Does a Certificate of Inheritance Show the Deceased’s Assets?

Estate and Heirship

Prepared by: Constantinople

No. A certificate of inheritance, also called a certificate of heirship, identifies who inherits and in what shares. It is not an asset report listing all the deceased’s properties, bank accounts, company shares or debts. After obtaining it, the estate’s rights and obligations must be investigated separately.

For example, four heirs appearing in the certificate does not mean each can immediately sell a particular apartment separately. Current title records, the community of heirs, any attachments or mortgages and the intended transaction must be assessed separately. An inheritance share in the certificate and authority to transact over a particular property are different matters.

Review of the certificate includes checking death and population records, earlier marriages, descendants of predeceased heirs and any will together. Its invalidity may be asserted; issuance does not mean its shares are beyond challenge in every circumstance. With a foreign element, the applicable law and route of application are also important.

We do not treat obtaining the certificate as the final step. We seek consistency first between heirship and shares, then asset records and the intended transaction. Explain what you want to do with the certificate: registration of inheritance, banking, sale and litigation may require different additional documents. This distinction prevents repeated incomplete applications and separate procedures being mistaken for the same thing.