Who inherits without a will in Luxembourg?

The children share the estate equally, subject to the spouse's rights. The spouse may choose the usufruct of the home they shared, or a share equal to the smallest child's portion, never less than a quarter. If the spouse makes no choice within about four months the spouse gets the usufruct.

With no children, the spouse receives the whole estate ahead of all other relatives. The spouse is not a forced heir, so a will could leave the estate elsewhere.

Descendants; then the parents with the siblings and their descendants; then other ascendants; then other collateral relatives; then the state. With both parents and siblings, each parent takes a quarter and the siblings share the rest.

The official fact sheet does not describe rights for unmarried or registered partners. Treat an unmarried partner as having no automatic right and take advice.

Only descendants are reserved heirs: half the estate for one child, two thirds for two, three quarters for three or more. If the spouse remarries, the children can ask to convert the spouse's usufruct of the home into capital.

In this EU country the Succession Regulation applies to people who die after 16 August 2015: the whole estate is generally governed by the law of the country where the person had their habitual residence at death, unless they chose the law of their nationality in a will. A foreigner living here, or a citizen living abroad, can therefore be governed by a different law than the one described on this page.

Luxembourg belongs to the Civil law family. Succession law grows out of the legal tradition, so it helps to know how the system works.

Read the Luxembourg legal-system profile in the Legal Families Atlas →
Who owns what in a marriage in Luxembourg? →

• European e-Justice Portal: succession in Luxembourg