Estonia

Administration of the estate

A court shall decide on the administration of the estate if:

1. The heirs are not known;
2. The heirs are not located at the place where the estate is located;
3. It is not known if the inheritance has been accepted;
4. An heir who lacks capacity has not been appointed a statutory representative;
5. Other statutory grounds are present.

A court may also decide on the administration ex officio or at the request of an interested party, e.g. a potential heir, with the administrator overseeing the estate until the acceptance of the estate.

The administrator of the estate is obliged to:

1. Administer and receive the estate with ordinary care;
2. Grant maintenance from the estate to entitled persons;
3. Fulfill obligations arising out of the estate at the expense of the estate;
4. Assume accountability for administering the estate;
5. Take over the estate from the possession of an heir or other parties, or to ensure the segregation of the estate from the heirs' property, should it be required, especially if necessary for the receipt of the estate;
6. If needed, submit an application with the competent notary public for the initiation of inheritance proceedings or, should Estonian notaries not have jurisdiction, undertake other actions needed to determine one's heirs.

The administrator may only utilize the estate to fulfil their own duties and to cover their professional expenses. Alienation of real estate requires prior approval of the competent court. The administrator is entitled to receive remuneration for their activities in an amount determined by court.

Should no heirs have been determined within six months' time following the initiation of inheritance proceedings, the administrator may alienate the whole estate, including real estate, following the drawing up of an inheritance inventory, thereafter depositing the proceeds of the sale.

In case there is no longer a need for an administrator or if the estate no longer covers the expenses for administration and the parties having requested the administration of the estate or in whose interests the administration was initiated have not provided a security to cover the administrator's expenses, the court shall decide on the termination of administration.

Compulsory share

Should a testament or an inheritance contract allocate a smaller share to an heir entitled to receive a compulsory share or should they have been disinherited, the respective heir shall have a claim against the estate in the amount of their compulsory share. If multiple heirs are entitled to a compulsory share, the rules of statutory succession apply.

The compulsory share amounts to one half of the statutory share which would apply, should all heirs accept their inheritance. Heirs having rejected the inheritance are not taken into account in this regard. The estate is valued on the day when succession arose by subtracting debts and existing obligations of the estate. Obligations subject to a condition precedent are disregarded, whereas obligations whose conclusions are subject to a condition precedent are taken into account in full.

Extraordinary legacies, e.g. ordinary furnishings in the common residence of a spouse which the spouse is entitled to, are included in the calculation of the compulsory share, with the exception of gifts granted by the testator within 10 ten years' time prior to their death aimed at reducing the compulsory share or causing losses to the heirs entitled to a compulsory share.

Inheritance tax

The inheritance estate is not subject to taxation.