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A black-and-white image depicting, using game pieces, a line of heirs to the estate of a progenitor. The image serves as an illustration for the article on the case study of how Antonello Law Firm handled the estate of two foreign nationals who purchased a property in Italy.

Case Study: securing Italian real estate through cross-border estate planning

Introduction

The client: an american couplewho purchased a holiday villa in Tuscany.

The goal: protect their Italian real estate assets and ensure a seamless, legally binding transfer of property to their chosen heirs without triggering complex international legal disputes.

The challenge: reconciling common-law estate practices with Italian civil law succession rules, particularly regarding mandatory forced heirship (legittima) and probate delays.

The result: a tailored Italian Will (Testamento) combined with a formal choice of law election under EU Regulation 650/2012, protecting the property and saving their heirs months of probate proceedings and potential tax penalties.

The challenge: why foreign wills can cause crisis in Italy

After successfully completing the purchase of their dream home in Tuscany, with our support, our clients realized that their existing Trust and US Will did not automatically guarantee a smooth inheritance process in Italy.

To be true, the assessment of the situation had actually already been carried out before the purchase, during the advisory and legal due diligence and assessment process , and was intended not only to ensure a smooth purchase of their dream Italian home, but also to ensure proper coordination with their existing assets in Italy and the United States, as well as with their existing estate planning.

During their initial consultation, we identified three major legal hurdles:

  1. forced heirship conflicts (quota di legittima): italian succession law reserves a fixed portion of an estate for primary relatives (spouse and children), regardless of the deceased’s written preferences. This contradicted the clients’ specific distribution plan.
  2. probate & translation bottlenecks: settling an Italian property through a foreign-only will requires official legalizations, sworn translations (traduzioni giurate), and potential court validations (exequatur), creating multi-year administrative delays.
  3. tax and registration complexities: without a clear, locally recognized instrument, Italian tax authorities (Agenzia delle Entrate) cannot process the declaration of succession (Dichiarazione di Successione) within the required 12-month window.

To resolve these legal frictions, Antonello Law Firm executed a three-step cross-border strategy:

Step 1: formal choice of law election

Under Article 22 of EU Regulation No. 650/2012 (European Succession Regulation), foreign citizens owning property in EU member states can explicitly choose the law of their nationality to govern the succession of their entire estate.

We drafted a formal declaration incorporating US State Law as the governing legal framework for their estate, neutralizing the automatic application of Italian forced heirship rules.

Step 2: drafting a Italian will (Testamento)

While a foreign will can be recognized in Italy, having a dedicated Italian will specifically governing assets on Italian territory drastically simplifies execution.

We drafted a will (testamento olografo) with explicit legal provisions:

Step 3: registration and local custody

To prevent loss, suppression, or disputes over authenticity, the completed Will was formally deposited with an Italian Notary and recorded in the Central Register of Wills (Registro Generale dei Testamenti).

The result: complete peace of mind and probate efficiency

By implementing a localized, compliant estate plan: