Leave Your Inheritance to Anyone but Siblings! Legislature Passes Bill Removing Compulsory Inheritance Shares for Siblings—Lawyer Reveals the One Strategy That Lets Family Members Receive Nothing

Singles and childless couples should write a will immediately! Taiwan's legislature has passed a bill in its third reading to remove Article 1223 of the Civil Code, which previously stipulated the 'compulsory inheritance share for siblings.' Who will be most affected by this change?

1. Singles can now exclude specific siblings from inheritance by writing a will

Under normal circumstances, older individuals pass away before younger ones, and children often outlive their parents. For singles, the legal heirs are typically their siblings. In the past, even if a person was mistreated by a sibling, had a strained relationship, or had no contact at all, they could not use a 'will' to prevent that sibling from inheriting—unless the sibling had legally lost inheritance rights—because the law protected siblings' compulsory inheritance share.

With the removal of the compulsory share for siblings, singles can now exclude specific siblings from inheritance without any justification, allowing them to leave their assets to loved ones or donate to charity. This is especially significant for those with half-siblings (same father, different mother, or same mother, different father), as singles can now fully control their estate distribution through a will, passing their inheritance to the family members they truly care about.

2. Childless couples can now leave all assets to their spouse by writing a will

For childless couples whose parents have already passed away, the usual wish is to leave all inheritance to the surviving spouse. With the removal of the compulsory share for siblings, a husband can now legally transfer all assets to his wife through a valid will, and a wife can also write a will to leave everything to her husband.

However, childless couples must pay special attention to how the surviving spouse writes their will. If written incorrectly, siblings may still inherit. For example, if a wife from a childless couple does not want to divide her inheritance among her siblings and wishes to leave everything to her spouse, but her will only states, 'I leave all assets under my name to my husband (spouse),' this creates a problem. If the husband passes away before the wife, then at the time of the wife’s death, the husband is already deceased. Therefore, this will cannot transfer the wife’s assets to her husband (who is no longer alive), and her siblings will inherit her estate according to statutory inheritance rules.

3. Without a will, siblings can still inherit

Although the legislature has passed the bill removing the compulsory inheritance share for siblings, this does not eliminate siblings’ status as third-priority statutory heirs. This means that if singles or childless couples do not write a will, their siblings can still inherit their assets. Therefore, now is the perfect time to write a will!

Take a piece of paper and a pen right now, write down your will, allocate your assets to the people you love, and explicitly exclude any siblings you do not wish to inherit. Finally, sign your name and write today’s date. By doing so, your posthumous inheritance rules will be based on your wishes, not on statutory inheritance laws.