In practice, we see that many residents of Curaçao, the other islands of the former Netherlands Antilles, and Suriname do not have a will drawn up. As a result, the intestate succession law (statutory inheritance law) applies when someone passes away. The law then determines who your heirs are.
The law uses a tiered system of heirs (called ‘parenteles’), dividing heirs into four groups:
1️⃣ The spouse of the deceased (provided they were not legally separated) together with the children.
2️⃣ The parents of the deceased, together with their brothers and sisters.
3️⃣ The grandparents of the deceased.
4️⃣ The great-grandparents of the deceased.
The order is crucial: only when there are no heirs in the first group does the next group come into consideration, and so on. The law stipulates that the groups are called upon in sequence to inherit the estate.
In the first group, the heirs are the spouse of the deceased and their children. Note: this only concerns children for whom the deceased is the legal father (or mother). This is often where things go wrong. On Curaçao, there are many children who were never legally acknowledged by their father and therefore have no legal connection to him. Even if there was a good relationship or regular contact, this means nothing legally when the father dies: without a will, the child inherits nothing — at least, not automatically.
If the child had been acknowledged, they would automatically inherit. But without acknowledgment, the child may face a long and difficult legal battle, especially if the statutory heirs are unwilling to voluntarily share or transfer their inheritance.
So the question is: can you trust your statutory heirs to willingly hand over part of your estate to your unacknowledged children?
In short: who do you entrust with your estate?
As a lawyer, I witness daily how important it is to properly arrange your legal affairs — before it’s too late. Whether it concerns the acknowledgment of a child, the distribution of an inheritance, or other civil law matters. Feel free to get in touch — I’m happy to think along with you.
