Thanks all
Wife had property before marriage, to foreign husband, they have 1 son born in Taiwan,
I’m just trying to understand the initial responses to OP’s post. I absolutely would consult a few lawyers if I were to buy property with another person anywhere.
All the lists of who gets how much gives me the impression that if my hypothetical Taiwanese spouse died, their (hypothetically speaking probably a very P.O.S) family would do everything in their power to make sure that I don’t even get my 1/2 of the property. Given the nightmares I’ve watched far too many Taiwanese women go through with the in-laws when divorcing their mommy’s boy cheating husbands, the last thing I would want in the wake of the death of a spouse is for some estate lawyer to come out of nowhere and make sure that I share half of what is rightfully mine. The way the above lists are worded gives me the impression that even if the will says “spouse and children keep it all”, dead spouse’s mommy, daddy, gramma, grandpa, brothers, sisters, cousins, etc., still have a legal standing to claim a right to it.
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spouse is always a heir, if alive. if the deceased has decsendants, parents cannot be heirs.
if there are people categorised in a higher group of the list of heirs, other people in lower groups cannot be heirs. if there are children, parents etc have no right, unless there is a will. and the will cannot infringe the heirs’ compulsory portions.
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Cool. I will still absolutely consult a lawyer before buying property with another person!
This place is awesome like that, tell your friends 
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I am not disagreeing with anything here. I think this description is correct.
Just to play out how this would work, let’s says the mother (T) has Property 1 before she married the father (F) and then later she bought Property 2, which was purchased in her name only (but that won’t matter in this case). They have one kid (C).
She passes away so:
- Property 2 is 1/2 T’s and 1/2 F’s, so her half is now split between F and C equally. In other words F owns 3/4 and C owns 1/4.
- Property 1 is simply split equally between F and C.
- If T was the foreigner and F was the Taiwanese, nothing would change above
Does that sound correct?
The soap opera comes into play when we discover that C was actually the result of a secret affair with X, and X is scheming to nudge out F of all the property! Stay tuned next week when T’s identical twin sister, Xiao t, shows up, and she is a dual çitizen!!!
More seriously, to what extent can a pre-nup agreement (signed by T and F) determine what F and C get? And, in the case of the soap opera, to what extent can an extra-judicial settlement between F and C protect against X and Xiao t? I think it is with extra-judicial settlements (legal agreements among the rightful heirs) that compulsory portions may come into play
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the illegitimate child is equivalent to a legitimate child and enjoys the right of inheritance, if the child is acknowledged by the biological fathet. if there is a proof, the child can demand the acknowledgement after the father was deceased. the acknowledgement doesn’t affect on the already completed inheritance, iirc, but im not very sure.
any child is always a legitimate child of the biological mother, and has the same right with a child within wedlock.
determined what each of T and F own, if it is registered properly. so, F and C and any other children of T divide what T owned equally, if there is no common property. iiuc
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Question:
What is the property is only in the wife’s name, as it is usually the case?
I ask because I have only seen one such case where the Taiwanese wife died and the house was in her name only. Basically guy got pushed out but at least he got custody of kid.
What is considered common assets here I think is debatable, but I could be wrong. I hope I am wrong.
if Property 2 is the only property they commonly owned during the marriage. if F obtained equivalent or more property during the marriage under his name, Property 2 is hers.
My brain cannot comprehend some of the details in these mails…all I know is what my wife has been investigating. Everything she has read says that all assets under the Taiwanese spouses’ name will be split 50/50 with the Taiwanese spouses’ relatives (if there are no children with the foreign spouse). A “will” can be written to express the desire of the Taiwanese spouse but can be challenged by the deceased family members. We have not consulted a lawyer but have written a “will” with help of one of those legal document consultants. We are still going to delve into this situation more since my wife and I have no children, most assets are in her name, and she has some money grubbing relatives which would not hesitate to challenge any plan we have.
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When a rich person dies it is not unusual to have a line of women who will claim that they are entitled to parts of the wealth. It’s pathetic too.
Basically they think if they have sexual relations with the man they are somehow entitled to something.
I’ve 3 kids and a Taiwanese wife. House in her name.
If she dies…. I understand our house then is divided into a 1/4 each. 3 kids plus me.
So could the kids band together to sell the house and boot me out ?
Thank you.
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Interesting question, TED
But can’t see 99% of kids want do it ,
But it happens, anything could be put in front of a court , if they have the money to do it ,
That’s not how it works I don’t think @Ted .
If the estate was bought after you married it’s 50% yours already. Then the remaining 50% which was hers is distributed between you and the kids.
- A surviving spouse is entitled to 50% of the value of the Marital Estate, and the remaining 50% of the Marital Estate is then distributed according to the ranking below.
So yours would be 50% + 12.5% = 62.5% but that would change if there were a will saying that it would be her wish that the maximum amount possible of the estate be transferred to you in which case each of the kids would still be eligible for 1/2 the entitled portion.
5.3 Limitations to Asset Distribution
A will for use in Taiwan may not contravene any of the below conditions specified in Articles 1187 and 1223 of the Civil Code.
- For a lineal descendant by blood, the compulsory portion is one half of his entitled portion.
i.e. Each child would then be entitled to 6.25% (instead of 12.5%) and your share would increase by 18.75% to 81.25%.
At least that’s my understanding.
With no will this graphic seems to sum up your situation best.
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Mick you’re an absolute star. Thank you.
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This might be misleading. the common property includes what you own, and a half of the common property is yours, and the other is hers. If common property under her name is larger than a half, you can claim for a half of the exceeding part. But, you need to claim for the half. If more than half is under your name, all of the property under her name is for inheritance.
if everyone agrees, the property can be divided in any way.
This would be an extra-judicial settlement. That is, everyone agrees to splitting the property in a way that is different from what would normally be how the law would split it. The key word is: agrees
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