Compulsory heirs and estate-planning options in the Philippines

1) The short legal reality

In Philippine succession law, a surviving spouse is generally a compulsory heir. That means you cannot simply “cut out” a spouse the way you might in jurisdictions with full testamentary freedom. The spouse is entitled to a legitime (a minimum reserved share) unless the spouse is not legally a spouse at death or is validly disqualified (e.g., by disinheritance, unworthiness, or specific Family Code consequences).

So the real question becomes: under what situations does the spouse lose compulsory-heir status or the right to inherit, and what planning can lawfully minimize what the spouse receives while staying within legitime rules?

2) Core concepts you need before planning

A. Estate vs. “marital property share” (two different things)

Before anyone inherits, you usually do property regime liquidation:

Identify the property regime (Absolute Community of Property, Conjugal Partnership of Gains, or complete separation under a marriage settlement).
Pay obligations of the partnership/community.
Split the net community/conjugal property: the surviving spouse typically gets their half as owner, not as heir.
Only then do you compute the decedent’s net estate that will be inherited.

This matters because many people try to “exclude” a spouse from inheritance but forget: the spouse may still own half of the community/conjugal property outright.

B. Testate vs. intestate succession

Testate: you leave a will.
Intestate: no will (or will is ineffective as to some property).

Even with a will, legitime limits apply. Intestate rules also protect the spouse.

C. Compulsory heirs (Civil Code, Art. 887, as updated in practice by the Family Code terminology)

Compulsory heirs generally include:

Legitimate children and descendants (including legally adopted children, who generally stand as legitimate for succession purposes),
Legitimate parents and ascendants (if no legitimate descendants),
Surviving spouse, and
Illegitimate children and descendants (recognized under current family law concepts).

If the spouse is a compulsory heir in your situation, the spouse has a legitime you cannot impair.

3) When can a spouse be “excluded” from inheritance?

There are only a few legally recognized pathways:

A. The spouse is not a spouse at death

If there is no valid marriage at the time of death, there is no “surviving spouse” compulsory heir.

Common scenarios:

Void marriage (e.g., essential requisites absent). A void marriage produces no valid spousal status; however, real cases get fact-intensive because courts may still recognize certain property effects (good faith / putative spouse situations).
Annulment / declaration of nullity completed before death: if the marriage is already judicially terminated/declared void prior to death, spousal inheritance rights fall away accordingly.

Practical note: attempting to rely on a future nullity case after death is risky litigation terrain; succession planning should not assume a later court outcome.

B. Disinheritance of the spouse (Civil Code rules on disinheritance)

Disinheritance is the main direct legal mechanism to deprive a compulsory heir (including a spouse) of legitime.

Requirements (high-level):

It must be done in a valid will.
It must clearly identify the heir disinherited.
It must state a legal cause recognized by law for disinheritance.
The cause must be true and capable of proof if contested.
Disinheritance must comply with will formalities (and rules against ambiguity).

Typical causes that can apply to a spouse are those recognized in the Civil Code’s disinheritance provisions and related “causes for legal separation” concepts (e.g., serious marital misconduct, attempt against life, violence/abuse, etc.). The exact statutory causes are specific and must match the law’s enumeration; “we fell out of love” is not a cause.

If the disinheritance is defective (no proper cause, wrong cause, not proven, improper will), the spouse is not fully excluded; at minimum the spouse may recover the legitime.

C. Unworthiness / incapacity to succeed (Civil Code, e.g., Art. 1032 framework)

Separate from disinheritance is unworthiness, where a person is legally barred from inheriting due to serious wrongdoing against the decedent (commonly involving acts like attempts against life, serious crimes, coercion or fraud relating to the will, etc.). Unworthiness generally:

Operates by law when the facts exist, but
Often still needs to be asserted and established in proceedings, and
Can be cured by pardon in certain forms.

D. Family Code consequences in legal separation

In legal separation, the marriage bond remains, but the law imposes forfeitures and disqualifications against the offending spouse (notably in property relations and, in certain respects, intestate succession). This can be a route to reduce or block what an offending spouse receives by intestacy, and it may also support disinheritance in a will where “giving cause for legal separation” is used as a legally recognized ground.

4) If you can’t fully exclude the spouse, how far can you legally reduce what the spouse gets?

A. The “minimum share” principle: give only the spouse’s legitime

If the spouse remains a compulsory heir, your estate plan typically aims to:

Ensure the spouse receives no more than the legitime, and
Allocate the free portion to others (children, charities, siblings, etc.).

This is lawful estate planning—not disinheritance, just limiting the spouse to the statutory floor.

B. Common legitime patterns involving a spouse (high-level, widely applied rules)

Exact shares depend on who else survives, and must be computed after liquidation of the marital property regime. The following are the classic guideposts in Philippine succession:

Spouse + legitimate children
- Legitimate children collectively have a fixed legitime portion.
- The spouse’s legitime is equal to the share of one legitimate child (Civil Code, commonly cited under Art. 892).
- Result: you can usually dispose of the remaining free portion, but the spouse cannot be brought below that minimum without valid disinheritance/unworthiness.
Spouse + legitimate parents/ascendants (no legitimate children)
- Legitimate parents/ascendants have a reserved legitime.
- The spouse has a reserved legitime (commonly treated as one-fourth in this concurrence pattern under the Civil Code’s legitime rules).
Spouse as the only compulsory heir (no descendants, no ascendants, no illegitimate children entitled as compulsory heirs)
- The spouse’s legitime is substantial (commonly treated as one-half), leaving the other half as free portion.

Where illegitimate children are involved, computations incorporate the Family Code rule that an illegitimate child’s legitime is generally one-half of a legitimate child’s legitime, and the math becomes case-specific based on the number of children in each class and which heirs concur.

