Italy–U.S. Cross-Border Inheritance: What Happens When Italian Law Applies?

12 Novembre 2026

Applicable law, reserved shares, American assets and the practical limits of a single succession plan

A home in Italy, an American investment account and children living on both sides of the Atlantic: a familiar family situation can produce a surprisingly complex inheritance. Italian succession law may govern who inherits, the shares they receive and their responsibility for debts. Transferring American assets, however, can still require proceedings under the rules of the relevant U.S. state.

The starting point is to separate three questions: which law governs the inheritance, which authorities can administer or decide it, and which countries can tax the transfer. A workable estate plan must address all three.

When does Italian succession law apply?

For deaths on or after 17 August 2015, Italian authorities determine the applicable succession law principally under Regulation (EU) No 650/2012. Its framework also covers estates with connections to countries outside the European Union. American citizenship does not, by itself, exclude the application of Italian law. [1]

Under Article 21, the general connecting factor is the deceased’s habitual residence at death. An American citizen who has established habitual residence in Italy may therefore leave a succession governed by Italian law, unless an effective choice of law or another applicable exception changes the result. Article 21(2) also provides an exceptional rule where the deceased was manifestly more closely connected with another country. [2]

Habitual residence requires an assessment of the person’s actual life: the duration and regularity of their presence, the reasons for living in a country, and their family and social connections. An address on a register, a holiday property or a simple count of days cannot replace that overall assessment. This deserves particular attention for people dividing their time between Italy and the United States. [3]

Article 22 permits a person to choose the law of a country whose nationality they possess when making the choice or at death. An Italian citizen living in America can therefore choose Italian law; a dual Italian–American citizen can choose either national law. The choice governs the succession as a whole and should be expressed clearly in a properly executed testamentary instrument. Owning Italian property alone does not give a person with only U.S. nationality a right to elect Italian law under Article 22. [4]

A further route is renvoi: a reference back from foreign conflict-of-laws rules. Suppose, illustratively, that a person habitually resident and domiciled in New York dies owning an Italian apartment, without an effective choice of law. Once the relevant U.S. legal system has been identified under Article 36, its rules may refer succession to the apartment back to Italian law. Article 34 can allow the Italian authority to accept that reference. This may produce different laws for different assets. Renvoi is excluded where the applicable law follows from an Article 22 choice. [5, 6]

Reserved shares: the central consequence of Italian law

Italian law reserves minimum entitlements to certain close relatives, known as legittimari. These include the spouse, children and, in the situations provided by law, descendants taking their place; ascendants are protected in the absence of descendants. A will that overlooks these rights is not automatically void: an affected beneficiary must seek the appropriate remedy. [7]

The following common configurations illustrate the basic reserved fractions. Children’s collective shares are divided equally. These figures concern forced heirship, rather than the different rules governing an estate left without a will. [8, 9, 14]

Surviving family	Minimum reserved shares	Disposable portion
One child; no spouse	Child: 1/2	1/2
Two or more children; no spouse	Children collectively: 2/3	1/3
Spouse and one child	Spouse: 1/3; child: 1/3	1/3
Spouse and two or more children	Spouse: 1/4; children collectively: 1/2	1/4

The surviving spouse may also have rights of habitation in the family home and use of its furniture, where the ownership requirements in Article 540 are met. Those rights have their own effect on the calculation; a percentage table alone cannot capture them. [10]

An illustrative calculation: assume Italian law governs, the deceased leaves a spouse and two children, the relevant net calculation base is €1.2 million, and there are no lifetime gifts or additional habitation rights to account for. The spouse’s reserved share is €300,000; the children together are reserved €600,000, or €300,000 each; the disposable portion is €300,000. A will leaving everything to the spouse exposes the excess dispositions to reduction at the children’s request. [7, 9]

The calculation base is important. Article 556 starts with property owned at death, deducts debts and notionally adds lifetime gifts under the statutory valuation rules. A gift made years earlier can therefore affect the available portion. Keeping a reliable record of gifts and their recipients is part of sound succession planning. [11]

Reserved shares reflect a commitment to family protection, but they also constrain personal choices. In a blended family, a testator may wish to favour a second spouse; a business owner may prefer to concentrate control in one child. These objectives should be tested against the protected entitlements and the disposable portion, with attention to asset values and the funding of any balancing payments. [7, 9]

Remedies involving donated property also require an updated analysis. Article 44 of Law No 182/2025, effective from 18 December 2025, changed the protection of third parties acquiring donated assets. Subject to the statutory rules on registration and transitional provisions, reduction generally leaves third-party acquisitions intact and requires monetary compensation from the donee; gratuitous onward recipients can also face compensation liability if the donee is insolvent. The reform did not abolish reserved shares. The date of death and any steps taken to preserve earlier remedies must be checked. [12]

American assets require a state-specific analysis

The United States is not bound by the EU Succession Regulation. Its application by an Italian authority does not oblige an American court to adopt the same conflict-of-laws analysis. New York provides a useful example: section 3-5.1 generally connects succession to real property with the law of its location, and succession to personal property with the deceased’s domicile, subject to the section’s other provisions. [6]

For an estate involving Italian and American property, advisers should therefore test the intended distribution against the rules of each relevant state. An Italian choice-of-law clause needs a separate assessment of its effect in the American proceedings. The presence of an American asset is a reason to investigate the local rules, rather than a sufficient answer about which substantive law applies.

