Forced shares of the estate under the chosen regime
Reserved share of the children and descendants
€200,000.00
Of that, the betterment third (freely split among children)
€100,000.00
What the law guarantees ONE given child
€33,333.33
Freely disposable
€100,000.00
Assets the widow’s usufruct falls on
€100,000.00
What governs is the DECEASED’s regional civil status, not the heir’s and not where the property is. It is the first thing to establish and the most expensive mistake available before doing any arithmetic.
The two thirds of article 808 are not guaranteed per head. One of them is the betterment third, and article 823 allows giving it entirely to one child, so what is untouchable per child is one third of the estate divided among them.
A usufruct is not money the survivor receives: it is the right to use those assets and take their income for life, while ownership passes to the heirs. It can be commuted into a life annuity, the produce of certain assets or a capital sum, by agreement or by court order.
A child cannot renounce today what they will inherit tomorrow: article 816 of the Civil Code declares void any renunciation of a future reserved share.
Disinheriting does not take the money out of that branch of the family: article 857 of the Civil Code puts the disinherited child’s own children in their place, keeping the reserved share. And it is only available on one of the listed grounds of articles 852 to 855, stated in the will.
General information for educational purposes. It does not constitute financial or legal advice.
It does not compute Biscayan troncalidad, nor that of Aramaio and Llodio, which article 47 of the Basque law places above the reserved share; nor does it quantify the Catalan widow’s quarter, which depends on the survivor’s needs; nor value a usufruct in money; nor apply the collation of article 1035 or the imputations of articles 819 and 820. Tax is a different matter and lives in the inheritance tax calculator.