Inheritance
Sooner or later, everyone has to deal with law of succession. The Dutch legislation provides clear rules for this. However, often also foreign factors affect the division of an inheritance. In such cases, you have to deal with international law of succession. For instance, you can be a Dutchman and have possessions in the Netherlands, but live abroad. Or you have a foreign nationality and you possess properties outside of the Netherlands (for instance a bank account or a holiday home), but you do live in the Netherlands.
Whether an estate is inherited in accordance with the Dutch law of succession or with the law of succession of another country, is established by the rules of international private law. Every country has its own law of succession rules and they often differ from the Dutch ones. In order to avoid having to deal with conflicting legislation, countries may conclude treaties with each other. Countries that ratify such a treaty then apply the same rules. For law of succession there is also such an agreement: it is called the 1989 The Hague Convention on Law of Succession. It establishes which legislation - the Dutch one or the foreign one - applies to a bequeathing.
Law of succession is a difficult but important law branch. An important question here is almost always which law of succession actually applies. The Dutch one, the Spanish one or both? We will advise you with regard to wills and inheritance taxes both in Spain and in the Netherlands. We look into which adjustments are advisable in an existing will and, if applicable, we draft a (bilingual) will in according to the Dutch or Spanish law of succession for you.
In Spain for instance, the surviving spouse has the obligation to immediately divide the property among the children, whereas in the Netherlands this is not the case. The surviving spouse in Spain is a lot less protected than in the Netherlands. A Spanish notary is not used to the Dutch way of inheriting, which may cause years of delay in the execution of a Dutch will in Spain. And as long as the estate is not officially divided by a Spanish notary, the heirs can not sell the property, for instance a house.
If you do not want this to happen, you have to have a will drafted that expressly includes this. This applies for a marriage situation with at least one child (whether or not from the current marriage).
Apart from that, if you have a will in Spain, it is to be included in the Spanish Register of Wills. It is advisable to also have your Spanish will registered in the The Hague Register of Wills.