Robert — a 64-year-old retired British architect who had lived in Bogotá's Usaquén neighborhood for eleven years — died intestate in March 2025. He owned a two-bedroom apartment he'd purchased in 2018 for COP 480 million, a car, and a bank account at Bancolombia with approximately COP 95 million. He had two adult children in the UK and had never made a Colombian will. His family spent fourteen months, two lawyers, a British consular certificate, and the equivalent of USD 18,000 in legal fees untangling the estate. His daughter told the consulate at the end of the process: "We had no idea Colombian law applied to everything he owned here. We assumed UK law would follow him." It doesn't. This is the foundational misunderstanding of inheritance law for foreigners in Colombia — and one that an afternoon with a notary and a bilingual will can prevent entirely.
Colombian inheritance law is governed by the Código Civil (Law 57 of 1887, as amended) and applies to all assets located on Colombian territory, regardless of the owner's nationality. A British, American, German, or any other foreign national who owns property, a bank account, a vehicle, or a company share in Colombia is subject to Colombian succession rules for those assets when they die.
all Colombian-located assets
forzosasforced shares — spouse
and children cannot be disinherited
vs. weeks with a valid will
approx. % of estate value
The Principle: Lex Situs — Colombian Law for Colombian Assets
Colombia applies the principle of lex situs (law of the place where the asset is situated) to immovable property. For real estate in Colombia, Colombian law governs regardless of where the deceased was domiciled. For movable assets (bank accounts, vehicles, company shares), Colombian private international law is more complex: if the deceased was domiciled in Colombia at death, Colombian law applies; if domiciled abroad, the deceased's national law may apply to movables under certain conditions — but this requires a formal legal process and Colombian courts will generally apply Colombian law unless the foreign law is positively proved. In practice: for any foreigner who has lived in Colombia for years and owns property here, Colombian succession law governs everything.
Forced Shares: Who Cannot Be Disinherited
Colombian law establishes asignaciones forzosas — forced shares of the estate that cannot be eliminated by will. These are: the legitimate portion (legítima rigorosa), which is one half of the estate divided equally among all children (including illegitimate children recognized under Colombian law); the marital supplement (cuarta conyugal), a supplementary portion for a surviving spouse or permanent partner who lacks sufficient means to maintain their standard of living; and children's improvement share (cuarta de mejoras). A Colombian-registered same-sex partner (under Sentencia SU-214/2016) has the same inheritance rights as a married spouse. A foreigner cannot write a Colombian will that disinherits their recognized children — the forced share will be enforced by Colombian courts regardless.
Dying Intestate in Colombia: The Process and Cost
If a foreigner dies in Colombia without a will, the estate passes through Colombian intestate succession rules (Libro III, Código Civil). The process involves: an inventario solemne (formal inventory of all assets by a notary), an inventario de bienes registered with the relevant public registries (Registro de Instrumentos Públicos for real estate, RUNT for vehicles), judicial or notarial liquidation proceedings, and distribution among heirs. For cross-border estates involving heirs abroad, apostilled documents and translations are required for every foreign document. The process typically takes 18–36 months and costs 10–25% of the estate in legal and notarial fees depending on complexity.
The Colombian Will: What It Costs and How It Works
A Colombian will (testamento abierto ante notario) is executed before a notary, signed by the testator and two witnesses, and registered in the national notarial register. A bilingual (Spanish/English) will is legally valid as long as the operative text is in Spanish. Notarial fees for a will are modest — typically COP 300,000–600,000 (USD 72–145) plus the notary's professional fee. The key decisions to make: how to distribute the free portion (the half not reserved by forced shares) among beneficiaries; whether to leave specific Colombian assets to specific heirs; and whether to name an executor (albacea). A will that aligns with Colombian forced share rules will be executed smoothly by a notary; one that conflicts will be challenged in court.
Property Owned by a Foreign Company vs. Personally
Some foreigners hold Colombian real estate through a Colombian SAS company rather than in their own name. In this structure, what the individual owns is a share in the SAS, not the real estate directly. Upon death, the SAS shares pass through inheritance — but because shares are movable assets, the rules are more flexible than for real estate. However, the SAS must have an up-to-date libro de accionistas (shareholder register) and the individual's shares must be documented correctly, or the same inventory and liquidation process applies. Holding property through a corporate structure does not automatically simplify inheritance — it changes it.