How far does this exhereration go?

How far does this exhereration go?

"Further to your column of 25 November last, I would like to know what the procedures and conditions are for disenfranchising someone. Will disqualification also apply to the disqualified person's descendants?

When a death occurs, the community of heirs is generally made up of the legal heirs (designated by law) and the instituted heirs (chosen by the deceased). Among the legal heirs, there are the reserved heirs (children, parents and spouse or registered partner) to whom the Civil Code guarantees a fraction of the deceased's assets, known as the reserve. Disinheritance is the only way of completely "disinheriting" a reservataire heir who normally has this irreducible fraction of the estate's assets.

The law strictly regulates disinheritance and authorises it in only three cases. The first two are situations in which the heir has seriously failed in his legal and family duties or has committed a serious criminal offence against the deceased or one of his close relatives. The third case is that of partial disinheritance of a descendant against whom there are acts of property default, whereby the deceased can remove half of the reserve of one of his children and allocate it to his grandchildren.

The aim of the law is therefore to prevent the deceased's assets from passing entirely into the hands of creditors - to the detriment of the family - if the heir is over-indebted, or to deprive of succession an heir who has behaved reprehensibly towards the deceased or those close to him. Obviously, these must be exceptional situations that cannot be linked simply to the wishes or preferences of the deceased. For example, marrying someone or choosing a profession that the deceased did not like are not grounds for disqualification. Moreover, disenfranchisement does not occur automatically as soon as the conditions governing it are met; it is necessary for the deceased to have expressly declared his wish to disenfranchise and the grounds on which it is based in a will or a contract of inheritance.

If an heir is validly disinherited because of serious misconduct, he loses not only his right to the estate but also his status as heir. The heir who has been disinherited is then considered to have predeceased the deceased and his descendants normally inherit, unless they themselves have been disinherited. On the other hand, if the heir is disinherited on grounds of insolvency, he loses only his right to half of the reserve but retains his status as heir.