That spouses inherit everything anyway, ungrateful children or the nurse but not a cent – such rumors persist. A lot can go wrong with inheritance, with or without a will.
They were married for almost 40 years. The childless couple from Siegsdorf in Upper Bavaria never made a will. They both firmly believed that the surviving partner would inherit everything anyway. But that was a terrible mistake. When the man dies at the age of 62, the widow is faced with a heap of broken glass. No will, no sole heir: Because his parents are already dead, his two brothers are joint heirs – and they demand their share. The widow ends up having to sell the home to pay her off. “There are plenty of such bitter cases, only about every fourth citizen manages to write down early on who should get what,” says Jan Bittler, specialist lawyer for inheritance law and managing director of the German Association for Inheritance Law and Asset Succession (DVEV). And even those who write down their last will can do a lot wrong. Or sits on half-truths and rumours. The rules surrounding wills and inheritance law are complex. Here are the seven most common pitfalls.