Do You Need a Separate Spanish Will? Property Owners' Most-Asked Estate Question

We've covered Spanish inheritance tax in a separate post, but the question we get asked even more often is a different one: if I already have a will at home, do I actually need a Spanish one too? The short answer is that you don't strictly need one, but the great majority of foreign property owners in Mallorca are considerably better off having one, and the reason has more to do with speed and certainty than with legal validity.

Your Foreign Will Is Legally Valid in Spain

A properly executed will from your home country is generally recognised in Spain and can cover your Spanish property. The question isn't whether it's legally valid; it's whether it's administratively practical. When a foreign will has to be used to settle a Spanish estate, it typically needs to be apostilled, officially translated, and taken through Spanish probate before your heirs can do anything with the property, a process that's slower, more expensive, and considerably more exposed to delay than most people expect.

Why a Spanish Will Moves Faster

A Spanish will is signed before a Spanish notary, written in Spanish alongside your own language, and registered centrally in the Registro General de Actos de Ultima Voluntad, the central wills registry. That registration means any notary in Spain can confirm its existence and retrieve it instantly after your death, without your heirs needing to search for it or prove where it's held. Combined with the fact that it's already in the correct language and legal form for Spanish authorities, this removes most of the friction that slows down a foreign will when it's applied to a Spanish estate.

The Choice of Law That Actually Matters

Under EU Regulation 650/2012, known as Brussels IV, the law that governs your succession normally defaults to wherever you're habitually resident when you die, not your nationality. For anyone who's moved to Mallorca and become Spanish tax resident, that can mean Spanish succession law applies by default, including its forced heirship rules, which reserve a fixed portion of your estate for children regardless of what you'd otherwise want. Brussels IV lets you override this default by explicitly electing the law of your own nationality in your will instead. This election needs to be stated clearly and specifically; simply having a will isn't enough if it doesn't make the election.

What Forced Heirship Actually Means

Spanish succession law reserves a significant share of an estate, broadly two-thirds in most cases, for children and other direct descendants, regardless of the wishes expressed in a will. This comes as a genuine surprise to buyers from countries such as the UK or the US, where you can generally leave your estate to whoever you choose. Without a valid Brussels IV election in place, this is the regime that applies by default to Spanish tax residents, which is precisely why the election clause matters more than the will itself.

Coordinating a Spanish Will With Your Existing One

A Spanish will doesn't replace a will you already hold at home; the two should work together, with the Spanish will typically covering your Spanish assets and making the Brussels IV election, while your home will covers everything else. The risk worth watching for is unintentional revocation: a poorly worded new will can accidentally cancel an earlier one if it isn't drafted to specifically coexist with it. This is a detail worth getting a lawyer to check on both sides, in both countries, rather than assuming it'll sort itself out.

What It Actually Costs and Involves

A standard notarial will in Spain, a testamento abierto, is a relatively quick and inexpensive document to arrange, typically a modest notary fee under the regulated tariff rather than a significant expense. It's usually drafted with your lawyer beforehand, signed in front of a Spanish notary, and registered automatically. Given how much it can simplify things for the people you leave behind, it's one of the lower-cost, higher-value pieces of paperwork a foreign property owner in Mallorca can arrange.

The Practical Takeaway

You can technically rely on a foreign will to cover Spanish property, but doing so trades a modest upfront cost now for a slower, costlier and less certain process for your family later. A Spanish will, drafted alongside your existing will and including an explicit Brussels IV election if that's what you want, is worth arranging as part of the purchase process itself, not as an afterthought once you've already settled in.