Promulgated in 1999 under the Jospin government, the Civil Solidarity Pact (Pacs) introduces a new form of civil union as an alternative to marriage for heterosexual couples, while opening the door for the first time to unions of same-sex couples. A major social advance, in particular to guarantee partners better protection in the event of death.
⋙ Find out if civil partnerships protect you as well as marriage!
Does the PACS guarantee protection for your partner’s estate?
Contrary to popular belief, civil partnerships do not offer the same legal advantages as marriage. In fact, the PACS does not legally grant the right to inheritance to the legal partner, who comes behind the parents and children of the deceased. A civil partner is also not eligible for a survivor’s pension, which is also reserved for husbands and wives.
On the other hand, the PACS allows the partner to have access to certain social protection measures. To do this, the latter can request access to the death benefit of the deceased from Health Insurance to cover certain costs linked to the death. And as part of the inheritance of housing, the civil partner of the deceased must be able to continue to occupy the marital home for at least one year.
How to protect your PACS partner?
If the PACS itself is not a sufficient provision to properly protect your civil partner, there is a very simple way to improve this protection: draw up a will making him the legatee of the property. In addition to the terms indicated by the latter, the will allows the PACS partner to be exempt from inheritance costs on the transmission of assets. Be careful, however, if the drafter of the will is already the parent of children born from a previous marriage, then the will must ensure that their legal rights must also be respected.
Read also :
⋙ Marriage, PACS or common-law union: how to properly organize your inheritance according to your status?
⋙ Separation: what steps to take depending on your status, married, in a civil partnership or in a common-law union?
⋙ Marriage, civil partnership, divorce: how to declare your change of situation for taxes?