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Making a Will in Spain - International or Spanish? | Pellicer & Heredia
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Oct 29, 2024
Ignacio was back in this week from Pellicer & Heredia, talking about wills and inheritance (plus a tiny bit more about residency...). It's very important to have a will in place, especially if you own a property in Spain, since the Spanish law may be very different to the one in your home country. Every other Wednesday morning, your international lawyers based on the Costa Blanca are in chatting with Moody about the latest legal issues affecting those living in Spain...or those who wish to continue living in Spain post Brexit. A reminder that there is still a lot of focus on residency and the different options - including Golden Visas - available to non-residents. You can read about these in detail at www.visaspain.today or see www.alicantelawyers.es Be sure to Like 👍 this and Subscribe to our channel if you found it useful. Website: http://www.bayradio.fm/ Mobile App: https://app.appinstitute.com/yddcc Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BayRadioInSpain Twitter: https://twitter.com/bayradioinspain Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bayradiospain/
View Video Transcript
0:00
now if you're resident in spain the applicable law will be the spanish and here we go
0:06
here we open the can of worms the spanish unfortunately is not treated the same freedom on
0:12
wheels as as the british or the americans for example i cannot leave everything to my wife
0:17
the two things must go to my children this is bay radio delighted to welcome back i
0:23
always say that and we're very grateful as well because i know it's a whole to do for you to get here every morning uh
0:29
ignacio from pfa and already yeah dropping the kids off at school but not nearby here either
0:34
and then well i don't think about getting stuck in traffic as much over here because a lot of us you know we live quite close to where we
0:41
work and maybe not on the motorway every day but it's it's a similar thing to maybe back in the uk yeah and well good morning muddy yes uh
0:47
i've been a bit stressed this morning because we got a traffic jam in the a7 and after
0:52
dropping the kids to school in alicante um it was impossible to
0:58
to keep moving so but i made it so that's good back here exactly and this is where we'd
1:03
normally go on anyway so uh not late or anything like that no uh where do we start then because we've covered
1:09
uh a lot about the visas and residency that kind of took up the first couple of three sessions that we did we're going
1:15
to start with something different today because um being legal folk uh should talk about
1:20
wills because it's it's a big thing over here particularly if you've moved over things may be different you may need a
1:26
spanish and an english one so where do we start good um i could just start giving some
1:32
piece of advice for people who who are resident or non-resident but they've got property
1:37
or assets in spain okay is it obligatory money to make a will in spain
1:43
no you're not obliged okay do i recommend it yes as long as you have assets in spain
1:49
yes it doesn't matter whether you're resident or non-resident okay because if the inevitable happens
1:57
then you need to think how they're going to sort all these problems out and how are they going to transfer
2:03
all these assets to your beneficiaries so i will start saying uh please do check if you have a
2:10
will if the will is according to your wishes because the wills can be updated
2:16
and um a lot of questions moody asked me if it did affect uh brexit to wills i was
2:22
going to ask you that yeah yeah and um and then actually the answer is no
2:28
because the the situation for people to understand if you're resident in spain
2:34
you're british or any other national country that you are you've got the option to
2:41
choose the national law which he will be in this case the british law
2:46
or if you say nothing it will be your residency law which is the spanish if you live in
2:52
spain we'll be the spanish and there is a treaty uk never assigned this this treaty but it doesn't really
2:57
matter because if you're resident in spain it affects residents okay so people get
3:03
confused about uh brexit with this but the answer is if you have a will and
3:09
you made the option and chose the applicable law okay you you should be fine now i always
3:15
recommend to review the wheels just in case because some changes come and um and i will tell you later on
3:24
some some some tips about what do i think is best because sometimes we do
3:29
international wills some people say i do have assets abroad and depending on the
3:35
situation i recommend them to do an international will which we've done a lot of them obviously
3:41
if it's too complex it's better to have one in the home country and one here yeah we're talking about
3:46
probably bank accounts approach simple things you could just save and
3:52
just do one here in spanish in english translated
3:57
and fully legal and um that will avoid you flying back over there and doing just to
4:03
will uh for for for little things so you can do an english will over here yes um what we've been doing
