Under Uruguayan Law, upon the death of a person who has died intestate, the direct descendants of the deceased, whether legitimate or natural, and in their absence, his or her ascendants together with the surviving spouse are considered as heirs of the estate of the deceased. In the absence of both parents and spouse, the siblings of the deceased whether legitimate or natural, together with his adopted children are considered as his heirs.
The law considers the direct descendants of the deceased, whether legitimate or natural and in their absence his or her parents, as “forceful heirs” and reserves for such class of heirs a portion of the estate.
Even by means of a will, a person who at the time of his death has “forceful heirs” may not dispose of more than a certain percentage of his estate in the benefit of third parties or may not alter the percentage of the estate that corresponds to any one of such “forceful heirs”. The percentage of the estate to be assigned to such heirs depends upon their number. In the case of one single child the percentage of the estate the testator is allowed to dispose of is fifty per cent of his estate, in the event of two, that percentage is of one third, and in the case of three or more, the percentage is reduced to one quarter of the estate. If there are no children and the forceful heir or heirs are one or both parents, the testator may dispose freely of fifty per cent of his estate.
In the case that the owner of a real estate property located in Uruguay dies, the correspondent heirs must carry out the inheritance judicial procedure in Uruguay in order to obtain a judicial declaration of heirs.