Heirs can expressly accept an inheritance by writing a proper declaration (art. 475 c.c.) or may perform acts that imply his/her implicit willingness to accept the inheritance (art. 476 c.c.).
The law identifies some acts performed by an heir that qualify as acceptance of the inheritance, such as:
- Sale and assignment of succession rights
- Waive of rights of succession in exchange for money
- Donation of the rights of succession.
The Supreme Court of Italy has ruled that if an heir has registered an asset in his/her favor, this implies total acceptance of the inheritance as well.
In addition, the Supreme Court, with the ordinance n. 11478 of April 30, 2021, stated that, notwithstanding the necessity of a comprehensive evaluation of the heir’s conduct, it is appropriate to discern between acts with solely fiscal purposes and acts with fiscal and civil purposes.
Because of the latter, the Court declared that the registration of an asset in an heir’s name is an implicit acceptance of the inheritance given that it is an “act that necessarily implies a will to accept”, pursuant art. 476 c.c.
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