Ireland, which opted out.

Here's the essential rule most expats never hear until it's too late:

The law applicable to your entire succession is the law of the country of your habitual residence at the time of your death — unless you have expressly chosen the law of your nationality.

Two consequences follow immediately:

Default rule — habitual residence wins

If you're a British national who has lived in Marbella for 12 years and you die there without explicit planning, Spanish inheritance law applies to your entire estate, including your London flat and your Barclays ISA.

That's often not what you'd expect. And it comes with a specific surprise: Spanish inheritance law has forced heirship rules (legítima) that don't exist in England and Wales.

Escape hatch — you can choose your national law

Article 22 of Brussels IV gives you a right most people don't know they have: you can choose the law of your nationality to govern your entire succession, in writing, in a declaration that is typically included in your will.

For a British expat in Spain, this often means:

Choose English & Welsh law → full testamentary freedom (you can leave everything to whoever you want)
Don't choose → Spanish forced heirship applies (your children get a mandatory legal share)

This one clause in your will can be worth hundreds of thousands of euros in flexibility. And yet most standard Spanish notary templates don't include it unless you specifically ask.

The forced heirship trap for expats in Spain

Spanish inheritance law reserves a portion of your estate — the legítima — for specific "legitimate heirs" (typically children, and in some cases parents and spouse). The exact rules depend on which of Spain's five regional civil codes applies to you.

Here's a simplified overview by autonomous community:

Region	Legítima children	Notes
Common civil law (most of Spain)	2/3 of estate reserved for children	1/3 completely free, 1/3 "improvable"
Catalonia	1/4 of estate	More permissive than common law
Basque Country	1/3 reserved	Only for direct descendants
Aragon	1/2 reserved	Can be assigned freely among children
Navarra	Symbolic (5 sueldos y una robada)	Almost complete freedom
Balearic Islands	Varies by island	Menorca has different rules from Mallorca

If you're a British expat with two adult children living in Málaga and you die intestate (without a valid will) or with a will that doesn't invoke Article 22 Brussels IV, you cannot leave 100% of your estate to your surviving spouse or to a charity. The children get their reserved share by force of law.

This is a common surprise. And the surprise is what causes families to spend months in litigation over an estate they thought was clearly organized.

The 6-to-18-month reality

Once a cross-border succession is opened, the practical timeline is where the theory falls apart.

Average duration of a cross-border succession involving Spain and one other EU country: 6 to 18 months. Complex ones involving non-EU jurisdictions (post-Brexit UK is now non-EU for these purposes) can take 2+ years.

Why so long ? Here's what actually has to happen:

Death certificate issued in the country of death (Spanish certificado de defunción if you die in Spain)
European Certificate of Succession (ECS) request if assets are in multiple EU Member States — this alone can take 3-6 months
Translation and apostille of every foreign document into Spanish (for Spanish authorities) and vice versa
Notarial deeds in each country holding real estate
Tax filings in each jurisdiction (Spanish Impuesto sobre Sucesiones y Donaciones at both national and autonomous community level, plus UK IHT if UK-domiciled)
Bank unlocking for accounts in each country — each bank has its own procedure and timing
Digital asset recovery — passwords, crypto wallets, subscription cancellations — which typically has no legal framework at all

That last point is where families lose the most time and money.

The gap between legal succession and practical succession

Your will — and the Article 22 choice of law that goes with it — handles the legal transfer of your recognized assets. That's essential.

But your will does not cover:

Passwords to your online banking, brokerage, or crypto exchange
Seed phrases for cold wallets (Ledger, Trezor)
Cloud storage containing family photos, documents, or business records
Subscription services that will keep charging your card monthly for 12+ months after your death if no one cancels them
Personal messages you'd want your family to receive — the letter to your spouse, the recipe from your mother, the advice for your children
Where to find things — the physical location of your safe, the key to the storage unit, the name of your family lawyer

For an expat, this gap is amplified. Your family may live in a country where they don't have easy access to your Spanish records, or don't speak Spanish, or don't know which Spanish bank you use.

This is where the "living complement to the will" concept comes in.

The practical checklist most expats miss

Here's what a properly organized expat estate looks like in 2026. Print this, tick it off, and put it somewhere your family will find.

Legal foundations (with a notary, cost: €150-400)

Valid Spanish will covering your Spanish assets, with explicit Article 22 Brussels IV choice of law to your nationality
Valid will in your country of nationality covering assets there, coordinated with the Spanish one (no contradictions)
Registered with the Registro General de Actos de Última Voluntad in Madrid (your Spanish notary does this automatically)
Updated after every major life event: marriage, divorce, birth, purchase or sale of major asset, move between countries

Trusted contact and heirs

One person of trust in your Spanish country of residence, with clear instructions on what to do the day you can't act
List of your heirs with current contact details (phone, email, physical address in each country)
NIE, DNI or passport numbers for each heir (Spanish authorities will require this for the deed)
Copy of birth/marriage certificates proving family links, apostilled and translated

Financial inventory (physical + digital)

Bank accounts: institution, IBAN, contact person if any
Real estate: address, escritura location, mortgage status, community fees payer
Investment accounts: brokerage, holding, contact person
Pension rights: UK state pension, private pensions, Spanish seguridad social if applicable
Life insurance: policy number, beneficiary designation (this bypasses the will!)
Crypto: exchange accounts, cold wallet seed phrases (never in the will directly — put them in a secure separate location)
Digital assets: cloud storage, professional accounts, domain names
Subscriptions: recurring payments, auto-renewals to cancel

Personal legacy

Personal messages to your spouse, children, parents, close friends
Instructions for your funeral and any wishes about cremation/burial
Access instructions (with proper security) for photos, family history, ongoing projects

Verification and update ritual

Annual review — sit down once a year and check that everything is still current
After every move between countries — recheck the applicable law
Trigger events — divorce, remarriage, new children, sale of major asset — each is a hard rewrite

Where Sucesio fits (soft — this is the part where I have skin in the game)

I built Sucesio after spending three evenings trying to write a proper letter to my wife and children — a practical one, listing everything they'd need to know if I wasn't around anymore. After 15 pages of scattered notes, screenshots, and vague hints ("private keys are behind the painting"), I realized that a will alone couldn't carry that.

Sucesio is a complement to your will, never a replacement. Specifically for expats:

Living inventory you update in minutes when things change (new bank account, new asset, new heir)
Encrypted and hosted in Europe (Hetzner Frankfurt, GDPR-compliant)
Human-validated transmission — never AI alone at the wheel — after regular presence check-ins and death certificate verification
Notary-ready PDF export at any time — you can share it with your Spanish notary, your UK solicitor, or your Family Office
Three languages: French, Spanish, English

The point is not to replace your will or your notary — they remain essential. The point is that between the notary appointment (typically once every 5-10 years) and the moment your family needs to act, life happens. Sucesio is the tool for that in-between.

If you want to try it: 90 days free, no card required.

FAQ · Cross-border succession Spain expats

If I'm British and live in Spain, does UK inheritance tax still apply?

Potentially yes. UK inheritance tax (IHT) is based on domicile, not residence. If you've retained a UK domicile of origin or acquired domicile of choice, HMRC may claim IHT on your worldwide estate — even if Spanish inheritance tax also applies. This can lead to double taxation. There is no bilateral UK-Spain tax treaty covering inheritance specifically, so you should get advice from a cross-border tax specialist to structure your estate accordingly.

What is the European Certificate of Succession, and do I need one?

The European Certificate of Succession (ECS) is a document created by Brussels IV, issued by a notary or court in one EU Member State, that is recognized in all other participating Member States (all EU except Denmark and Ireland). It proves your status as heir, executor, or administrator across borders. If your heirs need to unlock assets in more than one EU country, an ECS makes the process significantly faster than parallel national procedures.

Can I choose UK law for my succession if I'm a British expat in Spain?

Yes — this is exactly what Article 22 of Brussels IV allows. You can, in a written declaration (typically part of your will), choose that "the law of the state whose nationality [you] possess at the time of making the choice or at the time of death" applies to your entire succession. As a British national, choosing English & Welsh law (or Scottish or Northern Irish law depending on your specific nationality) gives you full testamentary freedom instead of Spanish forced heirship.

What happens to my digital assets if I don't plan for them?

Legally, digital assets fall into a grey area in Spain. They're not covered by traditional inheritance frameworks. Practically, they become unrecoverable — 24 to 90% of them are lost to families of the deceased according to various studies. Crypto wallets whose seed phrases are lost are gone forever. Cloud accounts get deleted for inactivity. This is not a legal problem you can solve with a better will. It requires a living inventory approach.

How often should I update my cross-border succession planning?

At minimum once a year, plus after every major life event: marriage, divorce, birth of a child, purchase or sale of a major asset, move between countries, significant change in financial situation. Cross-border planning ages badly — a will drafted five years ago may reference banks that no longer exist, heirs whose contact details have changed, or laws that have been amended.

Can Sucesio replace a Spanish notary?

No, and it's important to say that clearly. A Spanish notary is legally required to authenticate your will, register it with the Registro General de Actos de Última Voluntad, and issue the deeds transferring property. Sucesio is the living complement to that legal foundation — it keeps your inventory updated day to day and delivers it to your heirs at the right moment, alongside a PDF that your notary can use directly. Both are needed.

Sources and further reading

Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 of 4 July 2012 (Brussels IV) — full text on EUR-Lex
Council of the Notariats of the European Union — Successions Europe portal
HMRC — Inheritance Tax: overview (UK domicile rules)
Ley 29/1987, de 18 de diciembre, del Impuesto sobre Sucesiones y Donaciones (Spanish inheritance tax law)
Registro General de Actos de Última Voluntad — Ministerio de Justicia

This article is educational and does not constitute legal or tax advice. For your specific situation, consult a cross-border succession specialist. Sucesio is a complement to your will and never a substitute for professional legal counsel.

About the author — Nicolas Ponette is the founder of Sucesio.io, a Barcelona-based platform that helps expats in Europe organize their estate for cross-border transmission. French national, Spanish resident since 2020. LinkedIn.