With French children and grandchildren moving to Quebec and young Quebecois seeking career opportunities in France, international Estate issues become more and more frequent the last years.
Estate (Successions) law is complicated already, but when an international aspect is involved, finding a right lawyer becomes a tricky task.
Lawyer for a France Quebec Estate
Quebec Estate law provides for relatively absolute freedom to testate (freedom to leave one’s property by way of a last Will to whoever one chooses). Of course, illegal causes are prohibited, but otherwise there is virtually no limitations.
European countries are more conservative, often protecting rights of direct descendants (children) and family to a certain extent.
Grounds to contest one’s Will or declare an heir unworthy to inherit, to remove a liquidator (executor), required evidence, legal factors and criteria, real estate transfer and taxation rules, applicable laws and judicial decisions — all this, though not without similarities, require quite different legal experience. The similarities themselves even might be misleading.
Usual solution in such a situation is to hire a separate lawyer — both in Quebec and in France. This solution, though often unavoidable, entails longer delays (as two lawyers must communicate, to clarify and coordinate respective legal steps). It also increases the probability of a mistake based on certain incompatibility of legal approaches of the two professionals. Not the least, this adds significantly to the final bill.
An evident better solution is to find a lawyer savvy in Estate (Succesions) laws of both Quebec and France and licensed to practice in both jurisdictions.
Fortunately, nowadays such a lawyer is not as hard to find as it was years ago. An agreement between French and Quebec law societies made it possible to increase the number of lawyers working on both sides of the Atlantic. They are still rare species, but not as impossible to approach as it was before.
Marie Madelin, one of the founding partners of Allen Madelin Lawyers, works on daily basis with Wills and Estates issues, consulting the clients from both France and Quebec and representing them in Courts. For details, please contact us by phone: 1 514 904 4017 or by email: [email protected].
