French Law Consultancy

Wills

A carefully drafted Will can carry out your wishes and make your estate as easy to manage and as low cost as possible at a difficult time.

A poorly drafted or out of date French Will can create stress, additional tax, and massive costs for your loved ones, who may not even inherit, or wish that they hadn’t inherited.

First step - we listen to you.

What do you want to do. Who do you want to leave your estate to? How much is the estate worth?

We then talk through the legal and tax consequences, and see if there is any creative way to minimise tax and meet your wishes.

We then see if you actually need a Will or not. You might not need one, or your old one may be OK but we’d need to see it to check - ask about our Free Will Review.

If you need a Will, we carefully craft your Will to reflect your wishes, and so that you are aware of the effect, validity, and tax consequences of your Will. We can add a very carefully worded choice of law clause if appropriate, so you can choose the law of your nationality to apply to your French estate.

We talk you through whether you need separate Wills for different countries or not.

Ask about our Free Will Review

Inheritance Tax

We help you understand how French inheritance tax works, whether or not it applies to you and your estate, and how to creatively minimise your inheritance tax

We provide an easy to understand explanation of French inheritance tax and creative inheritance tax planning options

Whilst you can elect English law to apply to your French estate, you cannot elect English tax. French inheritance tax will still apply to your French property even if you live in the UK. If you live in France, French inheritance tax applies to your worldwide estate, including property outside of France, even if you elect English law.

It is important therefore that you understand the French Inheritance Tax consequences of your estate planning.

We are experts at explaining creative, fully costed legitimate inheritance tax solutions.

We can also discuss, explain and arrange lifetime gifts of French property and liaise with your UK accountant or Solicitor of Independent Financial Advisor to assess the suitability of tax planning in both jurisdictions, and whether the inheritance tax double tax treaty comes into play.

We make the complicated seem simple.

French Law in Plain English.

Inheriting an Estate

We understand how difficult it is to lose a loved one, and then to also deal with the complications of a French estate.

We provide calm, compassionate, practical assistance, clear explanations, and full liaison on your behalf with the Notaire.

Let us take the stress away from you at this difficult time.

We will also provide a cost estimate including Notaire fees and inheritance tax.

It is important to contact us before contacting a Notaire, so that we can assess the situation and make you aware of any problems and what the Notaire will need. We can also help you choose a Notaire who is familiar with international estates.

Once a Notaire is appointed it is very difficult to change them.

French Inheritance is often called French Succession or French Probate. Where a British national has died with assets in France or living in France, it can be difficult to know how to deal with this, even for an experienced UK Solicitor or French Notaire.

We have dealt with French Inheritance law and French estates for 18 years, and are happy to calmly guide you through the process, and to liaise with your UK Solicitor and the French Notaire to make sure that everyone understands the process, and that we reach the best outcome for you and your loved ones, and avoid unintended tax and legal problems.

Charities

We have particular expertise in dealing with UK charities as beneficiaries of French estates, and have acted for some of the biggest and smallest UK charities.

We are also able to help create charitable legacies in Wills, and lifetime gifts to charities.

Charities can benefit from our generous fee packages designed so as not to deprive the Charity of funds until the legacy is received.

Estate Planning

A well-organized carefully planned estate is one of the most thoughtful gifts you can leave your family.

We help you structure your estate to benefit your loved ones, or charities, and to creatively minimise the inheritance tax or gift tax consequences, whilst being clear on the cost implications payable now, set against the potential tax and savings in the future.

French Property

We provide reassuring, hassle free inspection and explanation of contracts, capital gains tax, and full liaison with the Notaire and French estate agent.

We can arrange powers of attorney to enable the notaire to sign on your behalf in France, otherwise you have to visit the Notaire’s office in person to read through the contracts line by line and then sign the contracts, which is not always desirable.

Powers of Attorney

We can arrange and explain powers of attorney so that you don’t have to travel to France in person to sign the French probate documents or French property sale documents in the Notaire’s office.

We also help UK Notaries Public when they need assistance for a client with a French procuration to accept an estate or to sell a property.

We can provide a full explanation and signing instructions, and assess whether or not it is safe for the client to sign.

French Bank Accounts

We can also help to recover funds from French bank accounts of a deceased.

French bank accounts in a sole name or held as Monsieur et Madame can be surprisingly slow and difficult to tackle unless you have specialist help.

Most French bank accounts need to be declared on the French inheritance tax form, even though no tax is due for a UK deceased. The Tax Office can take 12 months or more to approve the tax certificate.

We have developed a service to reduce this time delay to a couple of months (out of lockdown).

Certificats de Coutûme

Notaires and French banks often ask for an acte de notoriété or certificat de coutûme, or a certificat de la dévolution successorale.

The Notaire or bank essentially needs confirmation as to whether a UK Will is valid, what its effect is and who inherits under the Will, and that there are no other persons entitled to inherit.

We can assist you and your solicitor with this, and liaise with France for you.