4:11
here so far the the most um i will say advisable will that we've
4:17
done is the international will we do the spanish and the english uh in two columns in two languages
4:25
as well we send it um we need to legalize it here at the notary office we always include the will it will
4:32
really depend and some people might say well um some some wills are straightforward some
4:39
wills are complex but i always try to mention specific clauses to avoid problems in the future
4:45
and we always put as well clauses of executors so the client giving us instructions
4:51
what to do in the future in case they know it will what would you like and then we need to
4:57
always focus on tax planning it's important to know if i were to pass away today what would
5:04
i leave what how would it affect and and we could do inheritance tax planning yes and that's important
5:10
yeah um so one side we mentioned a clause about executors
5:16
which is very good the way they want to do it now if you i want you to sell the property for example one clause we do mention and
5:23
is popular within our wheels and we've been writing i don't know i could i couldn't give you a number probably a thousand
5:30
uh wills already um one popular clause i always mention is in case there is several
5:35
beneficiaries we just say here it goes to them
5:41
unless one of the beneficiaries do not want the property if they do not want the
5:46
property you the client already gives instructions to sell the property and just split the money between the
5:52
beneficiaries why because let's say some people have some issues one wants to stay here
5:59
once just wants the money you don't want to end up in a court case you know no sure and going through all core cases
6:06
takes long time it costs money and and and i highly recommend not to do it so putting the right clauses in the
6:12
whales is important do you have to do that bit you know we see in uh in the movies and tv series
6:17
where the family gather and you have to read out the will you know what everything who gets what do you do that
6:23
bit no basically the process what happens here is the client just come up to our
6:29
office okay disappoints the beneficiaries we advise whether it's better or not
6:36
um i will mention later on that some people just leave it split between six seven eight people
6:43
that's that's a lot of work for the future and a lot of people to say because you need to get power of turning
6:48
from all of them and normally we deal with the beneficiaries abroad they grant palpatine
6:53
but the problem i find muddy here is putting everybody agreeing to something you know
6:59
agreeing to get the power of tiny some people do not even have a passport in the uk uh i'm dealing actually with it with a
7:05
with a complex inheritance uh where is uh children grandchildren
7:11
you could imagine to organize all that yes i mean again unless tv and movies have lied to
7:17
me that it's the family falls out over who's got what and you know say i deserve that i spent more time with them
7:22
than you yeah but that's the real thing though is it can come to that sometimes it is the thing is probably they don't
7:28
do it in from the solicitor you know you just uh listen that story later on
7:33
saying that they're falling apart and one wants to sell the other one doesn't want to once gets into the
7:39
property uh you know that's why it's important to live or i always say to my clients just let's do
7:46
the full more well okay the best way we could do it for everybody and then you later on leave me a note
7:51
how you want it because certain things you don't need to even mention in the world you know it's just instructions to the executor
7:57
what to do what not to do etc etc and um so yes we've been we've been very
8:04
busy with with this sort of things and i highly recommend people to think twice
8:09
when they do the will two things important tax planning how to accord depending on
8:16
the value of the assets we could just have a better simulation a scenario
8:21
and the second if you're going to live to the grandchildren and all these things and they're not legal age
8:27
it might be better probably in some cases to make legacies you know just money because the fact of
8:33
them getting private healthy and then having the passport because to get power 10 in here to get the n a
8:40
number moody uh they will request me a passport so some people in the uk
8:46
didn't need to travel and they never had a so they need to go with the aggravation of getting the passport let's say and i'm dealing with one one
8:53
one case like this uh it's nine people involved uh probably six of them or five of them are
9:00
children and um and then you need to sell the property so unless they they could organize a
9:07
part of attorney for me to start telling i'm a bit um just tied up um
9:13
and this is what sometimes uh some people even say moody i will leave everything to my son or my sister
9:21
somebody and he will split these assets along with his beneficiaries you know
9:26
like more more informal way of doing it but legacies are are good because you
9:32
could say i leave x amount of pounds to this one and then exit that and when there is talking about money
9:37
