Spanish Wills & Inheritance for Non-Residents in 2026

Generally yes, if you own assets in Spain. A home-country will can be valid in Spain in principle, but it usually has to be translated, apostilled, and processed through a Spanish probate procedure that is slower and more expensive than working from a will drafted directly for your Spanish assets. A Spanish will speeds up the process for your heirs and reduces the chance of a translation or interpretation dispute at a Spanish notary.

Regulation (EU) 650/2012, known as Brussels IV, lets you choose the law of your nationality to govern your entire estate, including Spanish assets, instead of defaulting to the law of your last habitual residence. For most foreign residents in Spain this choice matters because it can avoid Spain’s forced heirship rules, which reserve a fixed share of your estate for children and, in some cases, a spouse, regardless of what your will says. We draft this choice-of-law clause explicitly into your Spanish will so there is no ambiguity for the notary or your heirs later.

No, not in practice. Andalucia applies a near-total exemption (bonificacion) of 99 percent on inheritance tax for close relatives, spouses, children, and parents, since 2019, and this bonificacion now applies equally to non-resident heirs following EU non-discrimination rules. The result is that most spouses and children inheriting Andalucian property pay minimal Spanish inheritance tax, though the estate still needs to be formally valued, declared, and the modest remaining liability settled within the legal deadline.

Our fee for drafting a Spanish will, covering the choice-of-law clause, asset-specific provisions, and notary coordination for signing, is from 150 EUR. This is a market mid-range fee for a properly drafted will rather than a generic template, and it does not include the notary’s own fee for the signing appointment, which is separate and regulated.

We quote inheritance and probate work after a free consultation, since the fee depends heavily on the number of assets, whether other countries are involved, whether all heirs agree, and how quickly documents can be gathered. We work on a published hourly logic rather than a mystery flat fee, so you see exactly what work is being billed and can ask for a running estimate as the file progresses.

Broadly: obtain the death certificate and a certificate confirming whether a will exists (Registro de Actos de Ultima Voluntad), locate and authenticate the will or apply Spanish intestacy rules if none exists, value the estate, sign the escritura de aceptacion de herencia before a notary, pay or claim exemption on inheritance tax within the deadline, and register the property transfer at the land registry. Each step can be slowed by missing documents or heirs based abroad, which is where most of our time actually goes.

Six months from the date of death, though a single six-month extension can be requested before that deadline expires if more time is genuinely needed. Missing the deadline without an extension triggers surcharges that increase the longer the declaration remains outstanding, on top of any tax actually owed, so we flag this date to clients immediately rather than waiting until the estate is fully valued.

Yes, in most cases, using a power of attorney to authorise a representative in Spain to sign the acceptance of inheritance and handle the registry and tax filings. Heirs still need an NIE number to inherit Spanish property, which can also often be obtained without travelling, through the Spanish consulate in their home country or through a POA-holder acting in Spain.

Without a will, and without an EU Succession Regulation choice of law on file, Spain applies its own intestacy rules or the law of the deceased’s last habitual residence to Spanish assets, which can produce a distribution the deceased never intended, particularly for blended families or unmarried partners. Intestate estates also generally take longer to process, since there is no document confirming the deceased’s wishes to work from, and every heir typically needs to formally participate in the acceptance.

Not automatically, and this is one of the most consequential gaps we see. Spanish intestacy rules favour blood relatives and a legal spouse; stepchildren and unmarried partners (unless registered as pareja de hecho in some regions) generally have no automatic inheritance right at all without an explicit will naming them. If your family structure includes either, a Spanish will is not optional, it is the only way those relationships are legally recognised in your estate.

It can, if the two are not coordinated. We draft Spanish wills to apply specifically to your Spanish-situated assets, with an explicit choice-of-law clause, while leaving your home-country will to govern assets elsewhere, and we recommend having both wills reviewed together, ideally by both advisors, so neither accidentally revokes or contradicts the other.

Form 720 is a separate annual asset-reporting obligation for Spanish tax residents with significant assets abroad, not an inheritance form itself, but it often comes up in the same conversations since heirs who become Spanish tax residents after inheriting foreign assets may trigger a Form 720 filing obligation going forward. We flag this connection during inheritance consultations rather than leaving clients to discover it separately.

Typically an apostilled death certificate, an apostilled and translated will if one exists from the home country, proof of the family relationship (birth or marriage certificates, apostilled), the heir’s own NIE number, and property or bank documentation for the Spanish assets involved. We confirm the exact list for your specific case on the free consultation, since it varies by home country and by the type of asset being inherited.