Last will and testament

In ordinary circumstances, your last will can be drawn up in the form of a private or public last will. In exceptional circumstances, you can state your last will before two witnesses

The last will is an expression of the deceased’s last wishes as to how they want to dispose of their assets after their death. As a testator, you are authorised to dispose of everything in your last will that you are authorised to dispose of while alive, with the restrictions imposed by legal provisions on compulsory succession of your family members. For more information on the compulsory share and orders of succession, please read the section on Succession.

Any person who has reached the age of 16 and has the capacity to make decisions can make a last will. If these requirements have not been met, the last will is null and void.

Ordinary last will

A last will is only valid if it has been made in the form prescribed by law and in compliance with the legal requirements. A last will can be made in the form of a public or private last will, both of which fall under the category of an ordinary last will. In exceptional circumstances, you can state your last will before two witnesses.

Private last will

A last will written in one’s own hand and a last will written before witnesses fall under the category of a private last will. A last will written in one’s own hand is the last will you wrote and signed in your own hand. You can make a last will written before witnesses, irrelevant of who drew up the document, by stating before two simultaneously present witnesses that the document is your last will and signing it in front of them. Witnesses must sign the last will document.

Public last will

A public last will is the last will made with participation of public authorities. Anyone can make a public last will. In ordinary circumstances, a person who cannot or is unable to read or write or affix signatures may only make a public last will.

At your request, a public last will may be drawn up by a legally authorised person: a municipal court judge, court advisor at a municipal court, notary public, or a consul or a diplomatic representative of the Republic of Croatia abroad.

Exceptional circumstances

In exceptional circumstances, the last will may be made orally. Only in exceptional circumstances, due to which you are unable to make your last will in other valid form, you may state your last will orally before two simultaneously present witnesses. Such last will expires after 30 days from the cessation of the exceptional circumstances in which it was made.
 

Revocation of the last will

The last will may be revoked, fully or in part, in several ways:

• Statement made in any form in which the last will may be made under the law
• By destroying the document
• By making a new last will
• By subsequent deliberate disposal of the asset or right you left to someone in your last will.

The disposition in favour of your marital spouse in your last will shall be considered revoked if the marriage is terminated by way of a final judgment after the last will is made, unless you as the testator determine otherwise in your last will.
 

Safekeeping of the last will

Irrelevant of its form, you can keep your last will yourself or have it kept safe by another natural or legal person. If you want entrust a court, notary public or a consul or a diplomatic representative of the Republic of Croatia abroad with the safekeeping of your last will, these persons are obliged to accept it and immediately notify the Croatian Register of Wills of this.

The Croatian Register of Wills is a public register and the information from the register may not be made available to anyone but the testator or the person authorised by them before the testator’s death. The fact that a last will was made, stored and formalised registered in the Croatian Register of Wills, which is kept by the Croatian Notaries Chamber. At the testator’s request, the information on these facts is delivered by competent courts, notaries public, attorney-at-law and persons who drew up the last will to the Register.

The fact that a last will was not registered in the Croatian Register of Wills or specially stored somewhere does not have any effect on its validity.