it's easy to make bank transfers you know yeah sure and they can get it straight away or it's a way of
9:42
doing it that they get it when they're 18 or something like that yes i've got some closes as well where people saying now if you're
9:49
i just want you to to withhold it or just want the the their son to withhold it until
9:54
their legal age and they go to university uh certain things like that you know but we always
10:00
need to think what is the best for for your situation you know and uh sometimes that's why i'm
10:06
saying hey moody's it's good people to have always my first advice you need a will because
10:12
it will be helpful but between all the wheels if you could do the best tax efficient and and and the best distribution
10:19
between the beneficiaries the better for you and for everybody actually and as far as the tax planning goes what about the inheritance tax side
10:25
of things i mean we've touched on this before because it's different in spain isn't it and when you talked about someone saying
10:30
they don't want the property so we have had that happen yes where it's not been worth their while because you're paying the taxes on
10:36
it yes um i've got a case as well uh where some people are saying
10:42
um i remember one one person made a will um two nephews actually and they don't
10:49
want it because they say i don't want to inherit any debts and here we go
10:55
that's another issue as well because you need to renounce or wave
11:00
officially the the inheritance you know but but with regards to
11:07
inheritance tax modi um the situation is not as good as it used to be it used to be
11:13
99 off discount on on the tax now you have a hundred thousand euros
11:19
between family that means husband wife and children that's the first grade on the scale you have a hundred on the
11:26
main property you have up to 156 000 euros but on that that allowance 95
11:33
of the tax and then after that you have a 50 discount on whatever tax you need to pay
11:38
on inheritance tax i see okay so here i'm telling you depending on the amount of money you're leaving
11:45
probably tax planning might be okay i've got three children it might be good to split it between three because then i use all
11:51
the allowances i use a hundred and the 150 yeah and um and but so that's why it's
11:59
important uh to discuss the wheels um and always look ahead and see what could
12:06
happen you know and what tax cue i mean we never know in the in the future what kind of tax
12:12
we're going to pay because the law has been changing and it will be changing i hope one day will be zero tax you know
12:19
as he always used to be in the old days it depends on regions as well moody now in community valentiana we've got
12:24
these allowances and daluthia they made a bigger allowance in the old days uh well mufia was
12:31
similar they remove it with a credit crunch they remove it and they remove all the allowance and that was terrible and
12:37
people didn't complete you will see people not even completing the inheritance because they couldn't pay they will say
12:43
well i'm not going to sell it you're blocked basically you cannot touch the money
12:49
in the bank you cannot do but they just use the length of time so you will expire yeah it was always a
12:56
thing i find out here through talking to to people like yourself that we had on um that you have to pay
13:01
the taxes up front almost before you right very early on anyway compared to the uk
13:07
yeah that's a good point money and i think it's good to clarify here if the individual happens
13:12
then um what the bank does is as soon as they know they block it because they don't know who's a beneficiary
13:19
so what i normally recommend is go and speak to your lawyer show him the will in good faith and
13:25
obviously he will tell you how to move forward you know i always leave
13:30
the bank informing the bank for the latest so you could have enough finance to to
13:36
leave and then depending on the amount of money is left because there is just like a measure a protection measure they do
13:42
to see whether somebody else is beneficiary but i have in a lot of cases where 50 percent
13:48
is husband have fifty percent the wife and then as soon as they know they block fifty percent
13:53
okay well i i will normally uh recommend them to go and speak to the solicitor try to put everything in
14:00
motion and then leave the certificate of that for the very last minute so once you ask
14:05
for the certificate you show him the death certificate to the bank they block it but probably if you complete the following week
14:11
they will unblock it very very quickly right you know so some people are scared of that but if
14:17
you do it properly you shouldn't have any problem um right um yeah and uh i mean
14:22
the thing with wills every time you do what it's going to be different they're all different there's all the little various different things and that's
14:28
that's where you come in and you can maybe advise people on their particular situation so it's
14:33
not it's not it's not a one it's not fit no no what is probably good for me is not good for the others you
14:39
know and and the other way around and um but normal cases here will be um a lot of clients moody asked
14:47
