In your will

A will is essential if you want to support UNICHIR. Without a will, your inheritance will be shared between your children or your partner. If you have no children, it will go to your relatives up to the fourth degree. If there are no legal heirs and you haven’t written a will, your entire inheritance goes to the Belgian state. Writing a will therefore gives you much more say in what happens to your assets.

You are not completely free to do what you want with your inheritance. The law protects your spouse, children and grandchildren: they are always entitled to a minimum share of your assets. We call this the ‘reserved portion’.

Reserved portion of the partner 

• Are you married?  

Your spouse gets at least the usufruct of half of your inheritance, with the absolute minimum being the usufruct of the family home.

• Are you legally cohabiting?  

In principle, your partner inherits the usufruct of the family home and household goods, even if you have parents or children. You can broaden this provision through your will, but the legally cohabiting partner can also be disinherited. The surviving partner can do nothing against this, as they have no residuary protection.

• Are you de facto cohabiting?  

Your partner inherits nothing unless you specify otherwise through a will. There is no automatic legal protection for the surviving de facto cohabiting partner.

Reserved portion of children and grandchildren  

• Do you have no children or grandchildren? Then you decide what happens to your estate.

• Do you have children or grandchildren? Together, they have a minimum inheritance share of half your assets, however many children and grandchildren you have. This is determined by law in Belgium. You can do what you wish with the other half of your estate, such as leaving all or part of it to a charity like UNICHIR.

Yes, this is perfectly possible. You arrange this through a bequest in your will. There are three types of bequests.

• General bequest
  You leave your entire available estate to one or more people or organisations.
• Special bequest
  You bequeath a certain amount of money or property to a person or organisation. For example, a painting, family jewellery, an apartment, etc.
• Bequest under general title
  You leave part of your available estate to one or more people or organisations. For example, only the property.

By donating all or part of your assets to charity, less of your wealth is lost to inheritance tax. In Flanders, since 1 July 2021, the zero rate applies: donations to a charity such as UNICHIR are tax-free. In Wallonia and Brussels, the rate is 7 per cent.

If you wish to donate any of your assets to UNICHIR, you must be very clear about this. You will need to include the following information in your will:

BENISUR-UNICHIR vzw
Polderstraat 109 / 302, 8450 Bredene
Ondernemingsnummer: 0732.563.596

The dual bequest still exists, but since a change in inheritance law (1 July 2021), it is no longer of financial interest in Flanders. Contact Erwin to discuss the best way to proceed.

Yes, you can amend your will as often as you like. But please note, only your last written testament will apply.

Sincere thanks for your belief in our work! You don’t have to inform us, but you can always let us know that you’ve mentioned us in your will. Then we can continue to inform you about our work – you deserve that

• Be sure to speak to your notary or legal adviser.
• Or ask Erwin, your advisor.