Probate Lawyer Argentina & Probate Attorney Buenos Aires

Claiming succession is not usually as easy as it sounds. A lot is involved in ensuring your path to claiming an estate or succession is as smooth as possible. If you’ve been searching for a probate lawyer Argentina or in need of a probate attorney Buenos Aires, you’ve come to the last bus stop!

In case you’re wondering, what’s this probate lawyer Argentina going to do? What role is my probate attorney Buenos Aires going to play in my succession claim? Here is a brief on what to expect from your lawyer.

Gathering of all required documents that will facilitate a succession proceeding, from financial statements to ownership certificates and of course birth certificates. Your probate lawyer will guide you in ensuring none is missed. Your lawyer will look at the domicile of the decedent to determine where your succession claim will be heard. The important location is the decedent’s last place of abode before death and not necessarily where his properties and estate is located.

Depending on the circumstances surrounding decedent’s death and if there was a valid written will or not, your lawyer can conclude whether your succession is testate (with a valid written or oral will) or intestate (without a valid will, also includes invalid written will). Where there is a will, your probate attorney Buenos Aires will help you determine whether the will is holographic or notarial.

Once requisite documents have been gathered, your probate attorney will then file the succession petition in court, estate notices in the Official Gazette, ruling acknowledging legal heirs and other needed procedures to bring success to your claim. Estate notices are required to be filed to eliminate any untitled claims.

Limiting your overall expenses by making sure due process is followed. Especially as most people assume they do not need to initiate succession proceedings where there is a valid will involved. They may get to realize this mistake late, after lots of unnecessary expenses have been made.

Peruse the will to be sure it is consistent with laws governing estate, probate and succession. For instance, children are entitled to 4/5 of the decedent’s estate, parents 2/3 while spouse is 1/2. While they can inherit more than this quota, less than it is not allowed in law. This mandatory quota is known as the legitime portion of the estate of the decedent.

Advice you on your options where other beneficiaries are opposed to initiating succession proceedings. According to law, you have the option to singly initiate the proceedings and cause processes to be served on beneficiaries not in agreement.

A probate lawyer Argentina is needed not only during initiation of succession claims, but also before death of the decedent. The lawyer will review your written will and advice on terms to include so rightful heirs are not excluded. You can write as many wills and revoke them too, but the last written one before death will be the valid one.

Your probate lawyer will discuss upfront what to expect in fees and thus save you higher expenses which can be recovered in court after the proceedings. So it’s important you reach a mutual agreement before retaining your lawyer.

After the judge has passed a ruling acknowledging the heirs of the estate, the probate document is then registered by your lawyer which then gives you the right to either sell via the Fast Track system or personal management.

Our expert and dedicated team at Kier Joffe Firm are waiting to meet your estate, probate and succession needs with the most effective legal solution. Our reach includes both local and international assets. If you’ve got more questions, we’re just a call away!

ARGENTINA SUCCESSION PROCEEDINGS

Succession refers to the body of law pertaining to the distribution of a person’s assets after they have died. Based on the property type, the property value, the debts of the decedent and some other factors, the process may be very easy or complicated.

Types of succession in Argentina

1. Intestate succession (without a will), which represents a majority of cases; and
2. Testamentary succession (with a will)

A judicial succession proceeding is how the law sees the transfer of immovable assets i.e. real estate, permits the transfer of bank accounts and stocks and bonds or any assets that are documented in the name of the deceased person , and arranges for the payment of the debts of the decedent. If a person dies without having any of those properties, and without any significant debt, it may be unnecessary to open his succession.

Among the most frequent questions people ask is how long it will take to complete a succession proceeding in the City of Buenos Aires or Province of Buenos Aires. The answer is dependent upon:
• Whether the documents (vehicles ownership certificates, death certificates, birth certificates, real property title deeds (departments, houses, motorcycles, vessels, motor vehicles, securities and shares, bank statements ) needed to start the succession is available;
• The court wherein the succession is to be settled, which depends on the jurisdiction corresponding to the last domicile of the decedent;
• The number of heirs and their willingness to speed up the process by signing all the documents needed and collaborating in moving the judicial process forward; and
• Whether there is any conflict among heirs, in which case, such conflicts must first be solved through the help of a probate lawyer Argentina to continue with the succession proceedings as laid out by the legislation in force.
Generally, a succession proceeding takes at least 5 months to acknowledge the legal heirs for an intestate succession to be issued , depending on the jurisdiction ( City or Province of Buenos Aires with their diverse Judicial Departments).
Furthermore, succession expenses are incurred per stage. It may involve the issuance of certificates showing family bonds between the decedent and their heirs, the form utilized to apply for proceedings connected with the whole estate of the demised, the compulsory social security levy of the probate attorney Buenos Aires (lex provisional), court fees, and succession notices.
It is therefore, important to note that the completion of all procedural terms and stages (i.e. filing of the petition for succession, publication of estate notices in the Authorized Gazette, rulings confirming the lawful heirs to an intestate succession, distribution and enrolment of the properties the estate of the decedent) is the leading principle of any succession proceeding.
If when the succession is completed, the heirs have finally made up their mind to sell the assets, the ruling confirming the genuine heirs to an intestate succession has to be registered via fast tracking i.e. In one act before a probate attorney Buenos Aires, assets are then transferred from the decedent ) to heirs and from heirs to buyer. For such reasons, a probate lawyer Argentina must demand that the registration be made through fast tracking, and give the name, domicile and a contact number of the acting probate attorney Buenos Aires, who will be certified to take the succession records for several days to set up the fast tracking title act. In pursuant to the relevant legislation, counsel’s charges in the City of Buenos Aires vary from 11% to 20% of the exact asset value, less than 25%.
In the Province of Buenos Aires, they vary from 7% to 25% of the assets’ tax assessment which is near the real value. As the amounts to be permitted for counsel’s charges in a succession proceeding may be somewhat high, you need to enter into a fee’s agreement with your probate lawyer Argentina before starting the proceedings otherwise, they may request the courts to fix the counsel’s charges, which may be higher compared to those you would have agreed by mutual consent.
A probate lawyer Argentina can provide you the most effective legal solution for succession cases of diverse nature, and can handle both simple and complex registrations involving assets in the national territory and abroad. For more details on succession proceedings, please contact Kier Joffe Attorneys at Law, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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Elias Kier Joffe
Managing Partner

