Inheritance is a life issue that many people must face. By the nature of inheritance, everyone has the opportunity to become either an heir or the deceased. Because after the death of the deceased, their former positions (titles and family status) and owned property undergo absolute changes, establishing legal systems to regulate inheritance has become a normal feature of civilization. In ancient feudal societies, the focus of inheritance was on power and position. The primogeniture succession system, established beginning in the Western Zhou Dynasty, was primarily the inheritance principle for royal leaders and gradually expanded to general royal families and families. As the economy gradually developed during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods and private property increased, issues of property inheritance began to become the focus. After the Qin and Han dynasties, each dynasty’s published codes and statutes included comprehensive regulations on property inheritance.
In modern society, when inheritance events occur, if there is no definite attribution of the deceased’s property rights, it produces unpredictable impacts on many economic activities and transaction safety. Additionally, inheritance taxes accompanying inheritance are important government revenue. Therefore, modern rule-of-law countries generally have already established comprehensive inheritance laws and related procedural regulations for compliance. People with easygoing dispositions can leave inheritance matters to the law and complete their life’s journey without concerns. However, people are emotional beings and often have personal wishes or emotional attachments regarding the disposition of property after death, inevitably leading to self-arranged planning. Particularly, many Taiwanese still hold concepts of “family business,” “family property,” and favoring males over females. To preserve “family property” as completely as possible, various ideas emerge, such as the eldest son inheriting, the eldest son receiving half first, passing to sons rather than daughters, and the third-generation eldest grandson receiving equivalent to the second generation’s allocation. Some of these ideas do not conform to relevant provisions of Taiwan law. Even if the deceased lawfully executes a will according to legal provisions, the will’s content may still be determined by courts as invalid because parts violate legal regulations.
In recent years, the most notable case drawing social attention is the will dispute case of Mr. Chang Jung-fa, founder of Evergreen Group. During his lifetime, Mr. Chang executed a will designating his youngest son to inherit all his property and the position of group chairman. Although the will was determined by the court to be valid, because Taiwan’s Civil Code protects each heir’s basic inheritance rights through the “reserved portion” provision, Mr. Chang’s will designating a single heir to inherit all the estate can only be partially effective. The portions infringing on reserved portions are invalid. In other words, after deducting the reserved portions that other heirs inherit according to law, the remaining estate can be entirely inherited by his designated person. Additionally, regarding the position of group chairman, since it does not fall within the scope of property rights, designating it through a will has no legal effect.
Law deeply intervenes in inheritance matters—this is something everyone should understand when facing inheritance. Regarding how one’s property is handled after death, one can plan according to one’s wishes, but at the same time, should pay attention to whether these plans conflict with the inheritance system provisions established by law. If one merely follows one’s own will without carefully studying legal provisions and acts arbitrarily, it will likely lead to subsequent disputes among heirs or even litigation, leaving only regrets. In many years of professional experience, we frequently observe that before inheritance events occur, heirs or the deceased often engage in planning behaviors, typically including: (1) the deceased pre-executing a will, (2) the deceased gifting property to others, (3) pre-executing an estate division agreement, and (4) pre-renouncing inheritance rights. Our firm will introduce relevant legal matters regarding the above planning behaviors and will publish them item by item in the future. Please stay tuned.
