Inheritance share and reserved share calculator

How it is calculated

• Order of heirs. If an earlier group has an heir, later groups inherit nothing: first descendants (children, equal shares), then, if there are none, the mother and father (equal shares), then the grandparents (Civil Code (Türk Medeni Kanunu, TMK) arts 495-497). A child, mother or father who died first is replaced by their own descendants in every degree (arts 495/2, 496/2).
• One parental side empty. If the mother or father has died leaving no descendants, the whole estate goes to the other side (art. 496/3).
• The surviving spouse’s share depends on the group the spouse inherits with: one quarter with descendants, one half with the parents’ group, three quarters with the grandparents and their children, and the whole estate if none of them exists (art. 499). What remains after the spouse’s share is divided within the group.
• The reserved share is a fraction of the legal share (art. 506): half of it for each descendant, a quarter for each parent, and for the spouse the whole legal share when inheriting with descendants or the parents’ group, otherwise three quarters. Brothers and sisters have none; that rule was repealed in 2007.
• The disposable part is what remains after the reserved shares; the deceased could dispose of it by will. If there is no heir with a reserved share, the whole estate can be disposed of (art. 505).
• A full brother or sister takes from the shares of both parents, a half-sibling only from the share of their own side. The calculator divides each side’s share equally between that side’s heirs; the text of the Code does not spell this division out.

Example

A married person dies leaving a spouse and two children. The spouse inherits with descendants, so the share is 1/4; the other 3/4 is divided between the children, 3/8 each. The spouse’s reserved share is the whole 1/4, each child’s is half of 3/8, which is 3/16. The reserved shares together are 1/4 + 3/16 + 3/16 = 5/8, so the disposable part is 1 − 5/8 = 3/8.

What it leaves out

• Adopted children and the adopter’s heirs (art. 500).
• Disinheritance (arts 510-513), unworthiness to inherit (arts 578-579) and renunciation of the inheritance (art. 605 onwards). These change who the heirs are; the calculator treats the people you enter as heirs.
• The division inside the grandparents’ group (art. 497): the calculator shows only the spouse’s share against that group and the spouse’s reserved share.
• Second and later generations among the descendants of a child who died first: one generation is divided equally.
• The State as heir (art. 501).
• The value of the estate: debts and funeral costs (art. 507) and lifetime gifts (art. 508) change the estate on which the disposable part is calculated. The result is proportions, not amounts.
• Wills and inheritance contracts: the reserved share is only the limit on freedom of disposition, not a share given to the heir.