Our Firm offers legal assistance in post-mortem inheritance matters and in the planning and managing of the family estate in life, collaborating with several others Law Firms and handwriting experts.
In particular, our clients are supported throughout these specific circumstances:
The testament is a legal act which can be revoked through a solemn demonstration of last will. The testator, who must be mentally capable and competent, assumes provisions and dictates prescriptions concerning the destination of the testator’s estate, which will be applied once the will-maker has passed. One of the first contents of a will is the designation of one or more heirs.
In our current legal system, the handwritten (or holographic) will is the simplest version of a testament, regulated by art. 692 Civ. Code. Due to the fact that the presence of a Notary or witnesses is not required, our Firm offers legal assistance helping the testator to freely express their final wishes in an efficient and valid way. Once the succession procedure has been opened, our Firm will assist the heirs in assessing the authenticity of the testament and in the interpretation, the execution and the contest of the last act of will if there is a suspect of dubious validity.
In order to make a testament valid, there are some requirements that have to be met.
In particular:
- authenticity: the testament must be entirely handwritten by the will-maker or by someone authorized by them and not on a typewriter or on a computer. In the event of the belief that the testator’s handwriting appears unnatural and impaired, with no spontaneity in the handwritten gesture, our Firm can rely on external consultants for a graphology assessment.
- date: the testament must be dated, which means it has to include the indication of day, month and year of writing. In absence of a date, the testament can be annulled within 5 years. The date is fundamental because, in case of more testaments, it allows to understand which is the most recent one, therefore the most effective. The date also provides a specific reference in case of questioning of the sound mind of the will-maker, a premise to exercise the right to dispose of a testament.
- signing: the third fundamental element to assure the validity of the handwritten testament is the signature by hand of the testator at the end of their provisions. The absence of the signature entails the will’s invalidity.
A donation represents a contract through which a party, in the spirit of liberality and gratuitousness, enriches the other party by conferring a right or assuming an obligation towards them. Once the contract has been closed, it is final for both parties.
The form of the donation is essential: the contract has to be closed in a legal form in front of two witnesses that have to meet the following requirements:
- they have to be adults;
- they must have ability to act;
- they should not be blind, deaf or mute;
- they should not be related to neither the Notary nor one of the parties;
- they have to be disinterested in the act.
Our Law Firm offers legal advice and assistance during the planification and the execution of contracts of donations, following the clients in all the necessary formalities concerning donations to unborn children, to a minor, to an incapacitated or an impaired individual when the acceptance of the parents or the authorization by the tutelary judge, is needed.
Currently, donation’s acts are subject to a registration with a fixed term and the application of the registration fee at a fixed rate, except in case of a donation with a value below the deductible for taxes. At present, the deduction is set at €1,000,000.00 for the spouse and direct relatives, €1,500,000.00 for a disabled person and €100,000.00 for any brother or sister.
In case of devolution of the inheritance to a minor, both parents or the parental authority on the child can, but are not obliged to, accept the estate or renounce to it. This can be done only after the approval of the Tutelary Judge who is competent for the minor’s residence area.
Our Law Firm offers legal consulting and assistance for the request of this authorization and its approval, which must be done with benefit of inventory in order to avoid any confusion among the heir’s previous estate and the inherited part, with a resultant limitation to the heir’s responsibility within the limits of the value of the inherited assets.
The current Law reserves a determined part of the deceased’s estate, known as “reserved share” or “reserved quota”, to their spouse, a legitimate child and legitimate ascendants. The determination of this share is the core task with which the protection of the rights of the hair at law.
This procedure does not only protect the estate and the rights of the deceased when they opened the succession (relictum), but also the total value of the estate and the rights that they disposed in life as a donation (donatum).
By adding the relictum to the donatum, we get the value of the estate on which the available share and the reserved share will be calculated. The reserved quota represents the share of the hereditary estate strictly reserved to the heirs at law. In order to ensure that the reserved share will effectively be acquired by the heirs at law, our Firm offers legal advice and assistance concerning the reduction and return, actions aiming at reintegrating the reserved share to the heirs at law, if this should be affected by testamentary provisions or by donations made by the deceased during his lifetime.