Written for Mexico. This analysis applies to Mexican federal tax law — ISR (income tax), IVA (VAT) and SAT rules — and cites Mexican statutes. Amounts are in Mexican pesos (MXN).
When you sit down in front of the notary, the structural decision in your will isn't "who gets what" — it's which legal device you use to leave it: universal heirs (who receive your estate as a whole, in percentages) or legatees (who receive specific, identified assets). Choosing wrong, or mixing them without technique, is the number-one source of deadlocked estates among people who loved each other.
The universal heir: percentages of a whole
The universal heir succeeds the testator by universal title: they receive a share of the entire estate — assets, rights and debts (up to the limit of what the inheritance covers) — regardless of how it's composed on the day of death. "My three children in equal parts" works the same whether you left one house or twenty, whether you sold the company or bought another: the percentage adjusts on its own. It's the robust device: it doesn't lapse with changes in the estate, it leaves no gaps, it doesn't require inventorying today what you'll own tomorrow. Its cost: the heirs receive co-ownership of everything — and forced co-ownership among siblings over real estate and companies is the format in which more estates rot than any other (no one can sell, everyone must agree, one person can block it all). The universal heir puts title in order; it doesn't solve how things will run.
The bequest: a specific name on a specific asset
The legatee receives by particular title: "the San Pedro apartment to my daughter", "my watch collection to my brother", "MXN $2 million to my niece". Surgical precision — the right asset to the right person, with no unwanted co-ownership. Its three fragilities: (1) a bequest of a thing that no longer exists is extinguished — you sold that apartment while alive and your daughter is left with nothing and no substitute (active estates, which buy and sell, manufacture dead bequests constantly); (2) the supervening imbalance — the relative values of the bequeathed assets change over the years, and what was "equal" at signing becomes a grievance; (3) a will of pure bequests with no universal heir leaves the residue (everything not bequeathed: new accounts, the SAT refund, the forgotten asset) in partial intestate succession — the worst of both worlds: two proceedings instead of one.
The right architecture: combine them with technique
A well-made estate will uses both layers: specific bequests for what must land with a specific person (the business to whoever runs it, the house to whoever lives in it, personal pieces) — ideally with substitutions ("and if that asset no longer exists, its value out of the estate") — plus a naming of a universal heir as a safety net that captures the residue in percentages. Plus the pieces the will coordinates but doesn't contain: insurance and retirement-plan beneficiaries (who collect outside the estate — check they don't contradict the plan), the designation of an executor with sufficient powers and an alternate, guardians for minors, and — when the estate or the family warrants it — the fideicomiso (a Mexican trust) as an administration vehicle the will feeds into. The tax side, to close: inheriting is exempt from ISR for heirs and legatees (art. 93 — with its informational reporting on the annual return above certain thresholds, the formality that turns exemptions into problems when omitted), and the real costs are the succession proceeding (months and fees — testate is radically cheaper than intestate) and the notarial adjudication of real estate with its municipal ISAI depending on the locale. Making a will costs a few thousand pesos in September; not making one costs a lawsuit.
Does your will have architecture — or is it a wish list from eight years ago?
The will review covers the five layers: the right devices (universal heir / bequests / substitutions), coordination with insurance and plan beneficiaries, executor and guardians properly designated, the dead-bequest check (assets that no longer exist or have changed), and the trust yes/no decision depending on minors and complexity. It's reviewed after every major event: a child, a marriage, the sale of a company, a new property. One session every few years; the order of your family, forever.
Frequently asked questions
Does a legatee also answer for the deceased's debts?
The general rule charges debts to the estate (administered by the heirs and the executor) before bequests are handed over — the legatee receives the asset free and clear except for specific encumbrances on it (the mortgage on the bequeathed apartment follows the apartment, unless the will provides otherwise). That's why bequests are designed knowing what each asset carries hanging off it.
Can I disinherit or leave out a child in Mexico?
Mexico has broad testamentary freedom with one hard limit: the SUPPORT/MAINTENANCE claims (pensiones alimenticias) of those entitled to them (minors, incapacitated persons, and in certain cases the spouse and ascendants). Omitting them makes the will inofficious to that extent — it's reduced to cover them. Leaving out a self-sufficient adult child is legally possible and humanly delicate: if that's the plan, it's executed with technique (and with life insurance as a discreet equalizer, if the aim was something else).
Does a will made here cover my assets abroad?
It can reach them, but enforcement in each country follows its own rules — and for real estate the law of the place where the asset sits usually governs. Cross-border estates use wills coordinated by jurisdiction (or structures that avoid local probate, such as trusts and named beneficiaries). It's exactly the chapter where the 'simple' will stops being simple.
Open public will, closed, holographic — does it matter?
For 99% of cases: open public will before a notary, no debate — certainty, national registry (RENAT), impossible to lose. The other forms exist and almost only generate litigation over their validity. The sophistication isn't in the form of the will but in its content — and in the pieces that accompany it.
Let's talk about your case
The first step is always the same: an honest diagnostic of where you stand. Write to us on WhatsApp or call — same business-day response.