Estate planning in Italy: 2026 guide for expats and foreign property owners

You bought a house in Tuscany, rented out a flat in Rome, or moved your family to Milan for a new job. You have a will back home that is signed, witnessed, and safely stored with your solicitor. That should cover everything, right?

Not in Italy.

Italian inheritance law follows a fundamentally different logic from what you are used to in the UK, the United States, Canada, or Australia. It comes with something called forced heirship, a set of rules that reserves a fixed share of your estate for certain relatives, no matter what your will says. It also sits inside a European regulatory framework that can pull your entire worldwide estate under Italian law, even if you have never held an Italian passport.

Our team of Italian estate planning lawyers has written this guide explaining, in plain English, exactly how estate planning works in Italy for English‑speaking expats and foreign property owners. No assumptions about what you already know. Just a clear, practical walk‑through of what you need to understand and what to do next.

Why Italian inheritance rules can catch you off guard

When most English‑speakers think about estate planning, they picture one document—a will—that says who gets what, and that is the end of it. You have freedom of disposition. You can leave everything to your spouse, split it equally among your children, give a legacy to a charity, or even cut someone out entirely.

Italy starts from a different premise. Two things set it apart.

First, forced heirship. Italian law says that your spouse, your children, and in some cases your parents, are entitled to a fixed minimum share of your estate. This is called the legittima, or reserved share. You cannot override it with a will. You cannot disinherit your children completely. You cannot leave everything to your second spouse if children from your first marriage are still alive. The law protects them, and it does so automatically.

Second, the EU Succession Regulation. Known formally as Regulation 650/2012 and often called Brussels IV, this European rule determines which country’s law governs your entire succession. The default is the law of the country where you were “habitually resident” at the time of your death—not your nationality, not where you were born, but where your life was actually centred. For a British expat who has lived in Italy for ten years, that means Italian succession law can apply to everything: the house in Umbria, the bank account in London, the investment portfolio in Singapore.

The regulation does give you a choice. You can elect your nationality’s law to govern your succession instead—a mechanism called professio iuris. But that choice is not a magic wand. For Italian real estate, a technical rule called renvoi can send the question right back to Italian law, pulling your property under forced heirship regardless of your choice.

None of this means you are trapped. It means you need a plan that accounts for both systems: the law of the country whose passport you hold, and the law of the country where your life—and your property—are located.

The default inheritance plan you never chose

If you die without a valid will covering your Italian assets, you do not get to decide anything. Italian intestacy laws take over. The outcome is almost never what an expat would have chosen.

We have written a full guide on this topic: Inheriting Italy Without a Will. Here is what you need to know in summary.

Italian intestacy distributes your estate in rigid, prescribed shares. If you leave a spouse and one child, they split the estate equally. If you leave a spouse and two or more children, the spouse gets one‑third and the children share two‑thirds. If you leave only children, they share everything equally. Parents, siblings, and more distant relatives only come into the picture if you have no spouse and no descendants—but they will come, in a strict order set out in the Civil Code.

An unmarried partner inherits nothing. Italian intestacy law does not recognise a cohabiting partner, no matter how long you lived together or whether you owned property jointly. Your partner could be left with no legal claim to your share of the house, your Italian bank account, or anything else.

The process is slower and more stressful. Without a will, your heirs must navigate a more cumbersome legal procedure. They will need to obtain a declaration of heirship, gather documentation proving their relationship to you, and possibly deal with cross‑border translation and legalisation requirements. What could have been a relatively clean transfer becomes a bureaucratic ordeal at the worst possible moment.

Even if you have a UK or US will, it may not work for your Italian assets. Your home‑country will might lack the formal language an Italian notary or land registry expects. It might not address Italian forced heirship. It might be challenged or simply set aside for Italian‑situs property. Over the last five years, more than half of the cross‑border intestacy cases we have handled involved a long‑term partner who was left with no legal claim to the family home. In almost every case, the deceased simply assumed their UK or US will was enough. It was not, and the cost of fixing it afterwards was far higher than making an Italian will would have been.

