The closest relatives of a deceased person are called heirs.

Heirs are defined as "the children of the deceased or their descendants." This means that if one of the children of the deceased dies before the deceased but leaves behind children, the grandchildren will become heirs. If one of the children dies without leaving behind any heirs, the inheritance will go to the other heirs.

The main rule is that the inheritance shall be divided equally between the testator's children or each child's line if a child has passed away before the deceased. This has been a fundamental principle of Norwegian inheritance law for more than 150 years.

Nevertheless, we are often asked whether it is possible to limit the inheritance of one or more of the heirs. There may be good reasons for wanting to do this. In some cases, it may be because the child has problems that mean they should not inherit large amounts of money, but it may also be because, for various reasons, you want to favor one or more of your children.

In these cases, the parents can draw up a will, but here too, it is a fundamental principle of Norwegian law that children cannot be completely disinherited.

Two-thirds of the deceased's estate is reserved for the heirs' statutory share. However, there are certain restrictions here too.

The compulsory portion of the inheritance is never greater than 15 G (G is the basic amount of the National Insurance Scheme) for each of the children, or each child's line, cf. Section 50 of the Inheritance Act https://lovdata.no/lov/2019-06-14-21/Section 50.

If one of the children dies before the testator and leaves behind three children, for example, the compulsory portion of the inheritance will never exceed 15 G for all three grandchildren combined.

It is the size of G (the basic amount of the National Insurance Scheme) at the time of inheritance, i.e. when the testator dies, that shall be applied. Since the compulsory portion of the inheritance is linked to the basic amount, the limit for the compulsory portion will also be adjusted annually in accordance with changes in the basic amount.

It is also worth noting that the compulsory portion applies to inheritance from each parent, regardless of whether the parents are married or not.

If the deceased is married, the spouse is entitled to a minimum inheritance of 4G. This right takes precedence over the children's compulsory portion. In small estates, it is therefore possible to bequeath everything to the spouse and thus prevent the heirs from receiving an inheritance.

Written by

Else-Marie Merckoll

Attorney/Partner