Making a Will in France as an American: US Wills, the Four Forms, Costs and Limits

Yes, you can make a will in France as an American, and the will you signed in the United States does not stop counting when you move: in a cross-border situation, a will is valid in France if it conforms to the law of the place where it was made. What changes is the law that decides who inherits. Once you live in France, French succession law applies in principle, with its reserved share for children, unless your will expressly chooses the law of your nationality. This guide covers the validity of a US will, the four forms of will French law knows, their official costs, the central register of wills, the choice of US law and its limits, what a will cannot do, and who to see. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Rules change, and your situation may differ: always verify current requirements with the relevant French authorities or a licensed professional.

Is a US Will Valid in France?

In form, yes: the European e-Justice Portal’s page on France states that in a cross-border situation, a will is valid if it conforms to the law of the place where it was made (page updated on November 24, 2024).

The rule comes from the Hague Convention of October 5, 1961, which deals with form only. As the Notaires de France summarize it, a will is valid in form when it meets the internal law of any one of these places: where it was made, a nationality held by the person, the place of domicile, the place of habitual residence, or, for real estate, the place where the property is located (page updated on August 7, 2026).

Two limits remain.

• Paperwork. The same page states that a foreign will used in France has to be translated and legalized or apostilled in its country of origin. Our guide to the apostille and the sworn translation of US documents explains both steps.
• Content. A will that is valid in form is still read under the inheritance law that governs your succession. If that law is French, a US will that leaves a child nothing runs into the reserved share described below.

Do You Need a French Will?

A will is optional in France: without one, the law names your heirs and their shares. You need one to leave something to a person the law does not name, such as an unmarried partner or a PACS partner, to share out the freely disposable part of your estate, or to choose the law of your nationality.

If You Own Property in France but Live in the United States

Service-public states that if you live abroad, foreign law applies in principle to your succession (page verified on September 15, 2026). For a French house, the question does not stop there. The Notaires de France note that when the law designated is that of a country outside the EU, the rules can send the question back to another law (the mechanism is called renvoi), and our guide to French inheritance law for Americans explains that French law and French tax still reach real estate located in France even when the owner is not resident.

Whatever law applies, a notaire will handle the French side: a notaire is mandatory when the estate includes real estate, when it is worth 5,965 euros or more, or when there is a will or a gift between spouses (page verified on January 1, 2026). A will that this notaire can find and read without an apostille or a translation saves your heirs those steps. The yearly charges are covered in our guide to French property taxes for US owners.

What Happens If You Die Without a Will in France?

When French law governs and there is no will, the estate goes to your relatives in a fixed order, and your spouse inherits in every case. Service-public’s page on the rules for inheriting (verified on June 16, 2026) sets out four orders of heirs, each of which excludes the next.

• Married, with children you had together. Your spouse chooses between the usufruct of the whole estate (the right to use it and collect its income) and one quarter in full ownership. The children receive the rest.
• Married, with children from another union. Your spouse inherits one quarter in full ownership, the children three quarters.
• Not married, no children. Your parents and your brothers and sisters inherit.
• PACS partner or unmarried partner. They have no inheritance rights without a will. The page on the death of a PACS partner (verified on June 16, 2026) says it in plain words: partners are not each other’s heirs. With a will, your partner can receive all or part of your property, subject to the children’s share, and a PACS partner who inherits by will pays no inheritance tax.

Our comparison of PACS and marriage for an American in France sets the two statuses side by side, and the inheritance guide gives the tax rate that applies to a partner who is neither.

The Four Forms of Will French Law Knows

French law knows four forms: the handwritten will (testament olographe), the authentic will received by a notaire (testament authentique), the sealed will (testament mystique) and the international will.

Source: Service-public, making a will.

The international will comes from the Washington Convention of October 26, 1973. As the e-Justice Portal describes it, you present it to a notaire and two witnesses, they sign it, and it is attached to a certificate drawn up by the notaire, who keeps it. The Notaires de France add that it can be written in any language, that it is recognized by every country that has signed the convention, and that it is useful for a foreigner living in France or a person with property in several countries (page updated on July 16, 2026), though little used in practice.

The sealed will is rare too: since only you know the content, the Notaires de France point out, the notaire cannot check that it will work.

Can You Write Your Own Will in France?

Yes. A handwritten will needs no notaire, no witness and no fee, on three conditions set out by service-public (page verified on October 5, 2026): it is written entirely by hand, it carries the day, month and year, and it is signed.

• Never typed. The page is explicit that it must never be typed on a computer, even in part. The Notaires de France list the cases that expose a handwritten will to being declared void: a typed will, a missing date, a date only partly handwritten, a missing signature.
• English is allowed. You can write your will in a foreign language.
• One person, one will. You cannot make a will with someone else. In a couple, each of you writes your own.
• Who can make one. You must be of sound mind, an adult, able to manage your property, and free of pressure. The page sets no condition of nationality or residence.

A handwritten will written alone is checked by no one before it is needed. Service-public recommends telling people you trust that the will exists and where it is kept, and the Notaires de France strongly recommend depositing it with a notaire, which secures the document and gets it registered.

