Inheritance

Introduction
Inheritance and property rights
- Inheritance and individual ownership of property
- Critiques of inheritance
Prime issues in inheritance and succession
- Freedom of testation
  - Historical development
  - Limits on freedom of testation
- Divided or undivided inheritance
Intestate succession
- Historical development
  - Roman law
  - Common law
  - Civil law
- Intestacy in present law
  - Modern tendencies
  - Rights of spouses
  - Examples of existing laws
    - England
    - New York State
    - Uniform Probate Code (U.S.)
    - France
    - The R.S.F.S.R.
Wills
- Formalities of wills
- Invalid wills
The machinery of transfer
- Transfer in civil law
- Transfer in common law
  - Probate
  - Administration

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

Mosaic portrait of Emperor Justinian I with a jeweled crown and halo, from the 6th-century Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy.

The image shows a diagram illustrating heirship through female lines.

At a Glance

inheritance summary

Related Questions

How did feudal land rules contribute to the development of inheritance taxes in Europe?
How do adopted children’s inheritance rights compare with biological children’s rights in many modern legal systems?
How do afterborn heir laws protect a child born after a parent makes a will?
How do family allowance laws support a surviving spouse shortly after a death?
How do inheritance taxes differ from estate taxes?
How do life insurance proceeds pass to a named beneficiary after death?
How do lifetime gifts and trusts reduce exposure to estate taxes?
How do retirement accounts transfer to designated beneficiaries?
How do transfer-on-death accounts pass property to a beneficiary?
How does an administrator manage an estate when there is no will?
How does community property affect the share received by a surviving spouse?
How does inheritance law protect a surviving spouse from being completely disinherited in the United States?
How does intestate succession determine who inherits when there is no valid will?
How does probate settle a deceased person’s estate?
How does the German system protect a surviving spouse or child from disinheritance?
How does the rule against perpetuities limit long-term conditions in a will?
How long can probate take for a straightforward estate?
How were inheritance taxes used in the Roman Empire?
What arguments have been made in favor of allowing people to inherit property?
What can happen to an estate if no relatives of the deceased can be located?
What circumstances can make probate take a year or longer?
What happens after a probate court approves an estate’s final accounting?
What happens when a probate court determines that a will is valid?
What is an indefeasible share for a surviving spouse?
What steps does an executor take during probate?
When might informal probate be available for an estate?
Which jointly owned assets usually pass directly to a surviving owner?
Who usually inherits first under intestate succession laws?
Why are assets that avoid probate generally not part of the public record?
Why are creditors notified during probate?
Why can a gift in a will that requires a beneficiary to divorce be invalid?
Why did dower rights decline as a way to protect surviving spouses?
Why do some inheritance laws limit charitable gifts made shortly before death?
Why have critics argued that inheritance can increase economic inequality?
Why have critics said that estate taxes can be difficult for family farms and businesses?
Why might an executor need to sell estate property?

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kibbutz Members of a kibbutz weaving fishnets, 1937.

Inheritance

law

Also known as: succession

Written by

Mary Ann Glendon

Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard University. Author of A Nation Under Lawyers and others.

Mary Ann GlendonAll

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Nov. 1, 2026 •History

Inheritance, the devolution of property on an heir or heirs upon the death of the owner. The term inheritance also designates the property itself. In modern society, the process is regulated in minute detail by law. In the civil law of the continental European pattern, the pertinent branch is generally called the law of succession. In Anglo-American common law it was customary to distinguish between descent of real estate and distribution of personal estate. The...

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