Making a WILL in Portugal

[bouquet]

We need to make a will for our Portugal Villa, can this only be made by a lawyer in Portugal if so doe's anyone have any idea of cost?

[BONDI]

You will be best advised to make a will in portugal done my a portuguese lawyer or competant person, you dont really need a lawyer for this but considering the pitfalls i would say yes get a decent lawyer in portugal to do this for you. the cost should be about £275 per person. but do please double check the wordings drawn up by your lawyer, and make sure you get translation in english before you go to the notary to have the will completed.

Bondi

[maccasa]

It is very important that you make a will in portugal - otherwise the "probate" equivalent is very long winded (can be years!) and usually means the inheritors have to appear in portugal before an examining body - it also costs a fortune.
Your will is drawn up by your portuguese lawyer and only needs to be very simple - "I leave all my possessions in portugal to xyz" - that sort of thing. It then needs to be witnessed by two portuguese residents - (the lawyer will find someone if you dont have suitable friends - but it will cost!) - this has to be done in front of the advocate.
Cost varies €150-300 is normal - depends on your lawyer.
You also need to supply a copy of your passport(s), name of your parents (dead or alive), the inheritors passport(s) and, if they are not your children (eg childs spouse)- their parents name and address (if alive).

Trust this helps

[maccasa]

apologies - in front of the notary, not just the advocate (your lawyer).

[bouquet]

Many thanks for your help.

[ceh]

I have just completed the process of making a will this week. It was quicker and more efficient that the one I'm trying to sort out in the UK. The Solicitor emailed me a simple draft will in English which I completed and emailed back to her. She translated the will into Portuguese. She arranged an appointment with the notary and for two witnesses to be present. We made a few amendments, which the notary did on her pc which projected the text on to a large flat screen tv on the wall so we could all read it, then all signed it.

You do have to pay for the lawyer, notary and witnesses so best to take your own witnesses

[maccasa]

We did our 2 wills last week in front of a Notary - our lawyer had drawn them up and we went along with 2 poruguese residents to act as witnesses - need passport and all details of whoever you are leaving your assets to. Took about 30 mins and cost €180 each.

[shanagarry]

I've seen it written that it preferable to have your UK Will translated into Portuguese - any views on that?

We are moving to Portugal next year and need to sort all of the Will bureaucracy - is it best done in Portugal only or will two (UK and Portugal) be necessary?

[steve]

There are likely to be problems in translating a UK will because the normal English procedure is to create trustees who realise the assets for the beneficiaries. In Portugal trusts are not recognised and the process is much more simple. On production of a death certificate, the will and proof of identity assets will be transferred into the ownership of the heirs. In the case of a house no CGT is payable (in Portugal) and if the heirs are family members there is no inheritance tax here either. Many Portuguese do not make wills because the forced heirship system determines automatically to whom the estate will be transferred and a husband cannot for example leave all his assets to his wife if he has children. A British citizen can do this because the will is dealt with under the terms of UK law.

As I understand the position a UK will is valid in Portugal and will be processed in terms of UK law but getting a Portuguese institution to accept probate for the transfer of assets is likely to be a nightmare.

I have just updated my Portuguese will. The cost was €300 for the lawyer and €186 for the notary. This is times 2 if husband and wife make wills. When my wife and I made wills in the UK about 6 years ago the cost for both including some tax advice was £350!

[EMM]

Does that mean that if there are no children then the property/assets automatically go to the surviving spouse ?

[shanagarry]

Steve - thank you for that comprehensive outline.

We are planning to make Portugal our permanent home when we move - effectively closing the UK 'door'. That would suggest to me that there is no need to make a UK will as all our worldly goods will be in Portugal.

So that I'm clear - the will making process in Portugal requires the identities of the beneficiaries to be proved (passports) at the time of making the will - as there is no CGT or IHT as long as they are family? However, I see an issue here - in short - you cannot leave everything to the surviving spouse if there are children - they have to be allocated something? Is there some form of scale that determines the amount/quantity that has to be allocated?

Apologies for all the questions but I have only just started thinking about all of this after reading various articles written by Blevins Franks and realised that at 60 this is something that has to be faced up to

Have I understood that correctly?

[steve]

The Portuguese cannot leave all there assets to a spouse if there are children but the British can draw up a will to this affect in Portugal and it is legal because the law of the nationality of the person making the will is deemed to apply and such an arrangement is perfectly legal under UK Law. My Portuguese will leaves everything to my wife in the first instance and then to the children if my wife has predeceased me.

The will covers my worldwide assets and my only slight questionmark is what would be needed for presention in the UK to release shares and savings held there. The way the pound is going there may not be much left though when we kick the bucket.

[steve]

Just reread Shanagarry's post. No the beneficiaries do not need to prove their identity. There needs to enough in the will to identify them eg relationship to the person making the will, place of birth and current address. The person making the will needs to produce a passport to the notary and the details of this are recorded in the will.

[shanagarry]

Steve - thanks for your continued and useful information.

I will be doing exactly the same as you have done and my wife can 'dish-out' what she believes to be appropriate to our two sons.

Thanks again.

[maccasa]

Steve is correct, however just to clarify - you CAN leave all your assets to your spouse (I/WE HAVE) but in the case of his/her death it must pass to your children. If no children I havent got a clue, presumably a named beneficiary