The great new news and a little known 'secret' is that if you particularly favour one of your children you can now express your affection properly; as in inheritance-wise. Until recently Napoleonic Law (like how 200 years ago) dominated the scene and you were legally obliged to divvy your French property equally amongst all your progeny. No matter what they looked like.  And you even had to cough up the goodies to those children who would only get in contact again if they heard that you had eight and a half minutes to live. Outrageux.

So, here's what FR2DAY proposes you do.  You cleverly fake a terminable illness (gents, simply refer to your last bad dose of Man Flu) and then allow your least favourite / inheritance-sniffing child or children to wait on you hand and foot for 3 months; the exact time it takes for a Property Donation to become official. Et voilà.

The only technical snag in the plan is that your least favourite has to agree to you giving your multi-million euro villa to your favourite. A difficult but not impossible exercise. You can always threaten to sell and give the entire proceeds to some worthy furry-friend cause. Or your inheritance 'lotto winner' can always fib a little (a lot) and say that his siblings are always more than welcome to come on holiday whenever they want once they become owner.  Yeah right. Oh and bad news to all of you who enjoy living life on the never-never, your property must be owned freehold.

The legal cost of carrying out a Donation is very roughly a 12th of your property's fiscal value. But there's no inheritance tax or any other nasty monetary surprise to pay on succession.

Hey not that you'll care by then anyway what with...Anyway, a good notaire (Notary) can and will advise you in more detail than we can or would dare to. See Notaires de France for a clever notaire near you now.