Wills and Catalan succession agreements
Everything else on this site is about fixing estates that went wrong. This page is about making sure yours does not. It is by far the cheapest and most effective intervention.
A will worth having
A notarial will costs little and saves a great deal. But the saving is not in the document: it is in the decisions behind it.
We work through what later causes litigation: securing the surviving spouse without blocking the children, allocating the family home to whoever will use it while compensating the others, ordering a business, and settling the reserved share rather than leaving it open.
We also review existing wills. A will from twenty years ago, drafted for a different family and a different tax regime, is usually a problem waiting to happen.
The Catalan succession agreement
Catalonia has an instrument the Spanish common regime prohibits and which is clearly underused: the succession agreement (*pacte successori*).
It is a contract in a public deed in which the deceased-to-be and other parties agree the succession on a binding basis. Unlike a will, which is revocable at any time, a succession agreement holds.
It is particularly strong in three situations: the orderly handover of a family business, blended families with children from different relationships, and cases where one child takes on the care of a parent in exchange for an agreed entitlement.
It can also incorporate waivers of the reserved share, which under Catalan law are valid during lifetime by this route.
Tell us about your case
First assessment at no cost. We tell you whether you have a case, what deadlines apply and what it would cost.
About this service.
I am a foreign national. Should I make a Spanish will?+
If you own assets in Spain, a Spanish will limited to those assets usually saves the heirs considerable time and cost. It should be drafted so it does not revoke your will in your home country, and it is the natural place to choose the law of your nationality under EU Regulation 650/2012.