NEW CIVIL AND COMMERCIAL CODE OF ARGENTINA

Division of property under the new Code

As a result of all questions and doubts that have arisen from the enactment of the “new Code” (Civil and Commercial Code of Argentina, CCCN in Spanish), which came into force on August 1 this year, we will explain the effects of “Termination of the Community Property System”, mainly what we need to know when a couple decides to divorce, when one of the spouses dies, or when they decide to opt for a different property system and need to divide assets after the dissolution of marriage.

Nowadays the law allows us to choose the way in which we want to “administer” our matrimonial property so that couples can select what property system will govern their marriages by executing a marriage settlement.

Section 446 of the new Code expressly contemplates “Marriage Settlements” and provides that “before the celebration of marriage, prospective spouses may enter into settlements only for the following purposes: a) to designate and valuate the assets that each spouse brings into the marriage; b) to list debts; c) to list donations made to each other; d) to opt for any of the property systems provided under this Code.”

Although the Code provides that prospective spouses may sign marriage settlements, it also limits the scope of said settlements. As opposed to what most people imagine, the law stipulates a strict framework of what terms the parties may agree on. Outside this legal framework, spouses cannot dispose of property in any way. If they do so, the law states that such disposition will have no effect.

The principal amendment relates to the fact that now spouses can opt for a system of division of property, under which they keep the right to freely administer or dispose of their premarital property.

At this stage we may conclude that the most significant change not only relates to the possibility of choosing one system or another, but also to the right to agree to change it, whether choosing between the division of property system or the community property system. For this to be possible, two requirements must be met. First, spouses must have kept the adopted system for a period of at least one year. Second, the settlement must be made by a notarially recorded instrument. However, if the parties are silent, that is, in case spouses do not make any marriage settlement or do not agree on any property system in the settlement, the community property system will apply by operation of law, as the situation was before the new Code.

“In my view, the Commission correctly chose not to do what Italy implemented after the Code of 1942, when it changed the system in force at that time thus generating a strong opposition from the society, who was not accustomed. Here we thought that the same thing could happen. That’s why the community property system was chosen as a legal and suppletory system “, explained attorney Pedro Di Tella during a seminar held at University of Buenos Aires Law School (UBA).

Another relevant issue to point out is that spouses who got married before the new Code came into force have the right to change systems, as long as they meet the statutory requirements: time in the system (one year) and written settlement made by a notarially recorded instrument. Such change of system does not require any leave or acknowledgement from a court.

So far this is what the parties may “choose”. Nonetheless it is important to highlight, as we have mentioned before, that the freedom of choice is restricted by what is called Régimen Primario (Primary System) based on mandatory and unalterable rules which apply whatever system the parties may have adopted, and on the principle of joint and several liability, family responsibility, and protection of family and other persons. Consequently, any agreement to the contrary will be of no effect.

What we need to know is that despite the amendments made by the new Code and the property system adopted, in every marriage spouses must comply with the following:
– neither spouse may dispose of the matrimonial home, nor of moveable property and property used for work without the other spouse’s consent.
– they must contribute to support themselves, the home and their children in common, in proportion to their resources. If one of them fails to do so, he or she could be sued in court.
– they are jointly and severally liable for the obligations assumed by each of them to meet family common necessities and children’s maintenance and education.
Apart from these cases and except as otherwise provided by the marriage system law, none of the spouses is liable for the other’s obligations. Not only prospective spouses may choose a property system, but they may also specify in the settlements what assets they bring into the marriage, which debts are still due, and what donations they have made to each other.

To sum up, it is important to realize that all these amendments have not been made in a capricious way, just because a substantive reform of the code was needed. The reform of the Code represents and consolidates the solutions provided by case law and legal authors to the social and cultural changes of the last decades as a result of the absence of express rules.

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