Spanish Wills
Advisors in Spain handles drafting, notarising and registering a bilingual Spanish will for your Spain-based assets, including forced-heirship and Brussels IV advice.
Every case starts with the form below. Describe your assets and situation, and a solicitor who handles Spanish wills and cross-border estates takes your case, in English or Spanish, whichever you are most comfortable in.
Your solicitor handles the case from the first consultation: drafting the will in Spanish and English, advising on forced heirship and the Brussels IV choice-of-law election, booking the signing before a notary, and registering it with the Registro de Actos de Ultima Voluntad afterwards.
A UK or US will can technically cover your Spanish assets too, but it has to carry an apostille and a sworn translation before it can be used in a Spanish succession. A separate Spanish will covering just what you own here avoids that delay and the disputes it invites.
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Who Needs a Spanish Will
- You need a Spanish will if you own property, a bank account or other assets in Spain, because Spanish forced-heirship rules apply by default without one, and a separate will signed in Spain speeds up probate for your estate.
- Ownership is what triggers this. A non-resident with a holiday home in Alicante sits in exactly the same position as a resident with a flat in Madrid: both estates hold Spanish-situs assets, and both fall under Spain's default succession rules without a Spanish will naming who inherits.
- Anyone who has not reviewed how the Codigo Civil's forced-heirship rules, known as legitima, the fixed share the law reserves for children, would divide their estate by default belongs here too, even if a will already exists at home.
- Buyers about to complete on a Spanish property, and anyone who has recently opened a Spanish bank account, are the two groups who most often discover they need this at the same time as another engagement.
If you have already sold everything you owned in Spain and hold no Spanish property, account or other asset, you do not need this page. Still deciding whether your situation calls for a Spanish will at all? Our guide on whether you need a Spanish will works through that decision first.
What's Included With Your Solicitor
The solicitor handles every step below directly, from the first consultation to the signed, registered document.
- Drafting a bilingual Spanish will. Your will is drafted in Spanish and English, covering your Spanish-situs property, bank accounts and other assets. Have your solicitor draft this for you.
- Forced-heirship advice. The Codigo Civil reserves two-thirds of a Spanish estate for a testator's children under the legitima rules, with a different reserved share where there are no children, and the solicitor explains how that applies to your specific family and assets before anything is drafted. Have a solicitor walk you through your forced-heirship position.
- The Brussels IV choice-of-law election. Under EU Regulation 650/2012, a foreign national can elect the law of their own nationality to govern their Spanish estate in place of Spain's default rules. Have a solicitor advise on the Brussels IV election before you sign.
- Coordination with any existing UK or US will. The solicitor drafts around your existing will, so the two documents do not accidentally revoke each other.
- A usufruct note where a spouse survives. A surviving spouse's right to use an asset without owning it outright is glossed here and covered in full, with the valuation detail, in inheritance tax in Spain.
- Signing before a notary, then registration. The notary's own fee for a will is fixed by law at 30.05 euros per testator under the arancel notarial, and once you sign, the notary reports the will to your local colegio notarial, which passes it to the Registro General de Actos de Ultima Voluntad.
What You'll Need to Provide
- Passport or NIE
- A valid passport is the baseline; a NIE, Spain's foreigner tax-ID number, speeds up the paperwork if you already have one but is not always required to sign a will.
- A list of Spanish-situs assets
- Property deeds, bank account details and any other asset held in Spain, so the will names what it actually covers.
- Beneficiary details
- Full names and, where possible, identifying details for everyone you want to inherit, since the solicitor drafts around the Codigo Civil's forced-heirship rules for each one.
- A copy of any existing UK or US will
- Bring it along even in draft form, so the solicitor can draft your Spanish will around it.
How the Process Works
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You submit the qualification form
A few questions cover your assets, beneficiaries and timeline. Answering them submits a request to Advisors in Spain; nothing is filed with a notary yet.
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A solicitor takes on your case
The solicitor who handles Spanish wills and cross-border estates takes on your case directly.
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You have an initial consultation
By video call, phone or email, the solicitor reviews your Spanish-situs assets, your beneficiaries and any existing UK or US will.
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The solicitor drafts your bilingual will
Drafting happens remotely, in Spanish and English, and includes your Brussels IV election if you choose to make one.
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You review the draft together
The solicitor talks you through the wording in English before anything is finalised for signing.
