My spouse and I in Malta are legally separated, though not yet divorced, and given how our relationship has broken down, I’d like to know whether I can exclude them from inheriting from my estate through my will, or whether their spousal inheritance rights continue regardless of our separation.
Whether your spouse retains their forced heirship rights, including the reserved portion generally due to a surviving spouse under the Civil Code, Chapter 16 of the Laws of Malta, can depend significantly on the specific circumstances and legal basis of your separation, since Maltese law does recognise certain circumstances, particularly where the separation was granted on specific grounds such as one spouse's fault or excesses under Article 38 and related provisions, that can affect a spouse's succession rights, though a legal separation alone, without more specific circumstances or a formal court finding on fault, does not automatically and completely extinguish a spouse's standard forced heirship entitlement in every case. Because whether and to what extent your spouse's inheritance rights have actually been affected by your specific separation depends heavily on the particular grounds and terms of your separation, including anything specifically addressed in your separation agreement or court decree, this is not something that can be answered with a general rule applicable to every separated couple. Given both the complexity of this specific area and how significant the outcome is for your estate planning, it would be important to have a lawyer review the specific terms and grounds of your separation to properly advise on whether, and to what extent, you have flexibility regarding your spouse's inheritance in your will.
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