Inheritance & Wealth Management

What this page decides

Succession planning in Montenegro is not a matter of drafting a good will. Three separate bodies of law decide what actually happens to an estate, and two of them operate before death — which is why plans written around the will alone tend to fail at exactly the point they were meant to work.

This page sets out the statutory spine: what cannot be given away, what can be moved out of the estate in advance and on what conditions, and where a foreign family's assumptions usually break.

Article numbers below are from the Zakon o nasljeđivanju (adopted 27 November 2008), the consolidated Zakon o obligacionim odnosima ("Sl. list CG" 047/08, 004/11, 022/17 and 123/24 of 23.12.2024), the consolidated Porodični zakon ("Sl. list RCG" 001/07; "Sl. list CG" 053/16 and 076/20) and the Zakon o privrednim društvima ("Sl. list CG" 90/2025 and 121/2025). All read on 5 September 2026. General information about Montenegrin law, not advice on a particular estate.

The part of the estate you cannot give away

Article 27 of the Inheritance Act defines the forced heirs (nužni nasljednici): the deceased's descendants, spouse, adoptees and their descendants, parents and adopters. Grandparents and siblings are forced heirs only if they are permanently unfit for work and lack the necessary means of subsistence. All of them qualify only when they are called to the estate in the statutory order of succession.

Article 28 then fixes the reserved share, and the fractions matter:

What remains after the reserved share is the disposable part, which the testator may deal with freely.

Article 29 contains the single most useful planning provision in the chapter, and it is routinely missed. A forced heir is entitled to a determined portion of every asset and right in the estate — but the testator may direct that the forced heir receives their share in specified things, rights, or in money.

So the reserved share cannot be defeated, but its form can be chosen. A family business, a particular property or a shareholding can be kept intact and the forced heir satisfied in cash or other assets — provided the will says so and the value is there. That is a drafting question, decided in advance.

Article 30 governs how the estate is valued for the purpose of that calculation, which is why an inventory and a valuation record are part of the planning file rather than an afterthought.

The two contracts that empty an estate before it exists

Montenegrin law contains two instruments that move property out of a person's estate during their lifetime, so that the reserved-share calculation never reaches it. Both sit in the law of obligations, not the inheritance act — which is why they are missed by advisers working from the succession statute alone.

Transfer and distribution of property during life (Articles 1063–1068). Under Article 1063 an ancestor transfers property to their descendants during life, without consideration. Article 1066(3) states the consequence the instrument exists for: the transferred property does not enter the estate.

Its condition is strict. Article 1064(1) makes the contract valid only if all of the transferor's descendants who would be called by law to inherit have consented. Article 1068(1) supplies the sanction where one did not and later becomes an heir: the parts transferred to the others are treated as gifts — and gifts are inside the reserved-share calculation. A single missing signature therefore changes the legal character of the whole arrangement.

Lifetime maintenance (Articles 1075–1083). Under Article 1075(1) one party undertakes to maintain the other until death in return for property, with acquisition deferred to the moment of the recipient's death. Article 1075(3) fills in the obligation where the contract does not: housing, food, clothing and footwear, appropriate care in illness and old age, treatment costs and everyday needs.

Article 1077 contains a nullity foreign families rarely anticipate: the contract is null where the maintenance provider is a person who cares for the recipient within their occupation or activity — medical staff, hospitals, agencies — unless the prior consent of the guardianship authority was obtained.

The notary's warning is a condition of validity

This is the point on which both instruments turn, and it is identical in each.

Article 1065(1) and Article 1076(1) require the contract to be in writing and certified by a notary, and require the notary — before certification — to read the contract to the parties and specifically warn them that the property covered does not enter the estate and cannot be used to satisfy forced heirs. Articles 1065(2) and 1076(2) require the notary to confirm on the contract itself that this was done. Articles 1065(3) and 1076(3) make a contract concluded contrary to those paragraphs null.

The warning is therefore not advisory practice a busy notary might compress. When an instrument is examined years later — by an heir, a buyer or a lender — the first thing to look for is the notary's confirmation, not the signatures.