me now if you're uh what about the ni number yes um i said don't worry uh at the end of the
14:53
day the beneficiaries will have to grant power of attorney and i could get it for them you know the ni number is not
14:58
an issue i will be more concerned of organizing pavitani from them onto the executor the solicitor etc etc
15:06
because otherwise it can no process and the other thing an advisor will tell um the audience here it will be
15:14
try to have they will very very well organize why because you need to know a possible
15:21
scenario and how it's going to move for example as i said grandchildren's
15:26
children um nephews all these things you need to know how we're gonna gather all these
15:32
documents to put in their name how easy it's gonna be you know
15:37
me particularly i will say children just legacy or money you know that will be easy
15:43
that's probably what they want you know yeah um just having the property into
15:49
joint names with a lot of beneficiaries is not is not ideal it's not ideal
15:55
because they all need to agree well once you are the executor you've got more power
16:00
to make a decision you know but obviously um that's why you mentioned the clauses
16:06
here buddy if one doesn't want the property just only i need one so i'm allowed to sell the property um
16:14
and then split the money you know because otherwise they will do it through the course yeah i guess one or two of the the cases
16:20
you've been talking about where you've said they don't want it it may be that the property's not paid off yet the
16:26
mortgage isn't paid off well when we think of wills we think of an older person that owns the property
16:31
they're not still paying for it but there will be cases where the you know there's still a mortgage on it yes and normally uh is very likely moody
16:39
the the when you have a mortgage there is a life insurance uh yeah sure so it's very likely i mean especially
16:45
now but probably after 2008 uh i think uh before probably i've seen cases where there is no mortgage
16:51
or they wouldn't ensure because of the age unless your children was on the deeds and probably
16:58
you know in the old days they accept a lot of things that probably now they don't um
17:04
the live insurance will take place so let's put it this way i have a mortgage i have live insurance
17:10
um we need to just work out how much is the insurance and if he's going to pay it off paid off yeah yeah you know because
17:16
probably the property is worth much more sure i was just asking about uh what's the main sort of thing that you
17:22
do and it is very kind of sometimes seasonal you get uh visas particularly hot at the moment
17:27
and at the website the special website visa spain dot today we'll tell you what you need to know
17:32
particularly about the the sort of golden visa and uh non-lucrative visa is what i've learned
17:37
about so but to all the details through the website alicante lawyers.es is the easiest way to do it to remember
17:43
and go to the blog because uh kept right up to dates all the useful stuff there will be bits about wills in there as well which we've
17:49
started talking about today i think there's a bit more to cover i just asked you i said what um you must get people saying i'm too
17:54
young to make a will you don't even think about it till you're you know much older yes uh
18:00
actually murray a lot of people say that and i have young clients as well but when you start talking about wills
18:06
probably it's a bit it was a bit of a shock because you don't you don't plan you don't plan these things yet do you
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no you're young no i yeah yeah but let me tell you some some points here as well
18:17
why i know he's income uncomfortable uh probably you don't want just neither to to to
18:23
spend the time than the money but i think his peace of mind we all have insurance
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at one point and and to be honest this is the insurance that all your assets goes to the person that you wish
18:33
them to have um and we didn't don't know when we're all gonna go so it could happen certainly and um
18:42
the way i say is okay i don't have any assets now today but i'm young but i might have it
18:49
tomorrow or i might inherit something from my family and all these things happened
18:55
all these like you said on the movies you could see these things happening but i i have a lot of cases
19:00
where unfortunately something happens and now the situation i'm going to explain moody if you don't have a will
19:07
then the first thing i'm going to try to identify is your nationality and the law applicable law now
19:14
if you're resident in spain the applicable law will be the spanish and here we go
19:20
here we open the kind of worms the spanish unfortunately is not treated the same freedom
19:26
on wheels as as the british or the americans we are limited you could only leave
19:31
certain amount to the third parties for example i cannot leave everything to my wife
19:37
the tooth says must go to my children oh yes so this is the limitation and he's
19:43
very common and sensible people sending saying nafio i'm going to leave everything to my wife or my wife
19:49
