When someone dies in Vietnam without leaving a valid will, their estate does not simply pass to whoever they would have wanted, or to whoever expected to receive it. Instead, the law steps in and distributes the estate according to a fixed order of heirs set out in the Civil Code. This is called statutory, or intestate, succession, and understanding how it works matters for two very different groups: families dealing with the loss of a relative who left no will, and people deciding whether they need to make one. Our will writing and estate planning team advises both.
When the Law Decides: Statutory Succession
Under the 2015 Civil Code, an estate is divided according to law rather than according to a will in several situations: where there is no will at all, where the will is invalid, where the people named in the will have died or refuse the inheritance, or where the will only covers part of the estate. In any of these cases, the portion not validly covered by a will passes under the rules of statutory succession.
Statutory succession is not discretionary. The law sets out exactly who inherits and in what order, and neither the family nor the court can simply decide to distribute the estate differently, unless all the lawful heirs agree among themselves. This is precisely why dying without a will can produce outcomes the deceased would never have chosen.
The Three Orders of Heirs
Vietnamese law divides heirs into three ranked orders under Article 651 of the Civil Code. The estate passes to the first order. Only if there are no first-order heirs does it move to the second, and only if there are none in the second does it move to the third.
First order: the surviving spouse, the deceased’s biological and adoptive parents, and the deceased’s biological and adopted children.
Second order: the deceased’s grandparents (both paternal and maternal), the deceased’s siblings, and grandchildren where the deceased was the grandparent.
Third order: the deceased’s great-grandparents, biological aunts and uncles, biological nieces and nephews, and great-grandchildren.
Within any given order, all heirs inherit in equal shares, regardless of gender, age, or financial circumstances. A daughter inherits the same as a son. An elderly parent inherits the same as a young child.
A Feature That Surprises Many Families: Parents Are First-Order Heirs
One aspect of Vietnamese inheritance law regularly catches people off guard, particularly those from countries where inheritance flows primarily to the spouse and children. In Vietnam, the deceased’s own parents are first-order heirs, sitting alongside the spouse and children.
In practice, this means that if a married person with children dies without a will, the estate is not simply split between the surviving spouse and the children. The deceased’s living parents are entitled to an equal share as well. For a married person with, say, two children and both parents still living, that is a first order of five people, each entitled to an equal portion of the estate that passes by law. Families who assume the surviving spouse and children will inherit everything are often surprised to learn the deceased’s parents have a legal claim too.
Does the Surviving Spouse Inherit Everything?
Not automatically, and this is one of the most common misunderstandings. A surviving spouse in Vietnam does not inherit the entire estate simply by being the spouse. They share the estate equally with the other first-order heirs, the deceased’s children and parents. What the surviving spouse does keep outright is their own half of the marital property, which is a separate matter from inheritance.
There is an important step that comes before the estate is divided among heirs at all, and it often causes confusion. Property acquired during a marriage is generally joint marital property, owned equally by both spouses. When one spouse dies, half of that joint property already belongs to the surviving spouse in their own right. It is not part of the estate.
Only the deceased’s half of the joint property, together with any separate property they owned individually, forms the estate to be distributed. The surviving spouse then also inherits a share of that estate as a first-order heir. So a surviving spouse typically keeps their own half of the marital property outright and receives a further portion of the deceased’s half through inheritance. This interaction between marital property rules and inheritance rules is one of the areas where families most often need advice, and it connects directly to how divorce and division of assets principles define what is joint and what is separate.
Who Cannot Inherit, Even as a First-Order Heir
Being a first-order heir does not guarantee a share in every case. Under Article 621 of the Civil Code, certain people are disqualified from inheriting altogether, regardless of their relationship to the deceased. This includes anyone convicted of deliberately harming the life or health of the deceased, anyone who seriously mistreated the deceased or gravely violated their duty to support them, and anyone who deceived, coerced, or obstructed the deceased in making a will, or who forged, altered, or destroyed a will to their own advantage.