Making a Will Before a Notaire

An authentic will is dictated to a notaire in the presence of two witnesses or a second notaire, read back to you, and signed by everyone present. Your witnesses cannot be your relatives, the people you leave something to, or the clerks of the notaire you chose.

If you cannot express yourself in French, the Notaires de France state that the dictation and the reading are done through a sworn interpreter in your language.

The Notaires de France call the authentic will the safest form, one whose validity can only very rarely be called into question. Nothing is charged for keeping it or for opening it after your death. If you are buying a home, the notaire who handles the purchase of a French property can also receive your will.

How Much Does a Will Cost in France?

A handwritten will costs nothing to write. A notaire’s fee for drafting an authentic or sealed will is 113.19 euros before tax, 135.83 euros with tax, and these fees have applied since January 2021.

Source: Service-public, making a will.

Two things are not in the table. Service-public says the notaire can also charge for registering a handwritten will in the central register, and the Notaires de France say formality costs, including that registration, are added to the fee for an authentic will. Neither page gives the amount, so ask for it in writing. A translation, an interpreter or a US attorney’s review are priced separately, and no official page sets those prices.

For married couples, a gift between spouses (donation au dernier vivant), which increases what the survivor receives, is signed before a notaire for 135.84 euros with tax (page verified on October 5, 2026).

The Central Register of Wills (FCDDV) and How to Find a Will

France has one national register, the fichier central des dispositions de dernières volontés (FCDDV), and it lists only wills that were entrusted to a notaire. It records that a will exists, where it is deposited and the civil status of the person, never the content. A handwritten will kept at home is not in it.

All types of will handed to a notaire are registered by that notaire, according to service-public’s page on what the FCDDV is for (verified on May 29, 2026).

After a death, anyone can search it. You need a death certificate, either the original or a certified copy (a photocopy is not accepted), and you apply online or by mail. When a notaire is settling the estate, the notaire makes the search.

Source: Service-public, role of the central register of wills (FCDDV).

The answer tells you which notaire holds the will. That notaire shares the content only with heirs and legatees, unless a judge orders otherwise. When the death occurred abroad, the embassy or consulate can also make the search. A will signed in the United States and never given to a French notaire is not in the register: your family has to know where the original is.

Choosing US Law in Your Will

Yes, you can choose it: EU rules let you decide that the law of your country of nationality applies to your whole estate, whether or not that country is in the EU (Your Europe, checked on January 15, 2026). Without a choice, the authority dealing with the inheritance will in most cases apply the law of the country where you last lived.

• How. The choice must be explicit and clear, in a will or in a separate declaration.
• Which nationality. Service-public specifies that you must hold the nationality when you draw up the will or at your death. With several nationalities, you can choose the law of any one of them, which matters if you have become a dual French and US citizen.
• Which US law. The United States has no single inheritance law. Our inheritance guide explains that for an American this usually means the law of a US state.
• One law for everything. The principle of the regulation, in the words of the Notaires de France, is that a single national law governs the whole succession, wherever the assets are.
• Not tax. The EU rules do not determine the inheritance taxes your heirs pay. Choosing US law changes who inherits, not what France taxes.

The regulation in question is Regulation (EU) 650/2012, often called Brussels IV, and the inheritance guide covers it in depth: how the Brussels IV election works and where it stops.

What the 2021 Rule on the Reserved Share Changes

Since November 1, 2021, choosing a foreign law no longer guarantees that a child can be left with nothing from your French assets. For deaths from that date, children disinherited under a foreign law can, under conditions, recover the equivalent of their reserved share from the assets located in France.

Service-public’s page on disinheriting children gives the two conditions, which come from Article 913 of the Code civil as amended by the law of August 24, 2021:

• you, or at least one of your children, are at the time of death a national of an EU country or habitually resident in one;
• the foreign law that applies to the succession provides no reserve mechanism protecting children.

An American who lives in France meets the first condition personally. The second is the open one. In a letter published on June 4, 2026, the European Commission reports France’s explanation that the levy is meant to apply only where the foreign law allows no mechanism protecting children at all, and that a functional equivalent counts: the example given is English law and its family provision claims. No official page says how the law of any US state is treated under that test.

Service-public adds that a foreign law allowing children to be disinherited is not necessarily contrary to French public policy. The levy itself reaches only the assets located in France on the day of death. The inheritance guide goes through what this means for a US-law clause and the usual precaution taken with it.

What a Will Can and Cannot Do

A French will cannot remove the reserved share (réserve héréditaire) of your children: one half of the estate with one child, two thirds with two, three quarters with three or more. You dispose freely only of the rest, the disposable portion (quotité disponible). With no children, a spouse has one quarter reserved, and with no children and no spouse you can leave everything to whom you wish.

Within those limits, service-public lists what a will can hold:

• Legacies, of three kinds: all your property to one person (legs universel), a share or a category of it (legs à titre universel), or one or several named assets (legs particulier).
• An executor (exécuteur testamentaire), named in the will or in a separate dated and signed document. The task is unpaid, though heirs repay expenses, and it ends at the latest two years after the will is opened, with a possible extension of up to one year by a judge (page verified on November 17, 2025).
• A guardian for your minor child. You can name one by will. The person is not obliged to accept, so ask first (page verified on June 30, 2025).
• Wishes about your body: organ donation, funeral, cremation.

