China Estate Planning and Wills for Foreigners with Chinese Assets

The Inheritance Book of the Civil Code

Succession in China is governed by Book VI (Inheritance) of the PRC Civil Code, in force since January 1, 2021 (Articles 1119 to 1163). It modernized a regime that had been in place for decades: it added new will forms, abolished the old rule that a notarized will outranked later wills, and introduced the estate administrator and the testamentary trust. For a foreigner with a Chinese bank account, company shares or an apartment, these are the rules that decide who inherits and how title actually transfers.

The six will forms

The Civil Code recognizes six forms of will (Articles 1134 to 1139), and each has its own formalities:

• Self-written will (Article 1134): written entirely in the testator's own hand, signed and dated.
• Written-for-testator will (Article 1135): two or more witnesses; one writes, and the testator, writer and witnesses all sign and date.
• Printed will (Article 1136): a new form; two or more witnesses must be present, and the testator and witnesses must sign every page, with the date.
• Audio or video will (Article 1137): two or more witnesses; the testator and witnesses must record their names or likeness and the date in the recording.
• Oral will (Article 1138): only in an emergency, with two or more witnesses, and automatically invalid once the emergency ends and a written or recorded will can be made.
• Notarized will (Article 1139): executed before a notary.

Article 1140 excludes from witness duties anyone without or with limited civil capacity, heirs, legatees, and persons with an interest in the heirs or legatees — a detail that invalidates more wills than people expect.

Later will wins; the notarized priority is gone

Under Article 1142, a will may be revoked or amended, and where several wills conflict, the latest one prevails. The old rule that a notarized will automatically outranked a later non-notarized will has been abolished. In practice, however, a notarized will remains the most readily accepted instrument at the Chinese notary office and the real-estate registration centre, so it still has practical weight even though it no longer has legal supremacy.

Mandatory share and statutory succession

Article 1141 imposes a mandatory share (必留份): a will must reserve a necessary share for an heir who lacks labour capacity and has no source of income, and any part of the will that fails to do so is ineffective. Article 1123 sets the order of priority — a legacy-support agreement first, then testamentary succession or legacy, then statutory succession. The statutory heirs under Article 1127 are, in the first order, the spouse, children and parents, and in the second order, siblings and grandparents; first-order heirs take to the exclusion of the second order. A will cannot simply disinherit a dependent heir protected by Article 1141, so structure the will around that rule.

Cross-border choice of law

The Law on the Application of Law for Foreign-related Civil Relations governs which law applies. Article 31 splits the estate: movable property is governed by the law of the deceased's habitual residence at death, while immovable property is governed by the law of the place where it is located. Chinese real estate therefore always follows Chinese inheritance law, regardless of the deceased's nationality or habitual residence. Article 32 (formal validity) and Article 33 (substantive validity) are generous to foreign wills: a will is formally valid if it complies with the law of the testator's habitual residence at making or at death, the law of nationality at making or at death, or the law of the place of execution. The distinction between formality and validity can change the outcome, so both questions should be analyzed separately.

Practical title transfer and useful tools

To transfer title, the heirs generally need a notarial certificate of inheritance rights (继承权公证书) from a Chinese notary office or a court judgment, then register the transfer at the local real-estate registration centre. Foreign heirs should expect to produce the death certificate, the will (with a formal-validity check), proof of identity and relationship — often requiring consular legalization or authentication — and, where foreign law governs, proof of that foreign law's content. Two Civil Code tools are worth planning for: the estate administrator (Articles 1145 to 1149), whom a will can appoint to take inventory, settle debts and distribute assets in China without the heirs travelling, and the testamentary trust (Article 1133), increasingly used to hold Chinese assets for minor or overseas beneficiaries. Testamentary-trust treatment of real estate is still developing in practice, so treat that option as subject to local registration practice and current tax rules. Our team regularly advises on the interaction between wills and cross-border divorce and inheritance and on prenuptial agreements for cross-border wealth.

The provisions summarized here are current as of the date of writing; notarization and registration requirements vary by locality, so confirm the operative documents and procedures with the local notary office and registration centre.