The Compulsory Share and Its Purpose
A will is the primary instrument for distributing an inheritance, yet the law protects certain close relatives regardless of its content: the decedent's children, parents and spouse are entitled, irrespective of the content of the will, to a compulsory share, which must be half of the share that each of them would have received in intestate succession. This means that even a strict will cannot exclude these persons from a minimum participation in the estate — the compulsory share is half of their lawful expectation, and its volume does not shrink because the will disfavours them.
The idea is straightforward: where a will leaves a close relative nothing or very little, the law still limits the testator's freedom and secures a guaranteed minimum for the closest family — and in practice the calculation of that minimum is what most disputes turn on.
Determining the Total Volume of the Compulsory Share
The total volume of the compulsory share is determined from the entire estate, including property earmarked in the will as a legacy or for the performance of some act of general benefit. This detail is decisive: the compulsory share is not calculated only from what the will leaves to other heirs — the calculation base includes the whole estate, together with property assigned as a legacy under the will and assets devoted to general-benefit purposes.
Such an approach prevents artificial reduction of the estate: property assigned to a separate designation or a general-benefit purpose still remains in the calculation base, so every omitted asset immediately diminishes the claim.
Determining Each Heir's Compulsory Share
In determining each heir's compulsory share, account must be taken of all intestate heirs who would have been invited to accept the estate had there been no will; testamentary heirs are not taken into account. The computational logic runs as follows: first the circle of persons who would have been called as heirs under intestate succession is formed, and then the share of each person entitled to a compulsory share is fixed at half of that person's lawful share within this circle.
In practice the number of testamentary heirs and their allotted shares have no effect on the calculation: where the circle of intestate heirs is wide, each lawful share is small and the compulsory share shrinks accordingly, while in a narrow circle each share — and its half — is larger.