Pre and post inheritance

To a certain extent, German inheritance law offers a testator the opportunity to regulate the allocation of assets for two inheritance cases, namely for their own and for the so-called prior heir.

While in the standard case, the "full heir", the heir is free to decide to whom he or she transfers the inherited assets, the situation of the prior heir is fundamentally different. As a prior heir, he or she ultimately only inherits the assets temporarily until the subsequent heir takes his or her place. The subsequent heir often inherits upon the death of the previous heir, but this is not mandatory. For example, the subsequent inheritance could also be linked to a specific point in time.

The law also distinguishes between the "exempt" prior heir and the "normal" prior heir. If a prior heir is exempt, he or she can, for example, sell property that is part of the estate.