Basic Concepts of Successions

Succession

Is a mode of acquisition by virtue of which the property, rights and obligations to the extent of the value of the inheritance of a person are transmitted through his death to another or others either by his will or by operation of law. The rights of succession are transmitted from the moment of death of the decedent.

Kinds of Succession

Testamentary or Testate
Legal or Intestate
Mixed

Testamentary of Testate

Is that which results from the designation of an heir, made in a will executed in the form of prescribed by law.

Legal or Intestate

Is that effected by operation of law since the decedent did not execute a will.

Intestacy

Is teh conditon of the estate of a person who dies without having made a valid will or othe rbidning declaration.

Mixed Succession

Is that effected party by will and partly by operation of law.

Elements of Succession

Death of the decedent
Inheritance
Successors
Acceptance

Death of Decedent or testator

is the general term applied to the person whose property is transmitted through succession, whether or not he left a will. If he left a will, he is also called the “testator or testatrix”.

Inheritance

It includes all the property, rights and obligations of a person which are not extinguished by his death. Includes not only his property and the transmissible rights and obligations existing at the time of succession. A personal right, such as license to practice law, cannot be inherited.

Devise

is a testamentary disposition of real estate

Legacy

is a gift or bequest by will of personal property.

Successors

Heirs, devisees and legatees

Heir

is a person called to the succession either by the provision of a will or by operation of law; if by will, they are called “voluntary heirs”; if by operation of law, “legal or intestate heirs”.

Devisees and Legatees

Are persons to whom gifts of real property and personal property, respectively, are given by virtue of a will.

Acceptance

The acceptance of an inheritance may be express or tacit. An express acceptance may be made in a public or private document.

Tacit

Acceptance is one resulting from acts by which the intention to accept is necessarily implied, or which one which have no right to do except in the capacity of an heir.

Executor

Is a person appointed by a testator to carry out the directions and requests in his will, and to dispose of the property according to his testamentary provisions after his death.

Administrator

Is a person appointed by the court to administer the assets and liabilities of a decedent. He is usually a relative of the decedent who has come forward and applied for the position.

Testamentary of Succession

✢ Wills
✢ Capacity and Intent to make a will
✢ Capacity to Succeed by will or by intestacy
✢ Forms of will
✢ Revocation of wills and Testamentary Dispositions ✢ Institution of Heir
✢ Legitime ✢ Disinheritance

Will

If a person may make a legal declaration before his death regarding how he wants his property transferred after his death.

Wills

It is an act whereby a person is permitted, with the formalities prescribed by law, to control to a certain degree the disposition of his estate to take effect after his death.

Codicil

Is an instrument that amends (i.e., changers, modifies, or supplements) the provisions of a will. A ______with the same formalities as a will, but is only required to have a provision or provisions amending a will.

Probate of a will

Is the court procedure by which a will is proved to be valid or invalid. Generally, the probate process involves collecting a decedent’s estate, liquidating liabilities, paying necessary taxes (e.g., estate tax), and distributing property to heirs. These activities are carried out by the executor or administrator of the estate, usually under the supervision of the probate court or other court of appropriate jurisdiction.

Capacity and Intent to make a will

In order to make a will, it is essential to that the testator be of sound mind at the time of his execution. To be of sound mind, it is not necessary that the testator be in full possession of all his reasoning faculties, or that his mind be wholly unbroken, unimpaired, or unshattered by disease, injury or other cause. It shall be sufficient if the testator was able at the time of making the will to know the nature of the estate to be disposed of, the proper objects of his bounty, and the character of the testamentary act.

Capacity to Succeed by Will or by Intestacy

Persons not incapacitated by law may succeed by will or ab intestato. In order to be capacitated to inherit, the heir, devisee or legatee must be living at the moment the succession opens, except in case of representation, when it is proper.

Forms of Wills

Every will must be acknowledge before a notary public by the testator and the witnesses. The notary public shall not be to retain a copy of the will, or file another with the office of the Clerk of court.

Holographic Will

Is a will written entirely by the testator with his own hand and not witnessed or attested.

Revocation of wills and Testamentary Dispositions

A will may revoked by the testator at any time before his death. Any waiver or restriction of this right is void.

