The Will of an English Resident

Being convenient that all the questions related to our patrimony are duly reflected in our last will and testament in order to avoid errors, inconveniences and expenses; even so, sometimes the will of the testator might not be clear, or there might be ambiguities, that is why we make the following considerations:

• If the testament does not say anything about the succession law that must be applied (British or Spanish), and the testator had habitual residence in Spain, the law that will be applied will be the Spanish law, which differs greatly. of the English one, which does not contemplate the limitation of the will established by the "legitimas" in the Spanish Civil Code.

• Now, if the deceased, when making a will, exercised the so-called “professio iuris” and stipulated that the applicable law be the succession law of the country of which she/he is a national, she/he will have to abide by this in the distribution of her/his assets, all of them.

• It could be the case that in her/his English will she/he has established that English law applies to the assets located there, and that with respect to the ones located in Spain it would have been established in a will granted in Spain (different from the previous one); which, in the same way, will have to be respected.