is going to leave everything to me that's completely possible if you will states that you're using
19:54
the national law which allows you which is british law and allows you even though
20:02
now if you are resident and you didn't say anything which we call it up interstate i mean to
20:08
say it's not well left okay then you have this issue
20:13
now you have no control at all of your assets and it goes to the legal heirs now if you don't have children's it will
20:20
go to your parents if you don't have parents it will go to your brother's brothers and sisters
20:28
then if you don't have brothers and sisters you go to the nephews you don't have nephews they will go to their children's and if
20:34
not it goes to the state now going all these trying to prove all these things and ima
20:40
you know i need to get a birth certificate of everybody you could imagine having all these people birth certificates
20:46
trying to prove the triangle yeah yeah so no so um so that's why i said
20:53
um if i know it's never a good time to do it but uh you i always say to clients do it
21:00
at least once in your life you know do it once uh then you could change it you could update it
21:06
you know some clients are doing two wheels one international will and the other one
21:11
is uh the one that donation of the bodies and the you know and and and
21:18
leaving instructions to disconnect you in case of a painful illness yes now this is uh a
21:26
thing because we you you mentioned it to me this is not me knowing all this stuff but i do know about the
21:31
law in spain about euthanasia yes coming in is being approved very very
21:37
reason and i already had an inquiry and that they want to put it in the will
21:43
you know and and the way we do it is is two ways one is the will this what we call it the
21:49
civil will which is about financial and assets the second thing
21:54
um now is important as well i forgot to mention the live insurance and the policies some people and it's important they tell
22:01
their solicitor they've got some insurance with special beneficiaries so in the world that we normally drew up
22:08
uh we include even policies so this existing will will
22:14
remove anything in the past for example i had a case uh we didn't know one client
22:19
had some funds with a special beneficiaries clause you know that lay
22:24
del ceburo with the insurance law says that you could specifically appoint somebody
22:30
even though you have a will saying everything goes to your children it's important you disclose this information with your solicitor
22:36
because and what i do in the wales i always ask a client do you want me to include here
22:42
everything means everything so we and this will will change
22:47
the policies you have in the past that probably you don't remember and it might go to somebody else yeah um
22:53
and also in there you can designate with the power of attorney can you if you if you become
22:59
incapacitated as they were lose your faculties right going so we said we've got the civil
23:05
will which is one side about assets international will or national will and then we have the what we call vital
23:12
will we call it in spain testament right it's just giving
23:17
instructions to the social security or doctors on the way you want to be treated for
23:23
example i don't want you to give me any extra
23:29
medicines to maintain artificially my life which is not the euthanasia it
23:35
was what the old version we had is like let me die yeah that's it with dignity yeah i think
23:41
you know do not resuscitate it's like the equivalent to that i suppose in a world correct and and so we're doing
23:47
two one that is registered with the social security and and then you can mention there as
23:53
well and that's the time to mention that you want to to to to to use all the rights that the
23:59
euthanasia law gives you which is a bit extended moody i mean in the old
24:07
days it was okay don't artificially keep me alive and the other one might be even removing
24:14
you know it's just all these uh this but the bottom line is you have full control of what you want to do
24:20
that's that's the bottom line and now it's possible and you could even mention in in the will you know um so
24:28
so that's something good and you mentioned as well murray something about pavitani yeah that's very good uh
24:35
which you just said because i recommend clients especially elderly people at least to grandparents husband to wife
24:42
wife to husband okay um because that is gonna make
24:48
uh life probably easier dealing with uh financial uh you know dealing with assets uh there
24:54
is a type of power of 10 as well which is prevent evil which is preventive which even authorize your husband your
25:01
wife even your lawyer to make decisions uh at the hospital um when you're not capable to make
25:08
decisions okay that's what we call poder preventivo and and this extended version
25:14
okay now pavitan is uh can be organized here in spain or we could even organize it at
25:20
the um consulate in the uk uh the spanish consulate around the world
25:25
or we could have it signed as well this part of attorney sign before a public notary in the uk
25:31
seal apostille translate it send it back here so there are ways to to to do all these things and especially
25:40