Institution of Heir

Is an act by virtue of which a testator designates in his will the person or persons who are succeed him in his property and transmissible rights and obligations

Legitime

is that part of the testator’s property which he cannot dispose of because the law has reserved it for certain heirs who are, therefore, called compulsory heirs.

Compulsory heirs (cont.)

✢ Acknowledged natural children, and natural children by legal fiction;
✢ Other illegitimate children.

Disinheritance

When a person expects or expected to inherit, but does not, the person is said to be disinherited. Disinheritance can be effected only through a will wherein the legal cause therefore shall be specified.

The following shall be sufficient causes for the… Disinheritance of Children and descendants, legitimate as well as illegitimate:

1. When child or descendant has been found guilty of an attempt againt the life of the testator, his or her spouse, descendants or ascendants;
2. When a child or descendant has accused the testator of a crime fowr which the law prescribes imprisonment for six years or more, if the accusation has been found groundless.
3. When a child or descendant has been convicted of adultery or concubinage with the spouse of the testator;
4. When a child or descendant by fraud, violence, intimidation, or undue influence caused the testator to make a will or to change one already made;
5. A refusal without justifiable cause to support the parent or ascendant who disinherits such child or descedant;
6. Maltreatment of the testator by word or dead, by the child or descendant;
7.When a child or descendant leads a dishonorable or disgraceful life;
8. Conviction of a crime which carries with it the penalty of a civil interdiction.

Disinheriting A spouse

1. When the spouse has been cnvicted of an attempt against the life of the testator, his or her descendats, or ascendants;
2. When the spouse has accused the testator of a crime for which the law prescribes imprisonment for 6 years or more, and the accusation has been found to be false;
3. When the spouse by fraud, violence, intimidation, or undue influence causes the testator to make a will or to change one already made;
4. When the spouse has given cause for legal separation;
5. When the spouse has given grounds for the loss of the parentsal authority;
6. Unjustifiable refusal to support the children or other spouse.

Legal or Intestate Succession

A person who succeeds in the ownership of an intestate decedent’s property is said to take the property by intestate succession. Legal or intestate succession takes place:

Intestate/ Intestacy

If a person dies without a will, the person is said to have died “_________”, a status known as “______”

Legal or intestate succession takes place:

1. I f a person dies without a will, or with a void will, or one which has subsequently lost its valisity;
2. When the will does not institute an heir to, or dispose of all the property belonging to the testator. In such case, legal succession shall take place only with respect to the property of which the testator has not disposed;
3. If the suspensive condition attached to the institution of heir does not happen or is not fulfilled, or if the heir dies before the testator, or repudiates the inheritance, there being no substitution, and no right of accretion takes place;
4. When the heir instituted is incapable of succeeding, except in cases provided in the Civil Code

Consanguinity

Is the relation of persons descending from the same stock or common ancestor.
✢ These persons are known as blood relatives, are said to be related by blood or consanguinity. It may be lineal or collateral.

Lineal Consanguinity

which may be descending or ascending, is that which subsists between persons of whom one is descended in a direct line from the other, as between son, father, grandfather, great grandfather, and so upwards in the direct ascending line; or between son, grandson, great-grandson, and so 34 downwards in the direct descending line.

Collateral Consanguinity

Is that which subsists between persons who have the same ancestors, but who not descend (or ascend) one from the other. Thus, father and son are related by lineal consanguinity while uncle and nephew by collateral consanguinity.

Right of Representation–

Is a right created by fiction of law, by virtue of which the representative is raised to the place and the degree of the person represented and acquires the rights which the latter would have if he were living or if he could have inherited.

✢ The right of representation takes place in the direct descending line, but never in the ascending.

Full blood relationship

Is that existing between persons who have the same father and the same mother.

Half blood relationship

Is that existing between persons who have the same father, but not the same mother, or the same mother, but not the same father.

The executor or judicial administrator

Has the task of making sure that the estate tax has been paid before he delivers a distributive share to any party interested in the estate.

Estate taxation

The gross estate of citizens and residents include all their property wherever situated. This gross estate is allowed deductions under the tax law

Net Taxable Estate

Is the basis of the estate tax to be imposed. Once the estate is closed and a final distribution of the assets is made to the beneficiaries, the executor transfers the assets to be held in trust to the trustee.