Calculating the Disposable Portion of an Estate

Legal Article · 12 November 2026
Attorney Thomas Andreas Di Constantinople

The deceased’s disposable portion is the part remaining after reserved shares have been calculated. This first requires establishing the state of the estate on the date of death. Adding up only the visible assets is insufficient; the notional estate for calculation is formed using statutory deductions and additions.

Net Estate and Values to Be Added

Under TMK m. 507, the deceased’s debts, funeral expenses and the costs of sealing and inventorying the estate are deducted. The law also specifies three months’ maintenance expenses for persons who lived with and were supported by the deceased. Not every family expense can be added to these categories without limit.

Gratuitous lifetime benefits subject to reduction are added to the calculation under TMK m. 508. This does not mean that every expenditure made throughout the deceased’s life is automatically restored to the estate. The legal nature of the benefit and whether it is subject to reduction under TMK m. 565 must first be established. For life insurance, the law provides a special criterion relating to surrender value.

The heirs’ reserved shares are calculated against the notional estate, and the total protected portion is set aside. For example, where a spouse and two children inherit together, each person’s intestate share and the protected proportion of that share are applied separately. Date-of-death values used in this calculation must not be confused with subsequent restitution or valuation stages.

Source

Turkish Civil Code No. 4721, m. 505–509, 565.

This article has been prepared for general legal information purposes.