The bottom line: doing nothing is the most expensive and emotionally draining option, for both you and the people you leave behind.

Your Italian will: it is simpler than you think

The good news is that making a will for your Italian assets is straightforward, and you do not need to travel to Italy to do it. In practice, over 90% of the Italian wills we draft for expats are completed entirely remotely, from the first video call to the final notarial registration. The client never sets foot in an Italian office unless they want to.

What kind of will works in Italy?

Italian law recognises three types of will. However, for English‑speaking expats, only two of them are practical:

The notarial will (testamento pubblico) is the safest route. You dictate your wishes to an Italian notary in the presence of two witnesses. The notary writes the will in Italian (or, if you prefer, in a bilingual format with English alongside Italian), reads it back to you, and everyone signs. The document is then registered and stored safely. Its great advantage is certainty: it is almost impossible to challenge on formal grounds, and it is immediately executable after your death without additional court proceedings.

The handwritten will (testamento olografo) is simpler and cheaper to make. You write it entirely by hand, date it, and sign it. No witnesses, no notary. It can be in English. The downside is that it is easier to challenge, easier to lose, and easier to get wrong. If one formal requirement is missing—a missing date, a typed rather than handwritten text—it collapses. For cross‑border situations, we almost always recommend the notarial form.

The third type, the secret will (testamento segreto), is rarely used today.

One will or two?

This is the most common question we get. Should you write one global will covering everything, or separate wills for Italy and your home country?

A single worldwide will sounds simpler, but it creates practical headaches. A UK will, for instance, needs to go through probate in England before it can be used to transfer Italian property. That can take months. Meanwhile, Italian bank accounts remain frozen, and the Italian succession declaration deadline (one year from death) ticks closer.

Separate wills—one for your home‑country assets, one for your Italian assets— are usually faster and cleaner. Each follows its own local process. Your Italian notarial will can be executed immediately in Italy without waiting for foreign probate.

The critical drafting point: each will must contain an express clause stating that it only deals with assets in that jurisdiction and does not revoke any other will. Without that clause, a later will saying “I revoke all previous wills” could accidentally wipe out the will you made in the other country.

Choosing your law: the professio iuris

In your Italian will, you can include a clause that elects your home country’s law to govern your succession. This is your professio iuris. For a British national, you would choose English law. For an American, the law of your state of domicile.

Why does this matter? Because English law, for example, gives you far more testamentary freedom than Italian law. You can disinherit a child. You can leave everything to your spouse.

But there is a catch, and you need to understand it. Italian real estate, because of the renvoi mechanism I mentioned earlier, can still be pulled back under Italian forced heirship rules. In practice, a well‑drafted Italian will handles this by anticipating the interplay: it expresses your wishes clearly, while a good lawyer structures the plan so that the forced shares are respected in a way that minimises disruption.

Here is a real‑life example. John is a UK national who has lived in Umbria for twelve years. He owns a farmhouse there and has investments in London. He is habitually resident in Italy. He makes an Italian notarial will choosing English law. His lawyer ensures the will respects the forced shares due to his two children under Italian law for the farmhouse, while his English law choice governs the rest. The result: a clean, enforceable plan, no surprises.

For help drafting a cross‑border will, speak to our estate planning team—details here.

Who must inherit? Italy’s “reserved share” rule

Forced heirship sounds technical, but the idea is straightforward. Italian law sets aside a guaranteed portion of your estate for the people closest to you. You cannot override it. Here is what it means in numbers.

The part that is left, the disponibile, or freely disposable portion, is yours to distribute as you wish. You can leave it to anyone: a friend, a charity, one child more than the others (on top of their reserved share). But the reserved shares are untouchable.

The part that is left—the disponibile, or freely disposable portion—is yours to distribute as you wish. You can leave it to anyone: a friend, a charity, one child more than the others (on top of their reserved share). But the reserved shares are untouchable.

What your heirs will actually pay: Italian inheritance tax

The tax side of Italian estate planning is, for most families, less frightening than it first appears, and the 2025 reforms have made it better still.

