Do New Zealand rules apply to wife’s estate in France if she died intestate?

Reader Question: My wife died intestate. She was a NZ citizen. Can I have her estate divided according to intestate laws of NZ? We made identical handwritten wills in English. 

I am assuming that your wife was a French resident when she died, and was of New Zealand nationality.

The laws of France apply to her estate. France ratified the EU Succession Regulation 650/2012, which allows a testator to elect the law of their nationality to apply to their estate. That, however, is somewhat interfered with by France’s contentious law of November 2021 for cases where children have been disinherited by use of foreign law.

So, there are some questions to answer here: 

Does your wife have children? Is the will validly executed? Does your wife’s handwritten will make a valid election of the law of her nationality? 

If the will is valid and makes a valid election of NZ law, then France will respect that, as long as it respects the reserved rights of children (one child gets one third, two children get a third each, three or more children get three quarters between them).

If your wife does not have children, then her estate can pass freely in accordance with New Zealand law – assuming there are no NZ law restrictions – I have no knowledge of this. However, the notaire would probably request a certificat de coutume from an NZ lawyer to explain how the estate devolves under NZ law.

We always suggest that you seek professional advice when making a will. Hopefully your wife did so, and the will was correctly thought through and drafted. You may now wish to seek advice from a professional to discuss the estate, and perhaps to help choose the an international expert notaire to deal with what may be a rather complicated international estate. A local notaire may not always have the appropriate knowledge.

Read more: Is an Australian will legally binding in France?