Italian inheritance law: protecting personal assets from deceased's debts

Under Italian law, heirs who accept an inheritance may become personally liable for the deceased's debts, including unpaid mortgages, taxes, or overdrafts, if the liabilities exceed the value of the inherited assets. To prevent creditors from seizing personal savings or property, the Civil Code provides the mechanism of ‘acceptance with benefit of inventory.’

This legal tool ensures that creditors can only claim satisfaction from the inherited assets and not from the heir's personal estate. Specific deadlines apply to these protections: an heir living with the deceased has three months to perform an inventory, while others have forty days to declare acceptance with the benefit of inventory following the inventory process. Article 752 of the Civil Code regulates the proportional payment of debts based on the shares assigned to each heir.