Succession inheritance from grandfather and step-grandmother - Italy

@jamiecantar

Hello and welcome !

Members can help you or guide you on questions related to Expatriation, should you want to move and live in Italy, however I am not sure they have enough knowledge about laws and succession.

I would recommend that you contact a lawyer and discuss the matter with him to find out.

All the best

Bhavna

Im afraid this is a very Italian problem and many families go through it.   However, the Italian law succession is very clear, so even if your grandad made a will, there is a part of his inheritance called the legittima which cannot be touched and operates according to certain rules.    To be able to tell you exactly what has gone on you'd need to know all the offspring, birthsa nd deaths.  Basically when your grandad died, his second wife only got a thirdof his money, the other two thirds  going to his natural children.  WHen the stepmother died, her third  would go to her son,  (Im not sure how the 'adopted' son would work unless he was legally adopted)

So the problem would seem to go back two generations.   However it could be, on first sight, that the natural children of your grandfather have been shortchanged in this, and it certainly wasnt up to your relatives to decide who gets to know what - all the heirs have equal rights in this.    The will is a public document and cannot be 'hidden'.

@Modicasa

Yes they had 4 children in the entire family

4 children

---------------

1.) father had 2 from first marriage - they received 10% each

2.) mother had 1 from first marriage  - he received 30% each

3.) they had 1 in new marriage  - he received 50% each

of the whole estate

So when the father died, his three children (two from his first marriage and 1 from his second) received 66.6% of his patrimony (divided equally) with the remaining third going to his second wife.   When she died, the estate is split between her children only - so between 2 children.  There is no provision for her step children, unless specifically laid out in a will.

If your grandfather left a will, it does not preclude the legittima - ie even if he left it all to his second wife in a will, his natural children should still get their share. 

    So when the father died, his three children (two from his first marriage and 1 from his second) received 66.6% of his patrimony (divided equally) with the remaining third going to his second wife.   When she died, the estate is split between her children only - so between 2 children.  There is no provision for her step children, unless specifically laid out in a will. If your grandfather left a will, it does not preclude the legittima - ie even if he left it all to his second wife in a will, his natural children should still get their share.          -@Modicasa

No, what happened is, my step-grandmother continued to live in the house, received my grandfathers pension and my mother did not get any money from his paternal share. Nobody said anything, we did not know how it worked at the time. Only after my step-grandmother died did my mother receive only 10% in 2015.

"Legittima" what should the share be? IF my grandfather had 3 of his own children, does that mean my mother should have received a third of 50%? so 16.66% would be her share? or more? thank you Modicasa

It depends of the inheritance law appiedato

Hi Carlo, what does that mean? What information do you need? thank you.