Wills and Probate in Spain
Do you have a Spanish Will for your assets in Spain? Do you need one? What happens when someone dies in Spain?
For our 12 June webinar we looked at Wills and the Probate process in Spain. As well as the team from My Lawyer in Spain, we were joined on the webinar by Gillian Coverley, Partner at Irwin Mitchell LLP (providing advice about probate and wills in the UK), Maryna Yatsenyuk, Directora segmento HolaBank / CaixaBank and Tracy Timms of Avalon Funeral Plans.
Topics Covered – Wills
- Spanish Wills – the process of making and registering a Spanish Will with the central registry
- Signing a Will in Spain
- Do you need a Will in your own Country too?
- Assets in both jurisdictions
- The easy mistake you can make which revokes your wishes
- Trusts Structures
- Having a living Will, or Testamento Vital and the law in the UK
- How to contest a Spanish Will
- What happens when you Divorce?
- Albacea v. Executor – The figure of the Spanish Albacea is a person named by the testator in his will, whose function is basically to ensure compliance with the content of the will, administer the assets, and, if necessary, divide them among the heirs according to the will of the testator.
You Asked
As expert in family law do you recommend making a new will when someone gets divorced? Would the divorce revoke the will in Spain?
Topics Covered – Probate
- process including main steps & documents to be gathered
- what happens if there is only a Will signed abroad or no Will.
- validating a Spanish Will in the UK
- English Inheritance Tax
- Spanish Inheritance Tax, expenses which can be deducted and allowances
- The need for beneficiaries to obtain N.I.E. in Spain
- Classifications of beneficiaries in Spain when calculating Inheritance Tax
Dealing with the Bank
- What happens when the holder of account passes away? Is the account totally blocked or certain payments / charges are allowed?
- requirements to close account and release funds to beneficiaries
- What documents are requested by the bank to close the account and release the balance to beneficiaries?
- if the deceased had a mortgage loan, is it sufficient that the beneficiary has the inheritance deed signed to take mortgage over or the bank needs to approve it?
- Is it necessary to sign a new mortgage deed?
- If the deceased had a life insurance covering mortgage loan, does the bank organise payment by insurance company or the beneficiary has to do it himself?
What is a Funeral Plan?
Tracy Timms from Avalon Funeral Plans explained what a funeral plan is and what they do in practice if a British passes away accidentally in Spain.
Next week
Thank you for your feedback on these weekly webinars. We are so pleased you are finding them useful.. On Friday 19th June at 15:00 we are covering ‘buying off-plan property in Spain’. We will be joined by Marc Pritchard, Sales & Marketing Director of Taylor Wimpey Spain and asking questions about Buying Property Off-plan.
If you have any questions beforehand please email them to enquiries@mylawyerinspain.com to be included in the call.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcscOygqz4vH9fVmh33R-CDakVWJ_6WHsV3
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
