British expats in the Philippines: legitime and forced heirship

The Philippines reserves fixed shares of an estate for close family, a system called forced heirship, which on the face of it limits who you can leave your assets to. The good news for a British expat is that Philippine law generally says your succession is governed by the law of your nationality, English law, which preserves your freedom to choose your heirs. The catch is that for Philippine real estate, a legal quirk can pull Philippine forced heirship back into play, and that area is genuinely uncertain. Add a mandatory local estate tax and a slow probate process, and the sensible plan is a UK will for your UK assets coordinated with a Philippine will for your Philippine ones.

Here's how it fits together.

Forced heirship, in plain terms

Under the Philippine Civil Code, certain relatives, the compulsory heirs, are guaranteed a reserved share of the estate called the legitime. You cannot cut it down, and a gift in your will that eats into it is void.

In outline: legitimate children and descendants are reserved half the estate, shared between them. If there are no children, legitimate parents take half instead. A surviving spouse's share depends on the mix, a quarter where there's one child, and so on, drawn from what's left. Illegitimate children also have a guaranteed share. Only the remainder, the free portion, is yours to leave as you wish.

Two features sharpen the contrast with England. Leaving a compulsory heir in the direct line out of your will entirely can annul the will's appointments and send the estate down the intestacy route. And disinheriting someone is only possible on narrow legal grounds, such as an attempt on your life. This is a world away from English law, where you can broadly leave your estate to whomever you like, subject only to a dependant's discretionary claim.

Why this may not bind you, and the catch that might

Here's the key point. Philippine law (Article 16 of the Civil Code) says that who inherits, how much, and the validity of a will are governed by the national law of the person who died, whatever the property is and wherever it sits. For a British national, that points to English law, and English testamentary freedom, even for assets in the Philippines.

So in principle, Philippine forced heirship doesn't dictate how a British expat leaves their estate. But there's a catch, and it's worth understanding rather than glossing over.

The catch is a doctrine called renvoi, a referral back. "National law" includes a country's rules about which law applies. English rules say that succession to land and buildings follows the law of the place where the property sits. So for your Philippine real estate, English law effectively hands the question back to the Philippines, and Philippine courts have, in past cases, accepted that hand-back and applied their own forced heirship to the local property of a foreigner living there. Whether that happens turns on the specific facts, including where you were domiciled, and it isn't applied consistently. This is a real area of uncertainty, not a settled rule either way, which is exactly why Philippine real estate needs specialist, dual-country advice rather than an assumption.

What you can actually own

What you can leave depends on what you can legally hold, and the Philippines restricts foreigners sharply.

The Constitution bans foreigners from owning land. There are limited exceptions. You can inherit land through hereditary succession, important if you're married to a Filipino, though you generally can't then sell it on to another foreigner. You can own a condominium unit outright, provided foreign ownership in the whole project stays within 40 per cent, which is the cleanest direct route. Long-term leases (up to 50 years, renewable) and shares in a 60/40 Filipino-owned company are other structures, and both leasehold rights and shares can be inherited.

A common arrangement is land held in a Filipino spouse's name. If your spouse dies first, you may inherit a portion, but you can end up co-owning with their Filipino compulsory heirs, often the children, which can force a sale. The key distinction to hold onto: a condo you can own; land you generally cannot, and inheriting it doesn't give you a free hand to pass it on.

Your will has to be probated locally

Even where English law governs the substance of your wishes, Philippine procedure applies to Philippine assets, and it's demanding.

The Philippines recognises a notarial will (formal, with three witnesses and a notary) and a holographic will (entirely handwritten, dated and signed). Crucially, every will must be probated by a Philippine court before it has any effect, and assets can't be transferred until the court confirms the will is valid in form. A UK will can be used, but it has to go through "reprobate", proving the apostilled UK will, its UK probate, and the content of English law to the local court. That process is slow, often one to three years or more, and costly.

This is the practical case for a separate Philippine will covering your Philippine assets: it sidesteps the drawn-out reprobate of a foreign will and gets the local estate moving sooner.

Two tax systems, no treaty

"The Philippines has no death tax" is a myth worth killing. There's a mandatory estate tax under the TRAIN law, a flat 6 per cent on the net estate. Residents are taxed on their worldwide estate; non-resident foreigners on their Philippine assets. There are useful deductions, a standard deduction of 5 million pesos and a family-home deduction of up to 10 million. The return is due within a year of death, and a clearance certificate from the tax authority is needed before any Philippine asset can be transferred.

On the UK side, inheritance tax is 40 per cent above the £325,000 nil-rate band, with a residence nil-rate band of up to £175,000 where a home passes to direct descendants. Since 6 April 2025, whether your worldwide assets are caught turns on long-term residence: broadly, if you were UK resident for at least 10 of the last 20 tax years, your worldwide estate is in scope, with a tail of up to 10 years after leaving. Anything in the UK stays taxable regardless.

There's no UK-Philippines estate tax treaty, so where both countries tax the same asset, relief depends on a unilateral credit rather than a treaty. That makes early, coordinated tax advice worth having.

A couple of real situations

A widowed British retiree owns a Manila condo in his own name, a peso bank account, and a house and pension in the UK. English law governs his succession, so he can leave the condo as he chooses, and the condo is legally his within the 40 per cent cap. He's best served by a UK will for his UK assets and a Philippine notarial will for the condo and account, which spares his family the reprobate delay. His estate faces UK inheritance tax, subject to the residence test, and the 6 per cent Philippine estate tax on the local assets.

A British expat married to a Filipino has children from an earlier UK marriage, and the family home is in his spouse's name. His UK will handles his assets. But the home is really his spouse's, and if she dies first he may inherit a share alongside her Filipino compulsory heirs. She needs a Philippine will to manage the forced-heirship implications so he's provided for without impairing the children's legitime. This is a two-wills, two-countries situation by nature.

Where this leaves you

For British expats in the Philippines, your national law generally preserves your freedom to choose your heirs, but Philippine forced heirship can still reach your Philippine real estate through renvoi, and that risk is real enough to need specialist handling. Layer on a slow local probate, a mandatory 6 per cent estate tax and your continuing UK inheritance tax exposure, and the answer is rarely a single document. A UK will for your UK assets, coordinated with a Philippine will for your Philippine ones, is the structure that holds up.

A clear, valid UK will is the anchor for the UK side of that plan. That's what Expat Legacy provides: a properly drafted UK will for British expats, in plain English, ready to coordinate with your Philippine arrangements.

Sources

• Civil Code of the Philippines (RA 386), Article 16 (Lawphil)
• Aznar v. Garcia, G.R. No. L-16749 (1963) (Lawphil)
• 1987 Constitution, Article XII, Section 7 (Lawphil)
• Condominium Act (RA 4726), Section 5 (Lawphil)
• TRAIN Law (RA 10963), estate tax sections 84 to 90 (Lawphil)
• Inheritance Tax if you're a long-term UK resident (GOV.UK)
• Inheritance Tax: Double Taxation Relief (GOV.UK)

This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Cross-border succession here, especially the renvoi question over Philippine property, is genuinely uncertain and fact-dependent, so it's worth getting advice tailored to you, on both sides, before you act.