The marital contract, and the presumption behind it

Porodični zakon Article 301 allows spouses, during the marriage or before it, to regulate their property relations over existing or future property by contract (bračni ugovor). It must be in writing and certified by a notary, who is obliged to read it to the spouses before certification and warn them that it excludes the statutory regime of joint property. Where it concerns immovables, it is registered in the real estate register.

Article 302 covers the case of a spouse deprived of legal capacity: the guardian may conclude the contract with the approval of the guardianship authority.

That registration requirement connects to the presumption that catches most foreign families. Under Article 289(2), where only one spouse is registered as owner of joint property, the entry is deemed to have been made in both names — unless the entry rests on a written contract between the spouses. A valid foreign prenuptial agreement that never became the basis of the Montenegrin registration does not displace that presumption.

The company share does not follow the same rules as the flat

Where the estate includes an interest in a Montenegrin limited liability company, Zakon o privrednim društvima Article 379(1) transfers the share to the heirs under the succession legislation — unless the company's statute provides otherwise.

Article 379(2) deals with a statute that excludes heirs: the members or the company must buy the share out, in the manner and within the period the statute sets. Article 379(3) provides that if they do not, the share is withdrawn under the capital-reduction rules.

So the constitutional documents of the company can override the succession outcome for that asset — which makes the statute a succession document, and one that has to be read alongside the will rather than after it.

Wealth clients and the transparency layer

Families with public-office connections meet a further regime that is not optional. Under the Zakon o sprečavanju pranja novca i finansiranja terorizma ("Sl. list CG" 110/2023, 65/2024, 24/2025, 41/2026 — a Constitutional Court decision — and 59/2026), Article 54(1) requires an obliged entity, before establishing a business relationship, to check the statutory Register of Politically Exposed Persons for the client, its legal representative, its authorised person and its beneficial owner.

Article 54(4) to (6) extends that status to immediate family and close associates, with family defined in Article 54(5) as the spouse or non-marital partner, a same-sex life partner, parents, children, and the children's spouses or partners. Article 55(5) puts a personal filing duty on the politically exposed person: registration of themselves and those family members within eight days of appointment.

For a family in that position, the practical consequence is that source-of-funds and senior-management approval requirements under Article 56(1) apply to their banking and structuring by operation of law, not by a bank's discretion.

What we do

• Reserved-share modelling — establishing who the Article 27 forced heirs actually are on the family facts, what Article 28 gives them, and whether an Article 29 election can keep a specific asset intact.
• Lifetime instruments — advising on whether a transfer-and-distribution or lifetime-maintenance contract fits, obtaining the Article 1064(1) consents, and ensuring the Article 1065/1076 notarial procedure is performed and recorded.
• Reviewing instruments already signed — checking the notary's confirmation, the consents, and whether Article 1068(1) or Article 1077 has quietly made the arrangement something other than what the family believes it to be.
• Matrimonial property — marital contracts under Article 301, their registration, and the Article 289(2) presumption where a foreign agreement exists.
• Company interests — reading the statute against Article 379 so the business does not fragment on a death.
• Cross-border coordination — which law applies, which court has jurisdiction, and what a foreign will or grant does and does not achieve here.

We do not provide investment advice or manage assets. Where a figure or a rate is time-sensitive, we date it and say what would change it.

Related reading

The two lifetime contracts are set out in full in the two contracts that empty a Montenegrin estate. The cross-border estate position is in inheritance for foreign owners and succession planning for foreign assets. Where a company interest is involved, see what happens to a d.o.o. share on death. The matrimonial-property layer is in one name on the deed, two owners in law, and the transparency regime in Montenegro's PEP register.

Send us the family position, not just the asset list

If you hold assets in Montenegro and want them to pass the way you intend, send us the asset inventory, the family tree as it stands today, any instrument already signed, and the statute of any company involved. We will identify who the forced heirs are, what is already outside the estate and whether it is validly outside it, and what can still be decided in advance.