The asset map also needs an ownership check. Matrimonial property regimes fall outside the Regulation: the surviving spouse’s own property must be distinguished from the deceased’s estate before inheritance shares are applied. [5]

A U.S. will can be usable in Italy

The place where a will was signed does not settle its substantive effect. Article 27 provides several alternative connecting factors for the formal validity of written wills, including the place of execution. A will properly executed in an American state may consequently be formally valid for Italian purposes while its dispositions remain subject to Italian reserved-share rules where Italian succession law applies. [5, 7]

As a drafting practice, families should consider whether one coordinated will or separate territorial wills better suits their assets and administration. Where separate wills are used, each should define its scope and handle revocation carefully. A standard clause revoking every earlier will deserves particular scrutiny when another instrument is intended to remain effective abroad. Both advisers should review the full set of documents together.

Trusts and lifetime transfers need their own review

A U.S. trust should be examined alongside the succession plan. The Hague Trusts Convention preserves the application of the law designated by the forum’s conflict rules concerning mandatory succession rights, particularly the protected shares of spouses and relatives. A trust’s governing-law clause therefore does not, by itself, settle every Italian succession issue. [13]

The review should establish which assets were actually transferred, when the transfer occurred, what powers the settlor retained and what benefits each beneficiary receives. Recognition of the trust and assessment of a lifetime disposition’s effect on reserved shares are separate questions. Trusts can serve useful management purposes, but any proposed arrangement should be tested against the applicable succession protections and the remedies available in the relevant jurisdictions. [11, 13]

Acceptance, debts and administration

Under Italian law, being named as an heir calls for a decision about acceptance. Acceptance can be express or arise from conduct, and it cannot be limited to selected assets. Ordinary acceptance can expose the heir’s personal assets to inherited debts; acceptance with benefit of inventory limits liability to the inherited assets, provided its requirements are observed. A beneficiary should review liabilities before selling, distributing or otherwise dealing with estate property. [14]

Jurisdiction is a separate question. The deceased’s habitual residence in Italy generally supports Italian court jurisdiction under the Regulation. Even where habitual residence was in the United States, Article 10 can give Italian courts jurisdiction over the succession as a whole where the deceased was an Italian national at death and left estate assets in Italy. The Court of Justice addressed the courts’ obligation to examine the relevant subsidiary-jurisdiction criteria in C-645/20. [1, 15]

American assets can nevertheless require local probate or another state procedure. New York’s ancillary probate checklist, for example, provides for administration of local assets where a non-domiciliary’s will has been probated in the domiciliary jurisdiction, and calls for authenticated supporting records. The appropriate procedure depends on the estate and the local requirements. [16]

The European Certificate of Succession helps establish succession rights and powers within the participating EU framework. It has no equivalent automatic effect in the United States. For documents moving between the two countries, check the receiving authority’s requirements for certified copies, apostilles and translations. An apostille authenticates the relevant official signature or capacity; it does not determine inheritance entitlements. [17, 18]

Taxation follows a separate set of connecting factors

The EU Succession Regulation excludes inheritance tax. Under Italy’s domestic territorial rules, a deceased person resident in Italy generally brings worldwide assets within the scope of Italian inheritance tax; for a nonresident deceased person, the charge is generally limited to assets and rights situated in Italy. Selecting Italian succession law does not itself determine that tax residence or territorial exposure. [1, 19]

Under Article 7 of Legislative Decree No 346/1990, as amended, the ordinary inheritance-tax rate for spouses and direct-line relatives is 4% above a €1 million allowance for each beneficiary. Different rates and allowances apply to other recipients. A civil-law reserved share and a tax-free allowance answer different questions. [20]

On the American side, U.S. citizens can be subject to federal estate taxation on worldwide assets even while living in Italy. A nonresident who is not a U.S. citizen can have U.S. estate-tax exposure through U.S.-situated assets, including American real estate and shares in U.S. corporations. The IRS states a general Form 706-NA filing threshold of $60,000 of U.S.-situated assets for such estates, subject to the applicable rules. That figure is a filing threshold, not a statement of the final tax payable. [21]

The Italy–U.S. estate-tax treaty must also be examined before concluding that both countries can tax an asset or determining the available relief. The IRS lists Italy as having an estate-tax treaty; this should not be treated as a general exemption or as a treaty governing all lifetime gifts. Treaty eligibility, asset classification and the relief claimed require their own analysis. [22]

Where an Italian succession declaration is required, the ordinary filing period is twelve months from the opening of the succession, subject to statutory exceptions. This fiscal deadline must be managed alongside the separate steps for accepting the inheritance and administering assets abroad. [23]

Building a plan that works across both countries

A practical review should bring together the evidence of nationality and habitual residence, family relationships, asset ownership, debts, lifetime gifts, wills and trust documents. For each asset, the advisers should identify the governing succession rules, the transfer procedure and the tax treatment. This is particularly useful where the preferred distribution depends on giving different assets to different family members.

Italian law provides a framework for identifying heirs, protecting close relatives and allocating the estate. Its practical implementation in an Italy–U.S. succession depends on coordinated drafting and administration in both countries. The strongest plan connects the intended distribution with the procedures needed to carry it out, and reviews that plan when residence, family circumstances or asset ownership changes.