Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, May 17 Title: Civil Code Inheritance Draft: Making the Inheritance System More Meet the Needs of the People
Xinhua News Agency reporter Bai Yang
The inheritance system is a basic system about the inheritance of wealth after the death of a natural person, and is related to the vital interests of thousands of households.
Perfecting the legacy support agreement system, revising the effectiveness of oral wills, and adding the administrator of the estate ... Experts believe that the draft of the succession of the civil code to be submitted to the National People's Congress for review will be more in line with the real needs of citizens to deal with inheritance, and will help promote family harmony, Promote the development of aging industries.
Meet diverse needs
China's current succession law was passed in 1985. For more than 30 years, the law has played an active role in properly handling inheritance of inheritance and avoiding or reducing inheritance disputes.
However, with the continuous improvement of the people's living standards, the legal property of natural persons is increasing, new changes have taken place in the social family structure, inheritance concepts, etc. The disputes caused by inheritance are gradually increasing, and the situation is becoming more and more complicated.
From the first draft of each subdivision of the Civil Code in August 2018 to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation, to the "complete version" of the Civil Code in December 2019, which was unveiled at the meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Further revisions and improvements, especially in response to issues such as the legacy support agreement system that the people care about, reflect the distinctive characteristics of the times.
With the deepening of China's population aging, some old-nest and widowed elderly people's old-age care problems are increasingly prominent, and new-type old-age care models such as "house-based care" came into being. The legacy beneficiary support agreement system provides this kind of old people with the legal protection of “relying on the old”.
According to the current inheritance law, citizens can sign bequest support agreements with their supporters. According to the agreement, the supporter assumes the citizen ’s obligations of life, death, funeral, and enjoys the right to bequeath. Citizens can sign bequest support agreements with collective ownership organizations. According to the agreement, the collective ownership organization assumes the citizen ’s obligations of life, death, death and funeral, and has the right to bequeathed.
The draft of the succession of the Civil Code expands the scope of supporters on this basis, making it clear that a natural person can sign a bequest support agreement with an organization or individual other than the heir. The organization or individual assumes the natural life ’s obligation to support death and burial and enjoys the right to bequeath . This means that socialized family pension may become the new direction of the pension industry in the future.
The development of the times also makes the form of testament more diversified. On the basis of the notarized will, surrogate will, self-written will, taped will, verbal will, and stipulated in the Inheritance Law, the draft of the succession edition of the Civil Code adds printing wills and video wills as effective wills. The reality of life matches the actual level of technological development and is innovative and advanced.
Focus on embodying true will
In the current judicial practice, if someone wants to change the content of a notarized testament once made, it can only be changed by going to the notary office. According to the current inheritance law, notarized wills cannot be revoked or altered by self-written, proxy, recording, or oral wills. This provision has caused the inconvenience of changing the will to some senior citizens who are old and have limited mobility.
In order to earnestly respect the real will of the testator and meet the real needs of the people in dealing with the estate, the draft of the succession of the Civil Code no longer stipulates that the validity of the notarized will will take precedence; the draft also stipulates that there are several wills, and if the content is in conflict, the final will will be taken as quasi.
The "forgiveness system" of the heirs is also a major feature of the draft succession of the Civil Code. If the heir has serious behaviors such as abandoning the heir, forging or tampering with the will, but there is indeed a manifestation of repentance, the heir expresses forgiveness or explicitly lists it as heir in the will, and the heir does not lose the right to inherit.
Some experts pointed out that the “forgiveness system” of the heirs guarantees the freedom of the heirs of the heirs, but the law should further restrict the conditions on the standard of the “severe circumstances” of the heir ’s related behaviors and the judgment of “doing a manifestation of repentance”, Provide reference for judicial practice.
Ensure that the estate is properly managed
With the development of society, the types and forms of property people have become more and more diverse, and there are more and more factors and risks that make the state of property unstable. In order to ensure that the estate is properly managed and smoothly divided, to better protect the interests of the heirs and creditors, and to avoid and reduce disputes, the inheritance draft of the Civil Code adds the estate manager system.
The draft clarifies the content, responsibilities and rights of the administrator. These specific provisions have enhanced the operability of the estate manager system. Meng Qiang, director of the Civil Code Research Center of the Beijing Institute of Technology, said that the administrator of the estate must fulfill its obligations and be supervised. If the heir, bequest or creditor is lost due to intentional or gross negligence, he shall bear civil liability.
In addition, in order to protect the interests of creditors and protect the national tax, the draft stipulates that the division of the estate should pay off the tax and debts that the heir should pay according to law. The heir shall pay off the tax and debt that the heir shall pay according to law within the limit of the actual value of the inherited property.
Some experts suggested that in the context of rapid economic and social development in China, the continuous increase in the average life expectancy of the population, and the significant increase in personal property and inheritable inheritance, it is necessary to continue to improve the draft of the succession of the Civil Code in terms of the scope of legal successors and the order of legal inheritance.