Draw up a will

There may be different reasons why it is desirable and necessary to draw up a will.

Why it is important to draw up a will:

Minor heirs: If the heir is a minor, a will can specify that the minor’s inheritance should be exempted from the County Governor’s (the legal authority’s) supervision, accounting obligation and management and that another person who the testator has appointed will manage and allocate the inheritance on behalf of the minor. New to the Inheritance Act, which came into force in 2021, is that this can also be decided for the bond-holders’ equity on the entire balance. It is also possible to decide that the “manager” has this assignment until the child reaches a certain age. For the statutory inheritance, this only applies until the child has reached the age of 25, but beyond the statutory inheritance, there is no limitation.
Separate property: The testator can decide that the inheritance should be the heir’s separate property.
Inheritance of specific assets: Under the Inheritance Act, the heirs become co-owners of your assets according to their share of inheritance if they cannot agree on a distribution of the estate. If you want to have a different distribution of your values/shares than what follows from the law, you specify this in your will. Under the Inheritance Act – and very practically – you can specify that a child can take over a particular asset, for example, property, which in value exceeds their share of inheritance against paying the remaining value to the estate. It is also possible to decide that a life heir should be paid their statutory inheritance in cash.
The heir dies before the age of 18: Under the Inheritance Act, the will can decide how a minor’s statutory inheritance shall be further distributed in the event that the life heir dies before the age of 18.

More reasons to draw up a will

Single people without children

Single people without their own children have great flexibility in the will as they don’t have to deal with rules of statutory inheritance or minimum inheritance. If you are not satisfied with the legal regulation of who your heirs are (parents, possibly siblings if parents are not alive, etc.), you must draw up a will.

If, for example, you have assets that you have received as a gift and/or advance on inheritance from your mother and/or from your father and it is not desirable or natural for your mother and father to inherit 50/50 if you pass away before them, it is important to draw up a will. Typically, you might want one or more siblings to inherit.

Cohabitants

Cohabitants have a very limited inheritance right from each other and this has also been expanded in the new Inheritance Act. Cohabitants with a shared home and/or children should therefore be extra attentive to this issue and consider creating a will to secure the living situation for survivors, among other things. If it is not desirable to cater for each other in a will, for example because the relationship with a cohabitant is a new one, an insurance policy can be a good solution. We remind you that the deceased can have good insurance that is paid to a cohabitant/child as a beneficiary, e.g. from the employer, and that this is therefore an important checkpoint.

You can read about the right to an undivided estate under the main section “Who inherits if no will has been drawn up?”»

Spouse

For spouses, it may also be important to put in place a will, if it is desirable to expand or limit the spouse’s right to inheritance. The surviving spouse has inheritance rights over the deceased spouse’s net assets – including in his/her own assets and/or in divorce funds, and if you want these assets to be inherited directly by the children upon your departure, this must be divided into a will.

Spouses who have met each other in adulthood and have their own children separately may also need to draw up a will. Some couples do not want each other to inherit beyond the minimum inheritance (4G/6G), or want to ensure that the survivor’s inheritance after the first deceased spouse does not accrue to the survivor’s children, but to the first deceased’s children as well.

Spouses without children may also need to draw up a will because, for example, they want to give the survivor full inheritance rights rather than 50 percent going to the parents of the deceased, or the sibling if the parents are not alive, etc.

Children from a previous relationship

For survivors, there is no legal right to remain in an undivided estate with the deceased’s children from a previous relationship. Children from a previous relationship are entitled to their share of the inheritance of their deceased mother or father. It can therefore be important for the children from a previous relationship as well as for the survivors that they are aware of what this means when there is a division of an estate.

For example, it is often important for survivors to be able to live in their own home – even after a division of an estate. This can be secured in several ways via a will, either by the survivors inheriting the proportion of the home (possibly with a so-called secondary clause where the first deceased’s children inherit the house when the survivor dies or remarries) or being given a right of use. Alternatively, consent can be obtained from the children from a previous relationship for survivors to remain in an undivided estate – if possible and desired. Some take out a life insurance policy where survivors are beneficiaries so that capital is released to pay out to the deceased’s children from a previous relationship in terms of housing.

