Regarding international succession, a recent case examined by the Supreme Court highlighted the importance of carrying out proper inheritance planning in order to avoid unpleasant conflicts between jurisdictions and laws of different States.
In the case examined by the Supreme Court, an English citizen with real estate in Italy and various movable properties, had contracted marriage with an Italian citizen after the drafting of the will.
No preference was indicated in the will for the law applicable to the succession (known as professio iuris).
Therefore according to Italian law, unless otherwise indicated in the will, the law of citizenship of the deceased would be applied to the succession and therefore in the specific case the English law; as regards real estate, the law of the place where they are located (known as lex rei sitae) would be applied and therefore the Italian law.
However, according to English law, the will had to be revoked as it was written before the contraction of a marriage.
Therefore the succession has opened without will and has been regulated by the English law that has, in the matter of succession, a higher taxation than the Italian one.
Milano, 2 November 2021
