Saving Assets From An Unfaithful Heir

One of the most significant questions asked by the acquaintances is how to save her/his assets from an unfaithful heir. In fact nobody is keen on giving any advice on after death matters and sometimes a feeling of being in favour of somebody’s death and thinking its benefits disturbes. However, elderly people who are eligible of inherit or who are property owners need a decent advice from an attorney.

The first option is to prepare a will. Nevertheless keep in mind that the legator can not dispose of the whole her/his property. Although, he/she transferres the whole property to a third party, the reserved portions of the heirs remain untouched. For example, if an elderly woman has no spouse and children and she has only siblings, siblings will share half of the inheritance. But, their reserved portion will be ¼ th of their legal portion. Therefore, everyone has the right to disporse their whole assets other than the reserved portion of legal heirs.

This elderly woman can legate her property to her sister by a will. However, her brother can demand 1/8th of the property as a reserved proportion despite the will. In events of lack of communication between close relatives, it is better to draw up life long support agreement through Notary of Public. In fact the real intention of this transaction depends on emotional reasons and it might be a kind of punishment to the one/ones who caused the breakdown of the relationship. In consideration of being supported during old age and illness, a promise of transferring an immovable property is given within the framework of the agreement.

On the other hand, the second option which is executing life long support agreement has some disadvantages. If the legator is not in condition of requiring special care at the time the agreement was executed, the brother in this case can take an action for reduction. However, the amount he can claim will be only his reserved portion. Secondly, the legator can only allocate one of her/his immovable properties to the agreement. Allocating more than one property to one of the heirs or to a third party might cause suspicion and might be a fair cause of a reduction lawsuit.

Despite all,  it is worth executing a will or a life long support agreement in this case.