In this Op Ed I argue that the trend of pushing common people into estate planning, forcing them to donate assets inter vivos at low rates as 3% in order to avoid the higher inheritance taxes of 27 % makes no sense. Better would be to abolish inheritance taxes between spouses and children up to...

This presentation is the backbone of a lecture I gave on March 25, 2011, in Brussels, at the Belgian Federal Parliament at a conference organized by the Christian Democratic Party on the Reform of Inheritance Law. It is based on research of the last ten years. In the presentation, five...

In this report, I argue that the protective rules for non common children of the parents of article 1465 Belgian Civil Code should not be applied to a child of the deceased that was adopted by the surviving spouses even if such adoption was not full but ordinary, limiting the legal consequences...

This book is the extended version of my Inaugural Lecture at the University of Tilburg in 2000. It offers a comparative legal analysis of the forced heirship entitlements creating a typology of such rights both for a surviving spouse and for blood relatives. It then criticizes the concept of...

The Belgian Conflict between Dutch speaking Flemish and Francophones has a long history that has come to a culmination point with the political and institutional crisis since June 2007. After a brief analysis of the conflict, this article focus is on the role of the media in such conflict. Media...

In this article I discuss the succession and inheritance law under Luxembroug law. First, I elaborate on the general principles. Then, I discuss intestate succession and succession by wills. I move on with issues arising out of private international law and tax law. To conclude, I give some...

Dutch Abstract: Het principe van de globale erfovereenkomst;Het evenwicht bij een globale erfovereenkomst;Preliminaire fase van een globale erfovereenkomst: de rol van family dynamics;Impact van family dynamics op de correcte toepassing van de wettelijke formaliteiten ter bescherming van het...

This book bundels all Editorials and Perspectives on Estate Planning I have written as the Editor-in-Chief of the Estate Planning Journal (Tijdschrift Estate Planning - TEP) in the period from 2005 until end of 2008. The book therefore offers a nice view on the evolution of discussions and...

The Belgian Conflict between Dutch speaking Flemish and Francophones has a long history that has come to a culmination point with the political and institutional crisis since June 2007. After a brief analysis of the conflict, this article focus is on the role of the media in such conflict. Media...