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You sign before a Spanish notary
This step happens in person. Consultation and drafting can happen remotely, but Spanish law requires the signing itself to take place at a notary's office, so the process is not fully online start to finish.
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The notary registers the will
The notary reports the signing to your local colegio notarial, which passes it to the Registro de Actos de Ultima Voluntad; the Ministerio de Justicia loads those reports into the register weekly.
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You receive copies for safekeeping
The notary issues certified copies for you and, where relevant, for the solicitor's file.
Timing: What to Expect and What Causes Delays
About a week from signing to registration
The Ministerio de Justicia loads the notarial reports into the Registro General de Actos de Ultima Voluntad weekly, so registration follows a signing within about seven days. Drafting and the notary appointment come first, and no official source sets a standard length for either.
What delays it
A notary appointment that takes longer to book than expected, a foreign document still waiting on a sworn translation or apostille, indecision over the Brussels IV election, or an estate spanning several Spanish properties or more than one country each push a case back further.
What to prepare now
Gather your passport or NIE, a list of your Spanish-situs assets, your beneficiaries' details and a copy of any existing UK or US will before the qualification form goes in, and start any sworn translation early if a document you need was issued abroad.
Beyond the will
Legal Considerations Alongside Your Spanish Will
Forced heirship is the rule that makes a Spanish will worth signing: assuming your existing will already covers it is not a safe bet. Under the Codigo Civil (Articles 806 to 808), two-thirds of a Spanish estate is reserved for the testator’s children: one-third split equally between them, and a second third the testator can favour one child with but not remove from the group entirely. Only the final third is freely disposable. The reserve limits what any will can do with those assets, and dying without one does not sidestep it. It binds Spanish-situs assets specifically, so it sits alongside whatever your home country’s succession law does with the rest of your estate.
Choosing Succession Law Under Brussels IV
EU Regulation 650/2012, known as Brussels IV, gives a foreign national one way around forced heirship: Article 22 lets you elect the law of a country whose nationality you hold, at the time of the election or at death, to govern your succession as a whole in place of Spain’s default rules. The election has to be made expressly, in a declaration inside the will itself. It is an all-or-nothing choice for the entire estate, not a way to ring-fence the Spanish share alone, and it does not change how much Spanish inheritance tax is owed, only who is entitled to inherit under which country’s rules.
A Spanish will affects who inherits. It has no bearing on the tax bill itself, which is set separately by national rules and regional allowances; see inheritance tax in Spain for the rates by comunidad.
Making a Spanish will is usually the moment two related questions surface. One is who can act for you if you lose capacity before you die, which a power of attorney covers and a will does not. The other is what actually happens to your Spanish estate once you die; Spanish probate runs that process end to end, from the declaration of heirs to registering the property in the heirs’ names.
Fee figures, forced-heirship rules and the sourced timing on this page are current as of 20 August 2026, and are reviewed every six months against BOE, the Ministerio de Justicia and consulate guidance.
Your estate is divided under Spain's default rules until a Spanish will is signed and registered
Tell us your timeline, and we aim to reply within one business day.
Common questions
Does a UK will override a Spanish will?
How do I make a Spanish will?
Can I make a Spanish will online?
What are the inheritance laws in Spain?
What is the cost of making a Spanish will?
How long does it take to draft, sign and register a Spanish will?
Can I choose which country's inheritance law applies to my Spanish estate?
Does making a Spanish will reduce my inheritance tax?
Can a US attorney draft a valid Spanish will for me?
Why Work With Advisors in Spain
Your solicitor drafts and files your will directly, from the first consultation to the signed, registered document.
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Every solicitor on our team meets the same standard.
We do not take on a case we cannot handle well. Every solicitor who works on a case meets the same standard. If your case is not something we handle, we tell you plainly.
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English- or Spanish-speaking, from the first consultation to the signing.
You explain your situation once, in English or Spanish, directly to the solicitor who drafts and files your will.
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Coordinated support for related matters.
Will drafting, notary signing, registration and any probate or property question that follows: we coordinate related requirements, with responsibility and scope agreed for each service.
Contact us
Your request is in
We read every request ourselves, assess the requirements and reply by email with the appropriate next steps.
We review your enquiry today. If you have not heard back within two working days, write to us and we chase it the same day.