5) Estate planning options in the Philippines (and their limits)

Option 1: A properly drafted will that controls the free portion

A will lets you:

Designate who receives the free portion,
Structure shares and substitutions,
Include safeguards (e.g., no-contest–style incentives are tricky under local public policy, but planning can still discourage disputes through clarity and documentary support),
Include disinheritance clauses where legally justified.

Limit: A will cannot impair legitimes (Civil Code, Art. 904 and related provisions). If it does, heirs can seek reduction.

Option 2: Lifetime transfers—donations, sales, partitions inter vivos

You can transfer assets while alive to reduce what remains in your estate.

Common tools:

Donation inter vivos (with careful compliance with form and acceptance requirements),
Sale (at fair value, properly documented),
Partition inter vivos (a form of lifetime distribution under strict conditions).

Major limit: inofficiousness / reduction. If lifetime gifts impair compulsory heirs’ legitimes, heirs may bring actions to reduce inofficious donations and bring values back into the computation. Also watch collation rules for donations to heirs (depending on who received and the nature of the donation).

Option 3: Use the property regime to shape what becomes “estate”

Because the spouse’s biggest economic protection often comes from the marital property regime, planning sometimes focuses on what property is:

Community/conjugal,
Exclusive/separate, or
Properly documented as paraphernal/exclusive.

Tools include:

Marriage settlements (prenup) entered into before marriage, selecting complete separation of property or customizing regimes within legal bounds.
Proper titling and documentation consistent with the chosen regime.

Limit: You cannot use marriage settlements to waive future legitimes or do prohibited “pacts on future inheritance” (as a general principle of succession law).

Option 4: Insurance and beneficiary designations

Life insurance proceeds payable to a named beneficiary often pass outside probate mechanics and directly to the beneficiary under insurance principles.

Limits/risks to manage:

Premiums paid from community/conjugal funds can raise reimbursement/accounting issues during liquidation.
If used to intentionally defeat legitimes, disputes can arise depending on facts and characterization; planning should be conservative and well-documented.

Option 5: Corporate structures and business succession planning

For family businesses:

Place operating assets in a corporation,
Plan the transfer of shares (subject to legitime limits on what remains at death),
Use shareholder agreements (within enforceable bounds) to control management succession.

Limit: Transfers intended to defeat legitime can still face reduction or challenge depending on structure and proof.

Option 6: Provide support without ownership (usufruct-style planning)

If the true concern is control rather than support, plans sometimes aim to give the spouse:

Use/benefit (income rights), but
Less ownership passing at death.

Limit: Philippine succession has strict legitime rules; any arrangement must still respect the spouse’s minimum rights unless disinheritance/unworthiness applies.

6) Disinheritance of a spouse: drafting and litigation-proofing (what usually makes or breaks it)

If you intend to disinherit, the plan often fails for predictable reasons:

A. Wrong cause, vague cause, or “moral reasons” not in the statute

Philippine disinheritance is cause-based and enumerated. Courts look for a cause that matches the law, not a personal narrative.

B. Lack of proof

If challenged, the burden shifts into evidence. Plans that succeed typically have:

Prior complaints, medical records, police reports, judgments, credible witness trails, or other documentation supporting the statutory ground,
Consistency over time.

C. Will defects

A disinheritance clause inside an invalid will is useless. Common pitfalls:

Formalities failures (especially with notarial wills),
Ambiguity in identifying the spouse or the cause,
Later wills revoking earlier ones unintentionally.

D. Reconciliation / pardon effects

Certain legal concepts can “cure” bars like unworthiness or undermine the narrative behind disinheritance depending on facts. Succession disputes often turn on timelines.

7) Common misconceptions

Misconception 1: “I’ll just put everything in my will to my kids and give spouse nothing.”

If the spouse is a compulsory heir and not disqualified, the spouse can claim legitime, and testamentary provisions that impair legitime are reducible.

Misconception 2: “If we’re separated in fact, my spouse won’t inherit.”

Physical separation alone does not terminate spousal inheritance rights. Legal consequences generally require:

Legal separation (judicial), or
Annulment/nullity, or
A valid disinheritance/unworthiness basis.

Misconception 3: “Everything is mine because it’s titled in my name.”

Title is important but not always determinative under the marital property regime; characterization (community/conjugal/exclusive) matters.

Misconception 4: “I can make my spouse sign a waiver now.”

As a general succession principle, agreements over future inheritance are heavily restricted. Any “waiver of legitime” before the succession opens is typically problematic.

8) A practical, legally compliant planning framework (Philippines)

Confirm spousal status risk: valid marriage, any grounds for nullity/annulment, any pending cases.
Map the property regime and classify assets: community/conjugal vs exclusive.
Identify compulsory heirs who will exist at death (children, ascendants, spouse, illegitimate children).
Decide your goal:
- Limit spouse to legitime, or
- Exclude spouse via disinheritance/unworthiness/absence of valid marriage.
If limiting to legitime: draft a will that allocates the free portion clearly and anticipates contests.
If excluding: ensure the plan rests on a statutory ground, and that the evidentiary record and will formalities are strong.
Review lifetime transfers for inofficiousness risk and liquidation consequences.
Keep documents consistent: titles, corporate records, beneficiary designations, and the will should not contradict each other.

9) Bottom line

Yes, a spouse can be excluded from inheritance only in limited, law-recognized situations—primarily valid disinheritance, unworthiness, or where the spouse is not legally a spouse at death.
Otherwise, the spouse remains a compulsory heir entitled to a legitime, and planning focuses on limiting the spouse to that minimum while lawfully distributing the free portion and managing marital property effects.