Estate Planning

What can a will determine?

• Establish who the heirs are and how much of the total assets someone inherits.
• Leave specific items to specific people – an apartment, a car, an art collection, etc.
• Set conditions that the heir must meet in order to receive the inheritance (e.g. graduating from university, coming of age, etc.).
• Make orders requiring the estate to be used for a specific purpose: for example, to set up and maintain a scholarship fund, build a memorial, etc.

How to do it?

• A notarially authenticated will is drawn up with the help of a notary who ensures that the person’s wishes and intentions are recorded. A notarially authenticated will is deposited with the notary.
• A notarially authenticated will can be made either at the notary’s office on-site or through remote authentication.
• A will that a person has written at home, brought to a notary in a sealed envelope and confirmed that the envelope contains his or her will is also a notarial will.
• The notary enters the details of the will in the succession register and attaches a copy of the will to the entry.

For how long?

A notarised will remains valid until it is amended or revoked.

How to change or cancel?

• A will can be revoked at any time by a later will or succession contract.
• A new domestic will also revokes the notarial will, but the domestic will expire after 6 months (if the testator is still alive) and the original notarial will remains in force.
• The most sensible way to change or revoke a notarised will is to contact a notary.

How to do it?

• A will can be made at a notary’s office or via remote authentication.
• In a will, the spouses name each other as heirs or make other arrangements for the distribution of property.
• The notary enters the details of the will in the succession register and attaches a copy of the will to the entry.

For how long?

A mutual will between spouses ceases to be valid if the marriage is divorced or if the divorced spouse has had time to initiate the divorce or give his or her written consent to the divorce before death.

How to change or cancel?

• A resiprocal will of spouses can be amended or revoked if both parties agree to the changes.
• If only one of the parties wants to cancel, a notice must be sent to the other spouse via a notary. The will is deemed to be revoked when the other spouse has received the notification.One spouse can not revoke the reciprocal will secretly from the other spouse.
• If the will includes a provision regarding who will inherit the assets upon the death of the surviving spouse, then after the death of one spouse, the surviving spouse generally cannot change or revoke this provision.

Types of domestic will

A holographic will

• The will must be handwritten from start to finish by the testator, with the date, year and handwritten signature.
• A printed will or a will written by another person is not valid.
• If there is no signature or date and year, the will is also not valid.

Will signed in the presence of witnesses

• The text of this will can be written by someone else and can also be printed, but the testator must sign it himself or herself in the presence of at least two competent witnesses.
• After the testator has signed the will, the witnesses also sign it.
• A person who is a beneficiary of the will, or a close relative of a beneficiary, cannot act as a witness.

For how long is it valid?

A domestic will loses its validity if six months have passed since its creation and the testator is still alive.

How to change or cancel?

A domestic will can be revoked by the testator with a new domestic will, a notarised will or a testamentary contract. It can also simply be torn up or burnt.

Entry in the register of succession

• It is advisable to enter the details of a domestic will into the succession register. The content of the will is not added to the register, only its location, so that after death, the parties involved know where to find the will.”
• The details of a domestic will can be added to the succession register through the e-Notary self-service portal of the Chamber of Notaries or the state portal www.eesti.ee . You can also ask someone else to enter the details of your will into the register.

When should you consider?

• A succession contract may be reasonable if the heir has to do something for the bequeather in order to receive the inheritance. As a rule, this is an obligation to look after the bequeather during his or her lifetime. As the heir and the bequeather may have different ideas about what constitutes care, all obligations should be discussed beforehand and clearly recorded with the help of a notary.
• If unmarried people want a more binding succession plan, it is worth considering making a succession contract instead of two separate wills. 

How to do it?

• A succession contract shall be entered into in a notarially authenticated form.
• The notary enters the details of the succession contract in the succession register and attaches a copy of the contract to the entry.

Modification

To change the succession contract, both parties must agree.

Cancellation

• By agreement of the parties
  The succession contract may be cancelled by an agreement between the parties.
• At the request of one party
  The bequeather can withdraw from the succession contract if the other party commits a crime against him or her or fails to fulfil a maintenance obligation. Additional grounds for withdrawal from the contract can be agreed upon in the contract.  The succession contract carried out under the influence of a material mistake, fraud, threat or violence may be declared void.

Once you gift a property, you lose control over it

In connection with gifting, we often hear of cases where a person has given away their home in the hope that the recipient will look after them until they die, but the relationship has deteriorated and the recipient fails to keep their promises. In extreme cases, the recipients have even tried to evict the donor from their home.

The gift agreement may include a clause that the donor has the right to live in the gifted property until their death, but even this does not necessarily guarantee that conflicts will not arise.

Protection against other heirs

Not all recipients are ungrateful; some may need protection themselves.

• For example, a donor may decide to leave their art collection or jewellery to a particular person and pass it on during their lifetime.
• If such a gift is not in writing, other heirs may later claim that the items are part of the estate and should be divided.
• In order to avoid this situation, these items could still be written into the will as legacies – even if they have already been transferred during the testator’s lifetime.