You can read about the right to an undivided estate under the main section “Who inherits if no will has been drawn up?”

Many people see their children from a previous relationship as their own children, but they do not want to pass on inheritance according to the law. You will therefore need to draw up a will if you want your partner’s children from a previous relationship to inherit from you.

Will – the rules of the Inheritance Act on statutory inheritance and minimum inheritance

When drawing up a will, there are certain rules in addition to formal requirements that must be taken into account in order for the will to be valid. A statutory inheritance for your own life heirs (children) and a minimum inheritance for a spouse are the most important. As long as these rules are complied with, there is usually great flexibility to regulate what you want.

How can the will be made valid?

The statutory inheritance to your own life heirs has increased

Life heirs have, as mentioned, the right to a statutory inheritance from their mother and from their father. This means that when drawing up a will, this must be taken into account. The statutory inheritance basically consists of 2/3 of the deceased’s net assets, but this is limited in terms of amounts. Upon examining the new Inheritance Act, there were several proposals on the size of this part of the statutory inheritance in the case of larger inheritance assets. The new Inheritance Act has determined an increased limit for what an heir in a will is obliged to give each child, from NOK 1 000 000 to 15 times the National Insurance basic amount (G), which currently corresponds to around NOK 1 779 300. If your own children are no longer alive, the person’s statutory inheritance still applies to their children. For large assets, therefore, it is still possible to limit the children’s inheritance rights and distribute the rest to the spouse and/or others.

It is also now possible in the will to set limitations for the life heir’s right of disposal of the statutory inheritance until the life heir reaches 25 years of age. This means, among other things, that a testator can decide that the inheritance should be exempt from the management, supervision and accounting obligation of the Norwegian State administrator (management authority), as well as the statutory inheritance, and that other testators can safeguard the inheritance on behalf of the heir up to the age of 25. Under the previous Inheritance Act, it was only possible to place limitations on inheritances beyond NOK 1 000 000.

If you have drawn up a will where you have limited inheritance to NOK 1 000 000, you may not need to create a new will even if the limit has been increased to 15 G. A will should always be interpreted based on what the testator has intended, so in most cases the old regulation will probably stand. If you have made a very specific will, it is important to check that the other wishes can be met financially even if the amount of the statutory inheritance increases. However, if you are in doubt, you should contact a lawyer. The new Inheritance Act’s statutory inheritance rules shall only apply if heirs die more than one year after the entry into force of the new law, i.e. where heirs die after 1 January 2022.

Minimum inheritance for spouses

The amount a spouse inherits from their deceased spouse according to the law depends on what the deceased’s assets are and whether the deceased has children or not. You can read more about this under the main section “Who inherits if no will has been drawn up?”"

In a will, you can increase or reduce the inheritance, but not completely deprive your spouse of inheritance. A spouse is entitled to a certain minimum inheritance which is 4 times the National Insurance basic amount where the deceased has their own heirs and 6 times the National Insurance basic amount where the deceased does not leave any heirs.

Witnesses, validity and storage

There are currently several formal requirements that must be met for a will to be valid. We do not go into all of these in detail, but one of the formal requirements is that the witnesses must be present at the same time. Under the new Inheritance Act, the simultaneous requirement for the witnesses is not passed on in order for a will to be valid.

For the rules on the validity of a will, this question must be decided by law at the time the will was created, revoked or changed. If you have drawn up a will according to the rules in the previous Inheritance Act and which is valid in terms of form and creation rules, you do not need to create a new will for that reason, even if a new law has now come into force. However, we would like to remind you that this is a checkpoint if you have limited inheritance in your will to life heirs to NOK 1 000 000 (statutory inheritance), if the values are still rising.

Will

Storage of wills

Change or revocation of a will

What rules apply when?

The new Inheritance Act has come into force on 1 January 2021 and from this point in time, the Inheritance Act from 1972 and the Act on Inheritance from 1930 have been repealed. The new Inheritance Act forms the basis for deaths that occur after 1 January 2022. There are some transitional rules, for example, for statutory inheritance (see separate case above about the statutory inheritance rules), the validity of a will-based disposal, reduction of inheritance etc.