2718 What to do..what to do- Inheritance?

Hello Notaio,

We have the following situation that we would like to get your feedback on:

My very rich uncle (my father's brother), just recently passed away in earlier Feb'06 at the age of 100 years old in Italy. He had no living wife, children, grandchildren, brother/sisters or parents. His only living relatives are two nephews- my brother and I.

He wrote a five page will (Holographic) on December 25, 2005, he left all his belongs to three associations(charities). We were thinking of contesting the will and wanted to understand our rights, if any and how to proceed:

1. Would we be entitled to anything under italian inheritance law?
2. Does a Holographic Will need to be signed and dated on every page to be valid?
3. Do our children have any entitlement under itlain heritance law?
4 How should we proceed in this matter?

If you need further information, please let me know. Thank-you Kindly:)

Category
Legal

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 02/19/2006 - 11:21

the issue of italian inheritance law has already been discussed in this forum and the Notaio made several important comments about it (i think he mentioned a "ping pong" situation between Italian law and english law).

I think this would be a matter of english law rather than Italian, or at least this is what I understood from the previous notaio's postings.

For what I understood from the notaio's previous comments, the issue of "validity" of the will (which he wrote on 25-12, 2 months before his death) is a matter of Italian law: was he capable of making a will? should this will be void?

On the other side, the issue of your "entitlement" to the inheritance ("IF" the will is valid) will be a matter of English law or international law.

This is why you need a lawyer who specialises and is qualified to advice you with regards to both english and italian law. It may be expensive, but if your uncle was rich, it's definitely worth it.

We are using a very good Italian lawyer in London, he's also qualified in the UK: send me a PM if you want his details or you can always contact the law society.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 02/19/2006 - 13:13

Hi spaz,
assuming that:
- your story is real, even if it sounds a little bit strange (sorry if i misunderstood :confused: )
- your uncle was italian
- he was mentally capable
- he wrote and signed his will in Italy
- his belongs are in Italy
my answers are:

[QUOTE=spaz]
1. Would we be entitled to anything under italian inheritance law?
2. Does a Holographic Will need to be signed and dated on every page to be valid?
3. Do our children have any entitlement under itlain heritance law?
4 How should we proceed in this matter?
[/QUOTE]

1 - No, he could leave his belongs whoever he wanted
2 - No, only the last page, if each and every page is logically linked
3 - nothing for your uncle's ineheritance, yes for your inheritance if you have any real estate in Italy (see the thread mentioned by italianlover)
4 - contact a lawyer for you uncle's will (in my opinion there's no hope to win, but i'm not a litigater lawyer) and a notary for you italian properties and wills

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 02/21/2006 - 07:02

Thanks for the feedback...we really appreciate it!

Yes everything stated in the story is very real...

spaz

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 02/21/2006 - 07:17

[QUOTE=spaz]... My very rich uncle (my father's brother), just recently passed away in earlier Feb'06 at the age of [B]100 years old [/B]in Italy. He had no living wife, children, grandchildren, brother/sisters [B]or parents[/B]. His only living relatives are two nephews- my brother and I...[/QUOTE]
Just out of curiousity..

If the parents of your very rich 100 year old uncle had been alive at the time of your very rich 100 year old uncles death.. earlier this month.. how old would they have been?

:confused: :confused:

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 02/26/2006 - 14:04

depends how much olive oil they'd had consummed in their life! :D

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 03/23/2006 - 08:25

Can't help feeling very uncomfortable with the whole idea of contesting someone's will - assuming they were capable / not coerced etc. A person's wealth is their own to bequeath - no?

Sorry - just my opinion.

John