forced heirship

Forced heirship is a form of testate partible inheritance whereby the estate of a deceased (de cujus) is separated into (1) an indefeasible portion, the forced estate (Germ Pflichtteil, Fr réserve, It, legittima, Sp legítima), passing to the deceased's next-of-kin (conjunctissimi), and (2) a discretionary portion, or free estate (Germ frei verfügbare Quote, Fr quotité disponible, It quota disponible, Sp tercio de libre disposición), to be freely disposed of by will. Forced heirship is generally a feature of civil-law legal systems which do not recognize total freedom of testation. Normally, the deceased's estate is in-gathered and wound up without discharging liabilities, which means accepting inheritance includes accepting the liabilities attached to inherited property. The forced estate is divided into shares which include the share of issue (legitime or child's share) and the spousal share. This provides a minimum protection that cannot be defeated by will. The free estate, on the other hand, is at the discretion of a testator to be distributed by will on death to whomever he or she chooses. Takers in the forced estate are known as forced heirs (Germ Pflichtteilserben, Noterben, Fr réservataires, It legittimari, Sp herederos forzosos).