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Many British expats in Spain assume the UK will they made years ago still covers everything they own. In practice, owning assets in two countries usually calls for two coordinated wills, one for each jurisdiction, worded so neither cancels the other. This article explains what each will does, how a badly drafted revocation clause can undo years of planning, and why a Spanish will is also the natural home for an Article 22 election of UK law.
Most British expats in Spain believe the will they already have covers everything, because they are:
In practice, that feels reasonable. It is also where the gap starts.
A UK will does not stop being valid when you cross a border, but it was written for a UK system, and settling a Spanish estate happens in front of a Spanish notary under Spanish rules. A single document rarely fits both worlds cleanly, and the mismatch surfaces at the worst possible moment, when a grieving family is trying to unlock a Spanish bank account or transfer a Spanish flat.
This article exists to explain why a coordinated pair of wills, one Spanish and one UK, usually serves a British expat better than a single will, how the wording of each protects the other, and where the Article 22 election of UK law fits into the picture.
The starting point is to see that, as a British expat in Spain, you effectively hold two estates. There is your Spanish estate, the property, bank accounts and possessions located in Spain, and your UK estate, the pension, ISAs, UK bank accounts and often a UK property you kept.
Each estate is settled where it sits. The Spanish assets pass through a Spanish process, involving a Spanish notary and the Spanish tax authorities. The UK assets pass through the UK probate process. These are two different systems, with different documents, different officials and different timescales.
When a single UK will has to be used to settle Spanish assets, it typically needs to be translated, notarised, apostilled and interpreted against Spanish law before a Spanish notary will act on it. That process adds months and expense, and it all happens while the family is already stretched. A Spanish will for the Spanish assets removes most of that friction, which is the practical case for holding two.
A Spanish will is made before a Spanish notary and registered in the central registry of last wills, the Registro General de Actos de Ultima Voluntad. When you die, your heirs or their lawyer check that registry, find the will and act on it. There is no waiting for a foreign document to be validated.
The usual approach is to limit the Spanish will to your Spanish assets, so it deals cleanly with the flat, the car and the Spanish accounts without reaching into your UK affairs. It is written in a form a Spanish notary recognises immediately, which is exactly why it moves faster.
A Spanish will is also where a British national would record an election of the law of your nationality for your estate, the choice that determines whether Spanish forced heirship or English testamentary freedom governs how your Spanish assets pass. That single clause can change who inherits, which is why the Spanish will carries weight well beyond its short length.
Your UK will does the mirror-image job. It deals with your UK assets, the pension death benefits that fall outside the will but sit alongside it, the ISAs, the UK accounts and any UK property, and it runs through the familiar UK probate process.
For most expats the sensible structure is a UK will confined to UK assets, drafted so it does not stray into Spanish territory. That keeps each document doing one job in one system, and it avoids the two wills tripping over each other.
The point is not that a UK will is inadequate. It is that a UK will is built for the UK, and asking it to do double duty in Spain is where the slow, expensive problems begin. Two focused wills, each in its own system, almost always beat one stretched document.
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Here is the single most important technical point, and the one that catches people who arrange their two wills without coordination. A standard will usually opens by revoking all previous wills. That boilerplate line exists to stop old UK wills conflicting with new ones, but across borders it becomes dangerous.
If you make a UK will that revokes all previous wills, and you already have a Spanish will, the UK document can wipe out the Spanish one. Do it in the other order and you can cancel your carefully made UK will with a Spanish document. Either way, you can end up with a single will trying to cover both countries again, which is exactly the situation you were trying to avoid.
The fix is straightforward but easy to miss. Each will should be drafted to revoke only previous wills dealing with the same country or the same assets, expressly leaving the other will standing. This is why two wills should not be commissioned from two advisers who never speak to each other. Coordination is the whole point, and the wording that keeps two wills from cancelling each other is where professional care earns its place.
The strongest everyday argument for a pair of wills is speed. When the Spanish assets are covered by a registered Spanish will, the Spanish process can begin almost immediately. The notary finds the will, the heirs accept the inheritance, the tax is calculated and the title is transferred.
Contrast that with the single-will route. A UK will used for Spanish assets typically has to be translated by a sworn translator, apostilled to prove it is genuine, and then interpreted against Spanish requirements before a notary will proceed. Each of those steps takes time and money, and any missing formality sends the family back a stage.
The six-month deadline is what turns delay into cost. Spanish succession tax must generally be filed and paid within six months of death, and the title to a Spanish property cannot transfer until it is settled. If the family is still waiting for documents to be translated and validated, the clock keeps running. A Spanish will is, in a real sense, a gift of time to the people you leave behind.
Underneath the practical question of how many wills you need sits a legal question of which country's rules decide who inherits. Since 2015, that is governed across most of the EU by Brussels IV, the EU Succession Regulation, and its default rule is simple: the law of the country where you were habitually resident when you died governs your estate.
For a British expat who has settled in Spain, that default is Spanish succession law, and Spanish succession law includes forced heirship, the legitima. Under the Civil Code a large share of the estate, broadly two-thirds, is reserved for your children, whatever your will says. Some regions have their own foral variations, but the principle is the same: you are not fully free to leave your estate as you choose.
