HELPLINE: 
Succession planning for a UK couple living in France
The situation. Mr and Mrs Brown* are retired British nationals who have lived in France since 2010. Mr Brown has two adult children from a previous marriage and Mrs Brown has one. Their assets include a French home (€600,000), UK investments (€400,000) and a joint French bank account (€100,000). Both are French tax residents.
Future fears. French real estate is governed by réserve héréditaire (forced heirship). If Mr Brown passes away, his children have an automatically-reserved portion leaving Mrs Brown to inherit only the quotité disponible and concerned about losing control of their jointly-held property, which could mean selling it to pay out the stepchildren..
Smart solution. By adopting a Communauté universelle marital regime with a clause of full attribution to the surviving spouse, all assets of both spouses become joint marital property passing to the surviving spouse on first death. Only a separate property, should it exist, would be distributed under succession law.
Legal process. Mr and Mrs Brown need to sign a change of marital regime deed (changement de régime matrimonial) and a Communauté universelle avec clause d’attribution intégrale, with the children’s consent, before publishing the deed to make it legally enforceable.
Takeaway. Communauté universelle with attribution is a powerful planning tool to protect the surviving spouse in France as it postpones, but does not eliminate, children’s succession rights.
*Names have been changed for confidentiality.