compulsory portion

noun · Pflichtteil

The Pflichtteil of § 2303 BGB is not a share of the estate but a claim for money against the heirs, worth half the value of the intestate share, available to descendants, to the spouse and, where no descendant is entitled, to the parents, in each case where a will has cut them out. Calling its holder an heir is the standard error: he takes no assets, has no say in the estate and cannot demand any particular item.

Which translation, when

Pflichtteilthe claim: where a descendant of the deceased is excluded from succession by a disposition on death he may demand the Pflichtteil from the heir, § 2303 Abs. 1 BGB, and it consists in half the value of the intestate share; the same right belongs to the spouse and to the parents where a disposition excludes them, Abs. 2, though the parents reach it only where no descendant is entitled, since the claim presupposes that the person would have inherited on intestacy, and the spouse’s figure depends on the matrimonial property position, § 2303 Abs. 2 Satz 2 leaving § 1371 BGB expressly untouched; the claim is always for a sum of money, not for objects.

kein Erbethe position: the person entitled takes no part in the estate, joins no community of heirs, votes on nothing and can point at no particular item, however sentimental; he is a creditor of the heirs, and German practice therefore pairs the claim with an information right, since without an inventory the sum cannot be calculated.

Pflichtteilsergänzungthe gifts made earlier: lifetime gifts by the deceased are added back notionally so that the claim cannot be emptied by giving everything away in advance, § 2325 BGB, and where the heir cannot pay, the claim can reach the recipient of the gift, § 2329 BGB; the details of valuation and of the sliding reduction over the years before death are a specialist field a translation should not compress.

Wortfeldthe labels: German says Pflichtteil for the claim, Pflichtteilsberechtigter for its holder and enterben for cutting someone out; English forced heirship and legitime describe systems in which the protected person really does take a share, so those words invite the wrong picture, and the testamentary freedom the Pflichtteil limits is held by the last will entry.

Why

Compulsory portion is the German Pflichtteil, and the translation trap is structural rather than lexical. Section 2303 Abs. 1 BGB gives a descendant excluded from succession by a disposition on death the right to demand the Pflichtteil from the heir, consisting in half the value of the intestate share; Abs. 2 extends the same right to the spouse and to the parents, the parents reaching it only where no descendant is entitled, because the claim measures what the person would have taken on intestacy, and Satz 2 leaves § 1371 BGB untouched, so the spouse’s figure turns on the matrimonial property regime and the way the equalisation of accrued gains is handled. Every word of that sentence matters. The right arises only where a will or contract of inheritance has excluded the person, so an heir who simply receives less than the intestate share is in a different position. What the entitled person receives is a sum of money, calculated on the value of the estate, not a share in it: he becomes a creditor of the heirs, takes no assets, has no vote in the administration and cannot demand a specific object, which is why German practice couples the claim with rights to information and to an inventory. English readers arriving from forced heirship or legitime expect something else, a genuine share reserved to the family, and a translation that carries that picture into a German file misdescribes the position on both sides. A second layer protects the claim against being emptied in advance: lifetime gifts are notionally added back under § 2325 BGB, and where the heirs cannot satisfy the claim it can reach the recipient of the gift under § 2329 BGB, with valuation rules and a reduction sliding over the years before death that no summary should flatten. The vocabulary is fixed: Pflichtteil for the claim, Pflichtteilsberechtigter for its holder, enterben for the act of cutting out, and Pflichtteilsverzicht for the contractual waiver made during the deceased’s lifetime.

Typical mistakes

The Pflichtteil is a money claim against the heirs and not a share of the estate, § 2303 BGB, so calling its holder an heir misstates his position entirely.
It arises only where a disposition on death excluded the person, so an heir merely given less than the intestate share is in a different position.
Forced heirship and legitime describe systems reserving a real share, so using them for the Pflichtteil imports rights German law does not grant.

What matters

Translating a German will or an estate letter: the text should call the Pflichtteil a claim for payment against the heirs, keep the holder out of the community of heirs, and mention the addition of lifetime gifts where the file raises it.

Authority

§ 2303 BGB
§ 2325 BGB

What the machine misses

Machine renderings of compulsory portion produce Pflichtanteil or Zwangsanteil, and the institute is the Pflichtteil of § 2303 BGB, half the value of the intestate share and owed as money by the heirs; the invented words also suggest a share in the estate, which is exactly what the entitled person does not receive.

See what the machine does with this clause →

Examples

the compulsory portion	der Pflichtteil
a person entitled to the compulsory portion	ein Pflichtteilsberechtigter
to claim the compulsory portion from the heir	den Pflichtteil vom Erben verlangen
to disinherit	enterben

More notes on these sections

last will Testament