What a will cannot do, beyond the reserve:

• Bind two people. No joint will.
• Change the tax. Tax follows the heir’s relationship to you. For a couple where one spouse is not a US citizen, see the US estate tax rules for a non-citizen spouse.
• Lock itself in. You can change or cancel your will until your death: by a new will that cancels the earlier one, by a declaration before a notaire, or by destroying a handwritten will.

If a will goes over the disposable portion, it is not void. The protected heirs can ask for the legacies to be reduced, and the e-Justice Portal gives the period: five years from the opening of the estate, or two years from the day they discover the infringement.

For a married couple, the property regime decides what belongs to the estate before the will applies at all. Our guide to getting married in France explains the default regime and the marriage contract.

One Will or Two: Coordinating a French Will and a US Will

No official page requires a separate will for France. If you end up with one document in each country, the risk is that the later one undoes the earlier one without your meaning it to.

A new will can cancel the previous one, and the Notaires de France explain that revocation is tacit when a new will contains provisions incompatible with the earlier one. A will signed in one country that revokes all earlier wills can therefore erase the one made for the other country, which is why our inheritance guide puts coordinating the French and US wills on its planning checklist.

Two more points to raise with your advisers:

• Trusts. France has its own reporting and tax regime for trusts once the person who set one up lives here, described in our guide to what a US living trust costs under French rules.
• Life events. A marriage, a PACS, a birth, a purchase or a divorce in France changes who the law protects and what you own. Reread both wills after each one.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Typing a “handwritten” will, or typing it and signing by hand. A holographic will is handwritten in full.
• Signing one will as a couple. French law does not allow it.
• Keeping a handwritten will at home and telling no one. It is in no register, and nothing guarantees it is found.
• Assuming a US will overrides the reserved share. It does not unless it validly chooses US law, and even then the 2021 levy can apply to assets in France.
• Leaving a PACS partner or an unmarried partner without a will. The law gives them nothing.
• Leaving your heirs a US will with no apostille and no translation ready.

Practical Checklist

• List what you own and where: French real estate, French accounts, US accounts, US real estate, US retirement accounts.
• Note who the law protects: children from every relationship, your spouse.
• Gather the wills, trusts and beneficiary designations you already signed in the United States.
• Decide whether you want French law or the law of your nationality, and have the clause drafted.
• Pick the form: handwritten and deposited with a notaire, or authentic.
• Ask the notaire for the cost of registration in the FCDDV, and confirm the will is registered.
• Tell the people you trust that a will exists and which notaire holds it.
• Have a US attorney check that the French will and your US documents do not cancel each other.
• Reread everything after a marriage, a PACS, a birth, a divorce, a purchase or a move. The same goes for retirement in France.

When to Get Help

A single person or a married couple with children in common, who accept the French rules and want a simple will, can go straight to a notaire. Get advice first when the estate crosses borders in a way that makes the wording decisive: children from an earlier relationship, an unmarried partner, a choice of US law, property in both countries, or a trust. A consulting call helps you sort out your situation and the questions to bring before you pay for drafting. The will itself, and any legal advice on it, come from a notaire, and from a US estate attorney for the American side: our guide explains how to find English-speaking notaires and lawyers in France.

FAQ

Can a foreigner make a will in France?

Yes. The conditions service-public lists for making a will are about the person’s mind, age, capacity and freedom from pressure, not nationality or residence.

Is a will written in English valid in France?

It can be. Service-public states that a will may be written in a foreign language, so a will handwritten, dated and signed by you in English meets the French holographic form. An international will can be written in any language, and an authentic will goes through a sworn interpreter.

Can a married couple make one joint will in France?

No. Service-public is clear that you cannot make a will with another person: each spouse or partner writes their own.

Can I leave everything to my spouse in a French will?

Not if you have children and French law applies. They are entitled to their reserved share, so the will can give your spouse only the disposable portion. A gift between spouses widens the choice: with children in common, the survivor can take one quarter in full ownership and three quarters in usufruct, the usufruct of everything, or the disposable portion in full ownership.

Does a French will cover my US assets?

Under the EU rules a single law governs the whole succession wherever the assets are. Whether a US court or a US bank will act on a French will is a question of the law of the US state concerned, which no French official page answers.

Does choosing US law in my will reduce French inheritance tax?

No. The EU rules on the applicable law do not determine inheritance tax. The inheritance guide sets out the French tax by relationship and the US estate tax treaty.

Conclusion

A US will that was valid where you signed it is valid in form here, but it needs an apostille and a translation, and it is read under the law that governs your succession. French law offers four forms, of which two are used in practice: the handwritten will, free and fragile, and the authentic will, 135.83 euros and the safest. A will given to a notaire is registered in the FCDDV. You can choose the law of your nationality, explicitly, but the choice leaves French tax untouched, and since November 1, 2021 it no longer shields assets in France from a child’s claim when the chosen law protects children in no way. Write down what you own and who the law protects, then take it to a notaire, with a US attorney reading the American side.