Inheritance reserve and available share: For a well-ordered succession

Reserve and quota
Both make up an estate

Your assets are divided into two distinct parts:

- the "réserve héréditaire", from which some of your heirs, known as "héritiers réservataires", must benefit. You are prohibited from disposing of this part of your estate by gift or will. It is reserved for them. It is by virtue of this principle that you cannot disinherit one of your children, even if your relationship with him or her is a little "strained".

- the available portion corresponds to the remainder. As its name suggests, you can dispose of it as you wish, to the benefit of whomever you see fit: your heirs with right to reserve, who will thus see their share of the inheritance increase, but also people who are not part of your family.

Children first

All children are entitled to the reserved portion of an estate, whether born to married or unmarried parents, or adopted. In the case of simpleadoption, the child is "reserved" in the estate of his or her adoptive parents, but not in that of his or her adoptive grandparents.
Since the law of December 3, 2001, your spouse is also a reserved heir, on two conditions: that the deceased has no descendants (children, grandchildren, etc.) and that, at the time of death, you are not divorced.
If these two conditions are met, the law will allocate a quarter of the estate to your spouse. The other three quarters can be freely bequeathed to the persons of your choice. However, it is possible to increase the spouse's share of the estate by means of an inter-spousal gift (also known as a last living gift) or a will.

Good to know

If one of the deceased's children has died, and that child has descendants, then it is his or her children, i.e. the deceased's grandchildren, who are heirs reservatory in his or her place: this is known as "representation". They then share in the inheritance they should have received.

It all depends on the number of children

The distribution between the reserve and the share is not calculated at random. It varies according to the number of children.

If the rule is not respected

If a reservataire heir does not receive his minimum share of the estate, he can ask for excessive gifts or legacies to be reduced. This is known as an action en réduction. It should be noted that, under certain conditions, a reservataire heir may decide to renounce in advance his right to benefit from the hereditary reserve, and therefore to waive his action in reduction. This decision, known as advance renunciation of the action in reduction, will be formalized in a deed signed by two notaries. This renunciation must be made in favor of one or more specific beneficiaries: this may be another heir with right of retention, or a person from outside the family. Renouncing the action in reduction does not mean renouncing the succession. The person who has done so retains his or her status as heir.