will

How the assets you leave behind should be distributed after your death is an important question for many people. The Inheritance Act sets out how this is done if you have not made a will.

How the inheritance is distributed will depend on whether the deceased was married and had children. If the deceased was married, the surviving spouse will receive 1/4 of the deceased's estate. Note that a spouse can also choose to sit in uskifte, and then there will be no distribution of inheritance until the survivor dies. The remainder of the inheritance will go to the testator's children. If the deceased is not married, all inheritance will go to the children. If the deceased does not have children, the inheritance will, according to the Inheritance Act, go to the parents or their heirs.

If the testator wants a different distribution than that provided by the Inheritance Act, there are many ways to do this in a will. As a general rule, children are entitled to two-thirds of the inheritance and one-third of the inheritance can be distributed to others, but remember that the spouse is entitled to one-quarter. The third of the inheritance that can be distributed is called the «free third». In addition, total limitations can be placed on the inheritance that goes to children and spouse. The children are not entitled to more than NOK. 1,000,000, and the spouse's inheritance can be limited to 4 G - currently NOK. 374 536. These total limitations give the testator greater opportunities to distribute the inheritance in a different way than the Inheritance Act stipulates. The requirement that the spouse must have 4 G means that you must leave assets of at least NOK 1,112,619 if you were married. 1,112,619 if you were married, in order to change the distribution in a will. For estates below this amount, the spouse's inheritance will constitute the free third and the remaining 2/3 will go to the children. A person who is not married will be able to distribute the free third regardless of the size of the estate.

A person without a spouse and children will be able to distribute the inheritance in the way they wish.