Making a will is a procedure that many people only associate with movies, or think that it is only useful for people with a lot of money, or choose to even think about it because it is equivalent to thinking about their own death and that gives “bad vibes.” However, making a will is a simple, fast and affordable managementand that offers several benefits.
news-know-more partner-vertical-tablet-desktop" amp-access="access" amp-access-hide="">Is it possible to completely disinherit a daughter or son?
Further
One of the main advantages is the possibility of deciding how a part of one’s inheritance will be distributed, if one prefers that it is not what the legislation establishes “by default”. Another positive aspect –not a minor one– is that making a will facilitates the procedures to the heirs after the death of the testator: it allows them to save money, time and energy.
On the other hand, the will is a revocable document: can be replaced by another at any time and as many times as desired. In other words, the fact that in the future you can change your mind or plans does not have to be a cause for major concern. The only definitive will will be the last one that the person has dictated before dying.
What decisions can be made about one’s own inheritance?
Through the will, a person can freely decide what to do with a part of his inheritance, but not with all of it. This is because Spanish law prevents a person from bequeathing more than a third of his estate to someone not in your family.
He Civil Code establishes, in its article 808, that two thirds of the inheritance always belong to the children or eventually to other descendants. One of those two parts is known as “legitimate” and is always divided equally between those forced heirs. With the other part, on the other hand, those who make a will can decide not to divide it equally, but to favor one (or more than one) of those heirs with its distribution. For this reason, it is called the “improvement”.
The third part of the inheritance, meanwhile, according to the same article of the Civil Code, is “freely available”. In other words, that third of the estate – its entirety or a fraction of it – can be donated to a person outside her family, to an NGO or to some other organization that the testator wishes.
Types of wills and how to process each one
There are several types of will, and each of them offers its advantages and disadvantages. The essential aspects of each are explained below.
1. Olograph testament
This is the simplest but also the most risky way to make a will. Holograph means handwritten, and that is what it is literally: a document written in full handwriting and signed by the testator. It can be done without leaving home, at any time and, of course, it’s free.
If the person wants to keep his last will a secret, this is a way to ensure it, since he can not tell anyone that he has made a will. The only requirement is to be of legal age. The risks are several. In the first place, the possibility of committing any error or irregularity that invalidate the document.
Although the text may include deletions, amendments or additions between the lines (the testator himself must “save” them with his signature, as explained in article 688 of the Civil Code), another class of failures can mean that, in the end, the value of the document turns out to be null. One way to avoid this possibility is to hire the services of some companies who provide advice for the drafting of the remote holograph will.
One expresses to the lawyers what their testamentary provisions are, these specialists write the text and send it by email. The testator must copy that text in his own handwriting and then sign the will. In this way, making a will is not free (its cost is around 40-50 euros), but it allows complete the process without leaving home.
Another risk of this type of will is that it may not be found or may be destroyed without leaving copies or traces. It can also be the subject of counterfeiting. And, furthermore, after the death of the testator, the holographic will must be notarized: presented before a notary, subjected to expert evidence, etc.
These procedures, necessary for the document to be recognized as official, have a cost that can amount to several hundred euros. Therefore, the procedure is simple and free –or very affordable– for the testator, but more complex and more expensive for the heirs.
2. Open will
Making an open will is the most frequent modality. It consists of going to a notary, to whom the will is expressed for after one’s death. The notary is responsible for drafting the document. It is also a procedure that is generally very affordable, the cost of which is usually found between 40 and 80 euros.
There are legal offices that offer the service of initiating procedures remotely, in the same way as for the completion of the holographic will. But, unlike this, the open will requires that at some point the testator go to the notary to sign the documentation.
The main advantage of going to a notary is, without a doubt, having his free technical and legal advice. As a specialist, he will ensure that everything is drafted correctly, in order to eliminate possible irregularities and reasons for disability. In addition, the original document usually remains in the notary’s office and the testator takes a copy: in this way the possibility of it being lost or suffering some other inconvenience is eliminated.
And it is a procedure that can also be done confidentially, since (except in special cases, such as the testator does not know how to sign or cannot do so due to some disability) does not require the intervention of witnesses.
3. Will closed
The closed testament is –like the holograph– a way of guaranteeing the absolute confidentiality of the last will, since the testator may not inform anyone of the content of the text. The difference with the first is that, in this case, the will is kept in an envelope; this envelope is closed and sealedand its existence is declared before a notary.
This opens an act in which a number and the marks of the seals are registered, to avoid future adulterations. The closed will may remain in the possession of the notary, the testator himself or someone he trusts. The economic cost of this procedure is similar to that of an open will.
If there is no will, what happens?
When a person dies without leaving a will, the law establishes that his heirs are his childrenbeyond the fact that the spouse is entitled to half of the marital property (which is already their property since before they were widowed) and the “usufruct of the third destined for improvement”, as explained in article 834 of the Civil Code.
If the person who dies without leaving a will does not have children, his inheritance corresponds to his parents, or – in case his parents have died – to his grandparents or other more distant ancestors. If he does not have ascendants either, the heir is the spouse, and if there is no spouse, the order continues with his brothers, his nephews, his uncles and his cousins. Only in the event that someone dies and no one remains with these degrees of kinship, it will be the State that inherits his patrimony.
#cost #procedures
