@kay I really think this is a question you need to ask a Portuguese lawyer, and better yet, a law firm with both Portuguese lawyers and lawyers from your country of origin, so that they can give you the best perspective on a unified solution. If you don’t have confidence in the lawyer you spoke to, please get a second legal opinion. I am concerned that this forum will not be able to give you the advice you need with any certainty.
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There certainly has been lots of incorrect information thrown out by people here, thats for sure!! I’ll have to dig a bit deeper into the conversation with them it looks like.
Just reporting what our lawyers advised.
So to wrap this up after digging further into the question with the lawyers and getting some answers to my main question of “what is the benefit to having a will that would say the same thing as the law”.
According to our lawyer having the will does speed up the process. Their estimate for the probate timeline was that with a will it could be wrapped up in a couple of months, without could be anywhere from a few months to a few years. In my case part of that timeline is because I can specify I want US law to apply to my estate, and because US law does not have any inheritance restrictions, naming my spouse as beneficiary is very straightforward. The process avoids much of the verifications the court would otherwise do if I simply decided not to get a will.
A few key things to note:
-A Portuguese will must be done in person, in Portugal, in front of a notary who then registers your will, with two unrelated witnesses.
-Portugal doesn’t recognize trusts, so if you name a trust it will likely cause some delays and in the end the beneficiaries of the trust will be paid directly. Even though a trust isn’t a family member, if the final beneficiary paid is a spouse/child/parent they should be exempt from the 10% stamp duty.
-If you do not have a will, your assets in Portugal will go through the probate process in Portugal and their laws will apply (forced heirship). If you want the laws of your non-Portuguese nationality to apply, that desire must be stated in your will to be valid.
A couple things I saw come up in the comments:
-Step children are not considered heirs, unless legally adopted.
-The forced heirship reserves 50% of the estate to a spouse/child/parent if there is one, 2/3rds of the estate if there is more than one party - to be split evenly. If you have family and the laws of Portugal are governing your estate, you can only give 1/3 to 50% of your estate to charity/non family.
There are some fringe circumstances but for anyone looking for the basics I hope this helps!
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Thank you very much for the advice!
My lawyer quoted below:
Regarding our legal fees, our professional services amount to €1,500.00. This includes advising you throughout the process, preparing the will, and coordinating all steps and communication with the notary.
Please note this fee does not include the notary’s own costs nor any registrations that may eventually be required.
Is this reasonable?
I think so.
I got mine done for a little under €1k, that was a couple of years ago. The lawyer provided the notary, took one phone discussion then a physical visit to their offices.
My own attorney quoted $1500 as well. This seems to be about the going rate for expat/immigrant/GV clients - which is to say it is overpriced and you can get cheaper but you probably want a recommendation/speak the language/have a way to better vet and do more research on who you hire if you go with someone cheaper.
Edit: I just noticed your notary question part. My attorney included the notary and attending the appointment in that fee. Note that if you do not speak Portuguese you will also be required to have a translator. So if you have to arrange for your own witnesses (can’t be a beneficiary, etc), translator and notary fees then I would say this is a bit on the high side even for the usual GV upcharge.
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Thank you for the info!