Inheritance: my rights as a partner

Inheritance: my rights as a partner

"My partner of 5 years has a child from a previous relationship. We are currently discussing the possibility of marriage. I'd like to know whether, as a cohabitee, I would be able to inherit if he were to die. Under what conditions could he make me sole heir?

Pascale, Vaud

In inheritance law, the legal heirs are those established by the Civil Code (CC): the children, parents, grandparents and spouse of the deceased. The next in line are the descendants (art. 457 CC). Next in line are the father and mother of the deceased if the latter left no descendants (art. 458 CC). Grandparents are only considered if there are no descendants or parents (art. 459 CC). In the case of the surviving spouse, he or she is always entitled to a share of the inheritance along with the other legal heirs (art. 462 CC). If the deceased left no surviving spouse, only the descendants, parents or grandparents will inherit the entire estate.

A spouse is defined as the person who was married to the deceased or was his or her registered partner. On the other hand, a cohabiting partner is not included in this definition, regardless of the duration of the cohabitation.

Descendants, parents and spouses are declared by law to be "reserved" heirs, and the only way to deprive them of their full share of the estate is to disinherit them by will (art. 477 CC). However, this is only possible in extreme situations, where the heir has committed a serious criminal offence against the deceased or one of his close relatives, or where he has seriously failed in the duties that the law imposes on him towards the deceased or his family. On the other hand, it is possible to reduce the inheritance share of these heirs to the amount of the reserve allocated to them by law. The deceased thus retains the possibility of leaving a share of his inheritance to a person other than the legal heir. He may, for example, name his cohabitee as heir by will, or favour him with legacies.

Therefore, if your partner does not take any steps to benefit you in the event of your death, you will have no right to his or her inheritance prior to your marriage. Finally, it should be noted that inheritance tax is considerably higher for an instituted heir than for a legal heir.