The law of succession is the set of rules that govern the events of the assets of a natural person following his death.

From the moment of the death of the person, the succession is opened, that is the operation that allows the sub-entry of new owners in the complex of the transmissible legal relationships that belonged to the deceased.

In principle, without prejudice to the characteristics of each specific case, it can be stated that, through succession, the succession of the heirs takes place in the complex of legal relationships and rights of the deceased, with the exception of non-transferable ones.

There are three types of succession:

• testamentary, or by will;
• legitimate, when, in the absence of a will, the relatives of the deceased become heirs, according to the methods and quotas provided by the law;
• necessary, when one has disposed of one's own through a will without respecting the quotas reserved by law for the closest relatives of the deceased as indicated by the law ("legal right share" or “forced share”).

Once the nominal heirs have been identified, they will be able to accept, accept with the benefit of inventory or refuse the inheritance.

In the event of pure and simple acceptance of the inheritance, the hereditary and personal assets of the heir will merge (so-called "confusion of assets") and the latter will be liable for any inheritance debts with all his assets (obviously, within the limit of the same share of the inheritance rights received).

In case of acceptance with benefit of the inheritance inventory, however, the heir will take over the positions of the deceased, but will not operate the "confusion of the assets", so that, in case of inheritance debts, the heir will be responsible for them only in the limit of the size of the inheritance destined to him (in both cases, pro quota).

On closer inspection, the acceptance with benefit of inventory is a tool provided by the italian legislator to protect the heir and is useful, in particular, when it is not clear whether the inheritance is active or passive, or when the same is certainly in the passive state but the heir does not want to refuse the inheritance anyway.

On this point, it is important to highlight how the acceptance procedure with inventory benefit is a rather articulated and complex procedure, subject to formalities to be carried out in rather stringent peremptory terms.

In this perspective, in the event of a call to inheritance (“nominal heir”), especially if the entity of assets and liabilities of the inheritance is not known with certainty, it is suggested that you contact your trusted lawyer before taking any action, at order to deal with the situation without making mistakes that could have serious economic consequences and even come to definitively prejudice one's right to refuse the inheritance (or to accept it with the benefit of inventory), with consequent "confusion of assets" and unlimited liability towards inheritance debts (repeated, pro quota, according to the share of the inheritance due).

That said, it should be noted that the disputes that most often affect the inheritance are those between the heirs themselves.

In particular, the disputes that most often occur between heirs are related to:

• alleged illegality of the testament ("appeal of the will");
• violation of legal right share or forced share;
• failure to reinstate previous donations made in life to the children (or their descendants) and spouse to the hereditary patrimony, with consequent erroneous calculation of the legal right share;
• no agreement on the division of the inheritance between heirs ("judicial division of inheritance").

If you are a "called to inherit" or a “nominal heir” in a succession based in Italy and you want to protect yourself, or you feel you did not have what you were entitled to and you want to see your rights protected, contact our office immediately for a free cognitive meeting with your lawyer.

The law firm Marconi Santese & Partners in Rome (Italy), in fact, also through the network of lawyers, solicitors and attorneys involved, can provide high-profile advice on the subject of hereditary succession, even of an international nature, being able to help you discover the actual existence of violations of your inheritance rights and the possible remedies that can be implemented.