Inheritance in Portugal: forced heirship and the legítima

In short: Portugal has forced heirship: if you die leaving a spouse, children or parents, the law reserves a protected slice of your estate for them called the legítima, and no will can take it away (Código Civil arts. 2156–2159). You can only freely give away the leftover disposable share (quota disponível) — between one-third and one-half of the estate, depending on who survives you. A will in Portugal therefore controls the edges of an estate, not the whole of it. CourtStairs answers Portuguese and EU succession questions like these in plain language, with citations to the Diário da República you can check yourself.

Many people — Portuguese and foreign alike — assume a will lets them divide their estate however they please. In Portugal it does not. The legal system deliberately protects close family, and understanding how much it protects is the difference between a will that works and one that gets partly unwound after you die. This guide explains the rules in plain English, with a share table you can actually use.

Who counts as a forced heir in Portugal?

The forced heirs (herdeiros legitimários) are the surviving spouse, the descendants, and — only if there are no descendants — the ascendants. No one else is protected by law. This is set out in Código Civil art. 2157.

Portuguese succession law splits the family into two groups. The forced heirs are the ones the law protects: the surviving spouse, the descendants (children, and through them grandchildren) and, only when there are no descendants, the ascendants (parents, then grandparents).

Everyone else — a de facto partner, a sibling, a friend, a stepchild you never adopted — is not a forced heir. They inherit only if you leave them something in a will, and only out of the disposable share. That single distinction drives almost every surprise in Portuguese inheritance. (If you are unmarried, see how the law treats couples in our guide to marriage vs. união de facto in Portugal.)

What is the legítima and the disposable share?

The legítima is the protected slice of your estate reserved for forced heirs, which no will can touch; the quota disponível is everything left over, which you can leave to anyone. Every estate with forced heirs is divided into these two parts:

• The legítima (also called the quota indisponível, the "unavailable portion") — the protected slice reserved for the forced heirs, which a will cannot reduce or redirect (Código Civil art. 2156).
• The quota disponível (the "disposable share") — everything left over, which you are free to leave to anyone, including people the law would otherwise leave out.

The size of each part is not fixed. It depends entirely on which forced heirs survive you and how many. The more (or the higher-ranking) the forced heirs, the larger the reserved portion — and the less freedom your will has.

How is an estate split under Portuguese forced heirship?

The reserved portion is between one-half and two-thirds of the estate, depending on who survives you — so a will can freely control only one-third to one-half. Here is the core of Portuguese forced heirship in one table. The "legítima" column is the protected part; the "disposable share" is what your will can freely allocate.

Two things to read carefully. First, the reserved portion is a share of the whole estate, calculated on the value of the assets you leave (plus, in some cases, certain lifetime gifts brought back into account). Second, the legítima is what the forced heirs get as a group; within that group it is then divided between them under the succession rules — for example, a spouse who inherits alongside children takes a child's share but, by law, never less than one-quarter of what is being divided.

What can a Portuguese will actually do?

A will controls only the disposable share: it can leave that part to anyone, but it cannot reduce the legítima or disinherit a forced heir without narrow legal grounds. Within the disposable share, a Portuguese will is powerful. You can leave that part to a de facto partner, a stepchild, a friend, a charity, or an unequal split between your children. You can attach legacies of specific assets. What you cannot do is dip into the legítima: any attempt to leave a forced heir less than their reserved portion, or to hand the reserved portion to an outsider, is liable to be reversed.

Nor can you casually disinherit a forced heir. Exclusion (deserdação) is allowed only on the specific, serious grounds listed in the Código Civil — such as certain crimes against the deceased or their close family — and it must be stated expressly in the will with the cause given. Disapproval, estrangement or a preference for someone else is not a legal ground.

What happens if you die without a will in Portugal?

Without a will, your estate passes automatically to relatives in a fixed legal order — spouse and children first — and a de facto partner inherits nothing from it. If you die without a will (sucessão legítima), the estate passes automatically to your relatives in a fixed order of classes: first the spouse and descendants together; then, failing descendants, the spouse and ascendants; then siblings and their descendants; then other collaterals up to the fourth degree; and finally the State. A de facto partner is nowhere in that order — without a will, they inherit nothing from the estate, though separate legislation gives them a temporary right to stay in the shared home.

1. Identify the heirsWork out who the forced heirs are — spouse, descendants, or ascendants (art. 2157) — as this fixes the size of the legítima.
2. Value the estateTotal the assets, accounting for debts and certain lifetime gifts, to know what the shares apply to.
3. Split reserved vs disposableApply the table above: reserve the legítima, and set aside the quota disponível the will can allocate.
4. Apply the will, then the partilhaHonour valid legacies from the disposable share, then divide the rest among heirs by deed or, if they disagree, in court.

For a step-by-step walk-through of registering the death, accepting the inheritance and completing the partilha, see our guide to the wills and succession process in Portugal.

As a foreigner, can I choose my own country's law?

Yes — under EU Regulation 650/2012 you can expressly choose the law of your nationality to govern your whole succession; otherwise the law of your country of habitual residence at death applies. If you are not Portuguese but live in Portugal, forced heirship may still reach your estate. Under EU Regulation 650/2012, the default law governing your succession is that of the country where you were habitually resident at death — so residence in Portugal can pull Portuguese rules in, even over assets abroad. But the Regulation lets you choose the law of your nationality instead, provided you say so expressly (typically in your will). For someone from a country with more testamentary freedom, that choice can be the single most important line in the document.

How can CourtStairs help with Portuguese inheritance?

Working out exactly how much of your estate you can leave by will, who your forced heirs are, and whether an EU law choice helps is precisely what CourtStairs is built for. Ask it "how much can I leave my partner?" or "do my children have to inherit?" and it answers in plain language, tying each point to its source — art. 2156 for the legítima, art. 2157 for forced heirs, arts. 2158–2159 for the shares, and Regulation 650/2012 for a foreigner's law choice — so you can open the Diário da República or EUR-Lex and read the provision yourself. It works in English and Portuguese and has a free tier.

This is general information about the law, not legal advice. The exact size of the legítima, how it divides between heirs, the effect of lifetime gifts, and whether you can choose another country's law depend on your family, your assets and rules that change over time — so confirm anything important against the primary source or a lawyer before you act.