Who inherits without a will in Portugal?

The spouse and the children inherit in equal shares, except that the spouse's share is never less than a quarter of the estate. Spouses married under separation of property are no longer necessary heirs where there are descendants or ascendants.

With the ascendants the spouse is entitled to two thirds of the estate. With no descendants or ascendants the spouse inherits the whole estate.

Heirs are called in order: descendants; ascendants; siblings and their descendants; other collateral relatives up to the fourth degree; the state.

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

Spouses, descendants and ascendants are compulsory heirs, and part of the estate (the legitimate share) cannot be left away from them. With one child the legitimate share is half of the estate, with two or more it is two thirds.

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.

• The official page for Portugal covers the protected share rather than the intestate fractions, so the intestate shares come from the Civil Code and the 2018 reform.

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

• European e-Justice Portal: succession in Portugal