Brussels IV Explained: How EU Expats Can Choose Which Country's Law Governs Their Estate

The Law Most Expats Have Never Heard Of

You've been living in Germany for twelve years. You love it there. But your parents are in Ireland, your pension savings are partly in a UK fund, and you own a small apartment back in Cork that you've been meaning to sort out for years.

When you die, which country's law decides who gets what?

Most expats assume it's complicated. Most are right — but there's a solution almost nobody knows about. It's called EU Regulation 650/2012, or Brussels IV, and it's been giving European expats a clear, powerful choice since 2015.

The problem? Nobody tells you about it. Not your HR department. Not the real estate agent who sold you your Dutch apartment. Not even, often, your accountant.

What Brussels IV Actually Does

Before 2015, cross-border inheritance in Europe was a legal maze. Different countries applied their own rules in different ways. An expat who died in France might find French law applied to some assets, Italian law to others, and their home country's rules to still more — depending on which judge you asked.

Brussels IV changed all of this. Under the regulation (which applies to all EU member states except Denmark and Ireland), the default rule is that the law of the country where you were habitually resident at the time of death applies to your entire estate.

So if you live in the Netherlands and haven't made an election, Dutch succession law governs your whole estate — including your assets in other countries.

That sounds tidy. But for many expats, Dutch inheritance rules aren't what they'd have chosen. Neither are German, French, or Italian ones.

The Election: Your Most Underused Right

Here's where Brussels IV gets genuinely useful. The regulation allows you to formally elect your nationality's law to govern your estate instead. If you're a British citizen living in Spain, you can choose UK succession law. If you're an American with Irish citizenship living in Belgium, you can choose Irish law.

This one choice can have enormous consequences:

• Forced heirship rules differ dramatically across Europe. France, Spain, Italy, and Germany all have réserve héréditaire, legítima, quota di legittima, and Pflichtteil — rules that guarantee children (and sometimes spouses or parents) a fixed share of your estate, regardless of what your will says. The UK, Ireland, and many other non-continental legal systems are more permissive. If you want to leave everything to your partner rather than splitting it with your adult children, the choice of law matters enormously.
• Inheritance tax is not directly affected by Brussels IV (tax is a separate area of law), but the structure of who inherits — and in what order — can indirectly affect your family's tax burden.
• Testamentary freedom — your right to decide who gets what — varies widely. By choosing your home country's law, you may retain freedoms that local law would take away.

What the Election Looks Like in Practice

The election must be made expressly — either in a will or in a statement with the same formal requirements as a will.

This means you need to see a notary or solicitor and have the election properly drafted and executed. A mention in a handwritten note won't do it.

The election must name the specific country and specify that you're exercising your right under Article 22 of EU Regulation 650/2012. It should also be stored somewhere accessible — which is where many families run into trouble.

If your heirs can't find your will, the election is worthless.

The Storage Problem Nobody Talks About

Here's a scenario that plays out more often than you'd think.

A British expat living in Amsterdam makes an election under Brussels IV, has a proper will drafted with an Amsterdam notary, and files it in the Dutch notarial register (the Central Register of Wills). Good so far.

But their children are in London. When they die, the family has to:

1. Know to contact Dutch authorities (they don't know the Dutch system exists)
2. Navigate the Central Register of Wills in Dutch
3. Track down the notary's office — which may have merged with another firm
4. Deal with the bank, the housing corporation, and the pension fund — all of whom need different documents

This isn't hypothetical. It's the normal outcome when someone plans perfectly on paper but leaves no accessible record for their family.

What You Need to Do — Starting Today

Step 1: Understand your default. If you die where you live right now, which country's succession law applies? Research the forced heirship rules and testamentary freedom provisions of that country. Are they what you want?

Step 2: Decide whether to elect. If your home country's law is more favourable to your wishes, make the election. See a notary or international estate planning lawyer — this isn't something to DIY.

Step 3: Draft or update your will. Your election should be incorporated into a properly executed will. If you already have a will, check whether it addresses Brussels IV explicitly.

Step 4: Store everything accessibly. Your will, your election, and a plain-language explanation of what your family needs to do — and in what order — need to be in one place your family can find immediately.

If your heirs have to piece together your estate like a cross-border puzzle at the worst moment of their lives, all the careful planning in the world was wasted effort.

Why Expats Keep Getting This Wrong

There are three reasons:

First, nobody brings it up proactively. Your employer's HR department won't mention Brussels IV. Your Dutch bank won't tell you that their default inheritance procedure assumes Dutch law applies. Only an international estate planning specialist thinks in these terms — and most expats don't have one.

Second, it feels abstract until it isn't. You're healthy. You're busy. You'll get to it next year.

Third, even people who do plan often fail at the storage step. The will is in the notary's file. The family is in another country. The instructions are in your head.

LegacyShield Was Built for Exactly This

LegacyShield gives expats a single encrypted vault where your will, your Brussels IV election, your property documents, and your plain-language instructions to your family all live together — accessible anywhere in the world by the people you trust.

You don't need to move to another country to die in the wrong legal system. You do need to plan.

Create your free vault today at LegacyShield and make sure your family knows exactly what you chose — and why.