The practical effect is that an estranged, abusive, or seriously neglectful relative may lose the inheritance rights they would otherwise have had. There is one exception: if the deceased knew of the person’s conduct and still chose to leave them a share in a valid will, that wish is respected. But in an intestate estate, where there is no will to express such a choice, a disqualified heir simply does not inherit.
When a Child Has Already Died: Succession by Substitution
Vietnamese law addresses a situation that would otherwise create hardship. If a child of the deceased has already died, either before the deceased or at the same time, that child’s own children, the deceased’s grandchildren, step into their parent’s place and inherit the share the parent would have received. This is known as succession by substitution, and it applies only to statutory succession, not to inheritance under a will. It ensures that a branch of the family is not cut out simply because the intervening generation died first.
Debts Come First
Before any distribution to heirs, the estate must settle the deceased’s outstanding debts and legal obligations. Heirs do not inherit a clean set of assets while the deceased’s creditors go unpaid. What passes to the heirs is what remains after legitimate debts and obligations have been met from the estate. Heirs are generally not personally liable beyond the value of the estate they receive, but the estate itself bears the debts first.
How the Estate Is Actually Divided and Transferred
Where the heirs agree, an estate can be divided without going to court. The heirs can prepare a written agreement dividing the estate, which is typically notarized or certified by the local People’s Committee, and then used to transfer ownership of assets such as land or vehicles into the heirs’ names.
Where the heirs cannot agree, or where entitlement itself is disputed, the matter goes to court. Common flashpoints include disagreements between a surviving spouse and children from a previous marriage, disputes over whether someone qualifies as an heir, and property that has no clear ownership documentation. Vietnamese civil procedure generally requires mediation before such a dispute proceeds to a full hearing.
There are time limits worth knowing. A claim to divide an inherited estate must generally be brought within 30 years for immovable property such as land and houses, and within 10 years for movable property, counted from the time the inheritance opened, which is the moment of death.
Foreign Families and Cross-Border Estates
Where the deceased or the heirs are foreign nationals, or assets are located in more than one country, intestate succession becomes considerably more complex. Kinship may need to be formally established and documents consularly legalized. Foreign heirs can inherit, but restrictions on foreign ownership of land mean they sometimes cannot register certain real property in their own names and instead receive its value. And where the deceased held assets across multiple countries, more than one legal system may be involved, with the potential for conflicting rules on who inherits and in what shares.
The Simplest Way to Avoid All of This
Everything above describes what happens when the law decides, rather than the individual. For many people, the default order of heirs does not reflect what they would actually want, whether because it gives a share to parents rather than concentrating the estate on a spouse and children, because it does not provide for an unmarried partner or a stepchild who has no statutory claim, or simply because it invites disputes among relatives at the worst possible time.
A valid will changes that. It allows a person to direct where their estate goes, rather than leaving it to the default order of heirs. There is one important limit worth understanding, though, because it surprises people who assume a will gives them total control.
Vietnamese law protects certain vulnerable family members even against the wishes expressed in a will. Under Article 644 of the Civil Code, the deceased’s minor children, and their spouse, parents, or adult children who are unable to work and cannot support themselves, are entitled to a reserved share of at least two-thirds of what they would have received under statutory succession, even if the will leaves them nothing or less than that. These are sometimes called forced heirs, or heirs regardless of the contents of the will. So a will gives a person real freedom to direct their estate, but not the freedom to leave a dependent child or an infirm spouse with nothing.
Within that limit, a will lets you provide for people the statutory order ignores entirely, such as an unmarried partner or a stepchild, keep parents from taking a share you would rather leave to your spouse and children, name who should administer your estate, and spare your family the uncertainty and potential conflict of an intestate distribution. Making one is far simpler than the process a family faces when there is no will to follow.
Speak With Our Estate Lawyers
Whether you are dealing with the estate of a relative who left no will, or you want to make sure your own estate does not pass by default, our will writing and estate planning lawyers can help. We advise families on establishing and dividing intestate estates, and we prepare wills that hold up and reflect what you actually intend. Reach us at [email protected].
