How much of my late spouse’s estate am I entitled to in Malta?

As a surviving spouse under the Civil Code, Chapter 16 of the Laws of Malta, you are entitled to a legally protected reserved portion, generally one-quarter of the value of the estate in full ownership where the deceased is survived by children or other descendants, which is a separate entitlement from your rights as a co-owner of any community of acquests property you and your spouse held jointly during the marriage, meaning your total position needs to properly account for both these community property rights and your separate spousal inheritance entitlement. You are also generally entitled to a right of habitation over the principal matrimonial home, allowing you to continue living there, which exists independently of the general reserved portion calculation. Your children, meanwhile, are collectively entitled to their own reserved portion, generally one-third of the estate's value where there are four or fewer children, divided equally among them, meaning the overall estate needs to be properly assessed to account for the community of acquests division first, then your spousal reserved portion, and then the children's reserved portion, which can become a genuinely complex calculation, so having a lawyer or notary properly calculate these interacting entitlements based on the actual value and composition of the estate would be important.