![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/P03-260729-NEW.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe legislature yesterday passed an amendment to the Civil Code removing a provision that mandates a guaranteed minimum inheritance share for siblings, giving people greater freedom to distribute their estates through a will. <\/p>\n
The amendment to Article 1223, which passed its third reading without objection, is to take effect six months after being promulgated, which is expected to happen within a few weeks. <\/p>\n
Before being revised, the article stipulated that certain close relatives were entitled to a minimum share of an estate, even if a will left them out. For siblings, that guaranteed share was one-third of the total amount of the inheritance shared among them. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times <\/p>\n
Taiwan introduced the compulsory inheritance share system in the 1930s to protect close relatives from being completely excluded from an estate and to maintain family support obligations. <\/p>\n
After the amendment takes effect, siblings would no longer be entitled to that guaranteed share if the deceased leaves a valid will that distributes the estate to other individuals or entities. <\/p>\n
The change does not affect who can inherit funds when there is no will. <\/p>\n
If a person dies without leaving a will, siblings can still inherit money under existing inheritance rules when they are the legal heirs. <\/p>\n
The compulsory shares for spouses, children and parents remain unchanged, even if a valid will says otherwise. <\/p>\n
Anyone aged 16 or older can make a will if they have the legal capacity to do so. <\/p>\n
Lawmakers said the amendment reflects modern family structures and gives people greater freedom to decide how their assets are distributed after death. <\/p>\n
The Ministry of Justice had also proposed changes, including recognizing heirs who made special contributions, such as providing long-term care or financial support, but those provisions were not included in the bill passed yesterday. <\/p>\n
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (\u6797\u6c9b\u7965) said that the old system was often a source of family disputes. <\/p>\n
The amendment does not negate familial ties, but rather returns to the basic principle of respecting a person\u2019s right to distribute their estate according to their wishes, he added. <\/p>\n
The amendment is expected to have a significant impact on high-net-worth individuals, \u201cdouble income, no kids\u201d couples, single people and family business succession planning, PricewaterhouseCoopers Taiwan said. <\/p>\n
The firm advised people to consult with professional advisers early to ensure their wills comply with the latest legal requirements to map out the most suitable asset succession plans. <\/p>\n
Additional reporting by Lo Kuo-chia and Cheng Chi-fang<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The legislature yesterday passed an amendment to the Civil Code removing a provision that mandates a guaranteed minimum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,147,530,4083,4082],"class_list":["post-789944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-the-taipei-times","tag-4082"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}