people which there are limited with mobility and things like that i
25:46
think it's very useful as as long as you have trust on the people that you're going to rely the power of attorney and you could
25:53
always cancel and revoke that power of attorney right so the reason there is no problem
25:58
for you to go back to the same place and revoke it and there is a registry um of power of
26:04
attorney which will now is being shared between between the administration
26:09
of justice and the law society of the notaries where they could check whether you have
26:15
10 is still valid or not okay so it's very very good protective and
26:20
the registries work very well and for wills moody we didn't touch this subject but
26:27
the spanish system i consider is very protective because once you make a will you will is private is at the notary
26:34
office where you have to just sign and the information that you just did signed this date not the content is sent to the last
26:41
wheel registry in madrid yes so with the death certificate you just make an application
26:47
and the the register will say where is the last notary office where where the late uh
26:55
person signed the will and that's how you find out where is the will and the you need
27:01
to prove that you are beneficiary or family and then you go there and make the application and get it so the registry
27:08
is very good i think in the uk they don't use that much uh registry as according to my clients they
27:13
don't they do wells but they don't register you could register but it's not that and i think here is his piece of
27:20
mind it's a fairly efficient over here then yeah yes just mentioning the the euthanasia thing again and
27:26
dwell on all of this but it's the law that's come in this year uh do you come into that as lawyers do
27:31
they need to go through you or no no well no no at the end of the day i didn't study the whole law yet
27:37
uh it was passed recently yeah and people been claiming about these but basically is like the right to die
27:44
basically and they need to um i think they will have to remove
27:49
obviously um the the criminal code obviously yes and i think there's quite a few checks you
27:55
have to apply twice for it a few weeks apart so it's like um i saw it as the equivalent of when they buying a gun in
28:02
the states you have this calling off period because you could apply and then maybe change your mind
28:07
but you you you confirm it again a few weeks later and it has to go to a body
28:12
committee and um a second sort of doctor as well the second opinion
28:17
yes and that's something so it's quite a process it's not just as simple as saying no no but at least is is um that all the
28:23
checks are there yes of course because otherwise money will be so so easy to
28:29
you know he's a bit dangerous probably yes you know but yes with all the checks but you still could express that you
28:35
don't want to to carry on the way you are and that can go in your will yes and now you could go in your will
28:43
which is the social security will which is good because it's connected
28:48
it's connected with the social security um but it's good to keep both if you
28:55
want to have these things i always recommend you have these two type of wheels the assets one
29:00
and the same day you do you do the the vital will which is more uh about uh
29:07
health okay and of course you can if you've got assets in spain and the uk
29:12
you can do the international world yes yeah we could do the international will but
29:18
is is very depending on on on the specific uh asset situation
29:23
because for example somebody who's got a lot of assets in the uk he will make it sensible
29:28
to have one wheel in the uk and one for spain one for the uk not to make things more complex i always
29:34
try to make things simple keep it simple and and and then there's the tax efficiency
29:40
side of things of course obviously yeah whatever's best there you could use a dual taxation treaty between spain and
29:46
the uk and um for even for inheritance tax okay so but yes this is quite a quite a world
29:54
about the inheritance tax where where the were the late pairs and worse
29:59
where are the beneficiaries where are the assets are the three questions we all need to make to make the puzzle of
30:05
what let's say you pass where you raised in spain but all the assets are in the in the uk
30:10
the beneficiaries are in the uk you know it's different different treatment and um sometimes it's tax
30:16
efficient yeah well for anyone to see if that's all sounds quite complicated it probably can be but this is what you do every day
30:22
so that's that's why people come and talk to you and uh get it sorted so i'm sure you'd be able to uh help them out thank you everyone we're
30:28
just about out of time there's anything else we needed to add well you're here just a reminder of the website alicante lawyers.es as i say particularly keep in
30:35
mind that you can go to any language on there as well english spanish dutch russian whatever um and
30:40
the blog there's plenty of useful articles on there all right well we thank you for your time as always thank you for seeing a
30:47
couple of weeks we'll see you soon
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