En makes dödsbo – konsekvenser av att den ekonomiska enheten plötsligt upphör

Sammanfattning: The main purpose of this thesis is to describe what happens when the economic unit of spouses ceases due to death. There are many practical actions regarding estate inventory, division of property and distribution of the estate that are complicated. The surviving spouse inherit his or her spouse’s estates before direct heirs, regulated in ÄB 3rd chapter 1 §, the Swedish inheritance code. Children from another relationship or residuary testamentary beneficiaries of the deceased spouse will get their inheritance directly. This will put the surviving spouse in an unstable economic situation. The estate’s administrators are normally the part owners of the estate. In case the part owners of the estate do not come to an agreement regarding the estate, an estate administrator becomes the trustee. When a lawyer or estate administrator are about to make an estate inventory, the estate part owners or residuary testamentary beneficiaries are being called by registered letters. The part owners of the estate are called but not secondary successors after the surviving spouse, which has been criticized by many legal writers. It is not confirmed by legislation what inventory value regarding the assets in an estate inventory. The Swedish Tax Agency has given out a discourse stating that a market value on the assets to be the right value. When estate inventory is clarified, division of property will take place. In case where spouses only have direct heirs, the surviving spouse inherits his or her spouse’s assets directly. There cannot be one spouse only for contracting party regarding division of property. As a lawyer or estate administrator, you “imagine” division of property and share out the assets to the surviving spouse. According Swedish law comments, direct heirs do not take part in division of property. They do not have the rights to apply for an estate administrator according to case law, RH 1993:7. Another question is if surviving spouse and the direct heirs can contract the proportion of the assets of the deceased spouse into full right of possession or disposed possession. The distribution of an estate does not always include all assets, it may be partial. The part owners of the estate may make an agreement on cooccupation of an undistributed estate, regulated in ÄB 24th chapter, the Swedish inheritance code. When distribution is held, it is important to show respect to devisors will. The legatees are supposed to be out before the rest of the assets are shared out. During the distribution, some assets may be joint ownership causing conflicts among residuary testamentary beneficiaries. The distribution of an estate may take time. The surviving spouse has limited access to bank assets before distribution is held, which is common when a will is not accepted by all estate part owners. A will wins legal force after six months and distribution of an estate may take place after that firstly. The recent time after a deceased spouse is also difficult to the surviving spouse. The estate inventory is an identity paper and the other presumptive part owners of the estate must mandate the surviving spouse to dispose bank assets. Are the part owners of the estate disagreeing on some points that might be difficult to manage.