This is where many British expats are genuinely surprised. In England there is no forced heirship, so the idea that the law can reserve most of your estate for your children regardless of your wishes runs against the instinct that you can leave your money to whomever you like. In Spain, by default, you cannot, and that changes the whole planning picture.
Brussels IV also provides the escape route, and this is the second reason a Spanish will matters so much. Article 22 lets you elect the law of your nationality to govern your succession instead of the law of your residence. A British national can choose the law of England and Wales, of Scotland, or of Northern Ireland.
English law has no forced heirship, so electing it restores full testamentary freedom over the assets it governs. You can leave your estate to your spouse, or split it as you wish, without the legitima reserving two-thirds for the children. The election is made in your will, and a Spanish will is the natural and clearest place to record it.
Spanish authorities apply the election even though the UK itself opted out of Brussels IV, because the Regulation directs Spain to honour a valid choice of a member of the public who has connected nationality. In practice this means a British expat can keep the freedom to distribute an estate as they wish, provided the choice is made clearly and in good time. Leaving it unstated means the Spanish default, forced heirship, applies.
There is a crucial distinction that trips up almost everyone at first. Choosing UK law under Article 22 changes which succession law decides who inherits. It does not change which country charges tax on the inheritance. Those are two separate systems, and it is easy to assume the election solves both.
Spanish succession tax, the Impuesto sobre Sucesiones y Donaciones or ISD, is charged on Spanish assets and on inheritances received by people resident in Spain, and it is paid by the heir, not by the estate. Electing English law does nothing to remove it. Your heirs still file and pay Spanish succession tax within six months, whatever law governs the distribution.
Because the tax is heavily regional, how Spanish succession tax lands differently on your heirs depends a great deal on where they live and how closely they are related to you. That is a planning conversation in its own right, and it runs in parallel with, not instead of, the choice of law in your wills.
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It helps to see how the same rules land on two different families. The details are illustrative, but the pattern is one that plays out again and again.
The first couple moved to the Costa Blanca and kept only their old UK will, made long before the move. When one of them died, the survivor discovered the UK will had to be translated by a sworn translator, apostilled and then interpreted against Spanish requirements before the notary would touch the Spanish flat. Months passed, the six-month tax deadline loomed, and the legal bills grew. Because no election of UK law had been made, Spanish forced heirship also applied, and a share the couple had assumed would pass entirely to the survivor was reserved for the children instead.
The second couple, with almost identical assets, had taken advice on arrival. They held a short Spanish will covering the Spanish flat and accounts, a UK will covering the pension, ISAs and UK home, and each will was worded so it did not revoke the other. Their Spanish will recorded an Article 22 election of English law. When one of them died, the notary found the registered Spanish will within days, forced heirship did not apply, and the survivor inherited as the couple had intended. The Spanish tax still had to be paid, but it was filed comfortably inside the deadline.
Neither outcome is about how much the couples owned. It is about whether the paperwork was arranged to work with the Spanish system or against it.
Turning all of this into a working plan is a short list of concrete steps, best taken together rather than piecemeal.
The order and the wording matter more than most people expect. Making a new will in either country without checking the other is the most common way a good plan quietly unravels. A short coordination exercise, looking at both documents side by side, is usually all it takes to keep them aligned.
It is also worth revisiting the pair whenever life changes. A new Spanish property, the sale of a UK home, a marriage, a divorce or the arrival of grandchildren can all shift the picture. Wills are not a set-and-forget purchase, particularly across two legal systems that each keep moving.
Cross-border wills are not about buying two documents. They are about making sure the documents, the law and the tax all point the same way. Advice earns its place in a few specific ways.
The goal is a pair of wills that settle quickly, respect your wishes and leave your family with a clear path rather than a translation project. That is a very different outcome from a single will that technically exists but slows everything down when it is needed most.
If you are reading this and thinking:
then the useful next step is a short review of what you already have, before anything is redrafted. Most of the time the fix is coordination rather than starting again, and it is far easier to arrange while you can still sign the documents yourself.
It is a small piece of admin to sort in life, and a large relief for the people who have to act on it.
Two coordinated wills are not about:
They are about:
A single will that tries to cover two countries often ends up serving neither well. A matched pair, drafted to work together, is what turns a cross-border estate from a slow and costly puzzle into something your family can settle with far less strain.
As a Private Wealth Partner at Skybound Wealth, Kevin works with expatriate and internationally mobile clients who want long-term, relationship-led financial planning from someone who understands how decisions play out across countries, market cycles, and life stages.
This article is for information purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Financial planning outcomes depend on individual circumstances, residency, tax status, and objectives. Professional advice should always be sought before making financial decisions.
If you have assets in Spain and the UK, the wording of both documents matters.
A focused review can help you understand the options before changing your wills.
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Already have a UK will but now live in Spain or own Spanish property? Before making a new will, find out whether your existing arrangements still work across both countries.
