His brother inherits, but not his sister. Is this legal?

His brother inherits, but not his sister. Is this legal?

My uncle has no descendants and has named my mother's brother as sole heir to his entire fortune. Is it possible to name just one heir in a family?

T, Geneva

First of all, a distinction must be made between legal and instituted heirs: the former inherit a share of the estate by virtue of the law, the latter as a result of a disposition in their favour by the deceased.

As far as legal heirs are concerned, articles 457 et seq. of the Civil Code (CC) state that the closest heirs are the descendants. If there are no descendants, the parents become heirs. If they themselves are predeceased, they are represented by their own descendants; if there are no heirs in one line, the entire estate devolves to the heirs of the other. If there are no parents, the estate passes to the grandparents and, if they are predeceased, a similar mechanism applies to their own descendants. As for the surviving spouse or registered partner, he or she inherits half of the estate in concurrence with the descendants, three-quarters in concurrence with the parents or their posterity, and even the entire estate if only the grandparents or their posterity remain.

Articles 467 et seq. of the Civil Code deal with the means of disposing of assets in the event of death, in the same way as a will. They make it possible to appoint as heirs third parties who would not otherwise participate in the succession if they were not legal heirs. It is also possible to use these instruments to change the shares provided by law for legal heirs.

However, not everyone is free to dispose of all their assets. The law establishes the principle of the available portion, which is defined as what exceeds the reserve due to the descendants or the father and mother and the spouse or registered partner of the deceased. The amount of this reserve corresponds to a fraction of the estate as calculated by law. It should be noted that grandparents are not reserved heirs, and neither are brothers and sisters. Outside these limits, it is entirely possible for a person to decide that their entire estate should go to an individual outside their family circle, to an association or even to the State.

Consequently, only if your mother's parents are deceased and your uncle is not married or living common-law will he be able to dispose of her entire estate as he sees fit, for example by passing it on in full to your mother's other brother.