I’m wondering if anyone knows what the administrative benefits and efficiencies would be to having a will in Portugal saying basically the same thing that the law already dictates. Currently, per Portuguese law my spouse would get everything, and that is the same thing I would put in my will, which seems redundant and unnecessary without some kind of legal fast tracking attached to it. Is this just a case of the lawyers keeping their jobs, or something more akin to using a trust to bypass probate in the US?
We are in the Golden Visa category, where I suspect a preponderance are not resident in Portugal. In this case, done right, the will allows the PT property to pass under the PT will and other property to be handled under other law. So maybe this isn’t the right place to inquire.
On the other hand, no will means property will pass according to whatever law is determined to apply to it.
My husband is the primary for our GV application and I am the only dependent as the spouse. We invested in real estate, so the property is in his name and so is the bank account. Our attorney told us early on that we didn’t need a will because PT law already provides that everything would come to me. As a result, we haven’t done a PT will.
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Wife and I live full time in PT and we had a will done up last year. While it is true that the estate will pass in its entirety to the surviving person, we found it reassuring to have in case something happened to both of us at the same time. Dying intestate in a foreign country, with a penchant for absurd bureaucracy, and without a named beneficiary was, frankly, a frightening thought.
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Do you know if the will speeds up any of the process or makes it smoother for any beneficiaries? Any successor beneficiaries aside from my spouse would be charities, so while I would like to have one named for Portugal I haven’t found one yet. I suppose if there is anyone I would like to torture with the bureaucracy that could be an end goal??
Thank you for this. That was my understanding as well, and why I hadn’t opted for it, but our attorney is now trying to sell us on it and I can’t quite extract the why - other than legal fees.
According to the internet, this is a very simplified version of how it works in PT:
If you die in Portugal (or with assets in Portugal) without a will, your assets:
Go first to children
If no children, then spouse
If neither, then parents
If none, then siblings
If none, to the Portuguese State (which happens rarely because an heir usually exists)
Real estate in Portugal will generally pass under Portuguese inheritance rules regardless of where you were living.
We hadn’t thought much about what happens in the event both of us pass. We have no children and Rob’s parents and grandparents have passed. So, at this moment, the assets would pass to his siblings and they would have to deal with the bureaucracy. 
Even with a will, there will be a potential bureaucratic nightmare, not to mention the time and money involved.
We’ll probably revisit this once we decide whether we’re going to stay the course with the GV. We have a family trust in the US and our estate attorney suggested we name a TOD for the bank account as the trust. I’m not even sure we can do that. We’ll be in Lisbon in February so this will be a topic on the list of questions. Thanks for putting it back on the radar.
I do not know if anything can speed up the bureaucracy here! For us sadly, we have known too many people that have died intestate and the issues surrounding probate have been considerable.
Also, like Pheebs mentioned, real estate will pass under Portuguese inheritance rules. But this can be a problem for an estate with multiple heirs as they all inherit a part of the property/land. In our area there are a number of properties that have been vacant for years as the beneficiaries all have to agree on the next steps. According to our Portuguese friends, this rarely happens, which is why there are so many vacant homes and viable pieces of land that are left to ruin. We wanted something to be as simple and straightforward as is possible for Portugal. 
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Portugal does not have a legal mechanism specifically known as a “Transfer on Death” (TOD) in the same way some other jurisdictions might.
If you have step children, I suggest you look in to it. A scenario might be: biological parent dies and spouse inherits everything. Then the spouse dies. The property would go the the last living spouse’s children or siblings. The child from the original biological parent would not be in the inheritance line. This may not be what you want.
Right question, but I don’t think that is how it works. I think it is, US will of biological parent directs everything to surviving spouse and the surviving spouse’s heirs. Biological parent dies in PT, and in the absence of a PT will everything goes to the original biological child, with some to the spouse (I’m not clear on whether there is a split). US estate plan isn’t honored.
FYI, in case your country of origin has a similar option.
I’m Canadian. I have an “International will” that directs my estate to be settled in accordance with the laws of Ontario, Canada, irrespective of my residence status in Portugal. The Ontario will supersedes any Portuguese law.
For me, this is the primary reason to seek legal advice. A random search turned up this Portuguese Inheritance Law - Wills and Heirs --I do not know if this lawyer is any good. That said, you may notice step children are not well covered.
The reason to have a Portuguese Will for your Portuguese assets is to head off what is called a “conflict of laws” problem. This arises when courts have to choose which laws to apply to your estate, usually your habitual home country (domicile) vs country/countries of nationality. There are established rules internationally for making the call.
If you’re not living in Portugal and want your Portuguese assets to be dealt with in terms of Portuguese law, then it needs to be put into a Will (and excluded from your other Will!). The courts won’t discern this for you. They’ll just apply the relevant convention to your whole estate.
Only if you live in Portugal, have Portuguese nationality, and have a simple estate which is largely in Portugal, is it ok to not have a Will.
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This is wrong. Sucession has nothing to do with where you die or even where your assets are. Your habitual domicile (which sounds like the US) will govern all your assets globally if you die. Portugal has nothing to do with it - it’s just a place you have stuff. I hope this isn’t the legal advice you’re getting.
I assume you can also get around a lot of the will issues if you have a trust?
For example if your US assets are all inside a revocable trust (or set to Pay on Death to the trust?) then the inheritance specified by the trust documents probably overrides Portugal’s laws because technically the assets are not “yours” to be disposed of on death.
If you live in California and have significant assets I believe a trust is recommended anyway to avoid probate fees.
Nice, but my understanding is you need a special Portugal will invoking the EU provision that allow ooverriding PT law. Otherwise you just have a renvoi problem–PT doesn’t care what CA says.
Portugal doesn’t have trusts. In the US, a trust is always recommended. So, your carefully constructed US estate plan is a nullity in anything that involves Portugal.
Nope. Nope. Did I mention nope?
You have to evaluate the awareness, the depth of the pockets, and the interest of competing claimants to your assets, or just flat out spoiling your intentions. The paperwork requirements you leave behind is enough of a nightmare; but leaving the back door open is …
Are you nope, noping me 
?
Anyway …
There is no such thing as a special Portugal will. All Portuguese wills are formal and structured. You also don’t have to invoke the EU provision for your choice to be valid. You do need to make a clear choice.
Wealthy Portuguese use family foundations for the same purposes as trusts. You can’t create a trust using Portuguese law (eg a testamentary trust) - doesn’t mean one created eg in CA would be a nullity.
This is not complicated. If I own property in the UK, South Africa, Portugal and US and I die without a will, each wouldn’t deal unilaterally with my assets.
Still not sure what the nope, nope is about but hope this helps.