We have a detailed guide on this topic: Italian Inheritance Tax Calculation Updates 2025 . Here are the essentials.

The rates, in plain numbers

Italian inheritance tax is paid by each heir on what they receive, after deducting a personal allowance. The rates depend on the relationship.

A child inheriting €1.2 million from a parent pays 4% on €200,000: that is €8,000. A spouse inheriting €800,000 pays nothing at all, because the whole amount falls within the million‑euro allowance. These are, by international standards, very low numbers.

Extra costs on property

When Italian real estate is transferred on death, two additional taxes apply:

• Cadastral tax: 1% of the cadastral value.
• Mortgage tax: 2% of the cadastral value.

The cadastral value (valore catastale) is an official valuation that is almost always well below the market price. If a property is your primary residence and your heirs meet certain conditions, these taxes drop to a fixed €200 each.

Can I use a trust for Italian estate planning?

If you come from the UK, the US, or another common‑law country, you probably think of trusts as a natural estate planning tool. Italy has a more complicated relationship with them.

In our experience as estate planning lawyers, here is the honest summary:

Italy does recognise foreign trusts. It ratified the Hague Trusts Convention in 1989, which means a trust validly created under, say, English or Jersey law will generally be recognised in Italy.

But a trust cannot defeat Italian forced heirship. The Hague Convention contains a clause—Article 15—that allows Italian courts to apply their own mandatory succession rules regardless of what the trust says. If Italian law governs your succession, a forced heir can still claim their reserved share against trust assets, or challenge the transfer into the trust as a disguised gift that infringes their rights.

Trusts can still be useful. They may be appropriate for holding non‑Italian assets, for structuring business succession, or for tax planning. The 2025 reform introduced a clear framework for trust taxation: you can now choose to pay inheritance and gift tax either when assets go into the trust (locking in today’s low rates and allowances) or when they are distributed to beneficiaries later. This flexibility can be valuable, especially for families who expect tax rates or personal circumstances to change.

This is specialist territory. Whether a trust makes sense for you depends on your family structure, your assets, your tax residence, and where you see your future. It is not a one‑size‑fits‑all solution, and it is not a way around forced heirship. Professional advice is essential.

Protect your cross‑border family with a team on both sides of the border

We are the only law firm with headquarters in London and fully staffed offices in Rome, Milan, and Palermo. Our team is dual‑qualified, English‑speaking, and deeply experienced in cross‑border estate planning. We have helped over five hundred families structure their Italian and international assets so that their wishes are respected, their taxes are minimised, and their loved ones are spared unnecessary stress.

Everything we do is handled in plain English, and almost all of it can be done remotely.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an Italian will if I already have a UK will?Almost always, yes. A UK will rarely covers Italian property and bank accounts effectively. Italian notaries, land registries, and banks expect a document that follows Italian formalities and addresses Italian law. Having a separate Italian will avoids months of procedural delay.

Can I avoid Italian forced heirship completely?
Not entirely, if Italian law applies to your estate or to your Italian property. But you can often elect your home country’s law for part of your estate, and you can use lifetime gifts and other tools to work within the system. The goal is not to defeat forced heirship, as that is usually impossible, but to shape your plan around it.

How much does Italian estate planning cost?
It depends on the complexity of your situation: the number of assets, the jurisdictions involved, and the structures you need. We provide a fixed‑fee proposal after an initial free assessment, so you know the cost before committing.

Can I do all of this without travelling to Italy?
Yes. We draft documents, coordinate with notaries, handle filings, and communicate with you remotely. Most of our cross‑border clients never set foot in our offices.

What if I own property jointly with my spouse?
Joint ownership does not automatically transfer the property to the surviving owner on death in Italy. The legal title is governed by Italian law, and the deceased’s share passes through the succession process. Your will needs to address this explicitly.

How long does the Italian succession process take?
With a proper notarial will in place, the initial steps (publication of the will and the filing of the succession declaration) can happen within a few months of death. Transfers of title, tax payments, and practical matters like closing bank accounts take longer, but a well‑prepared estate reduces friction at every stage.