Louisiana Estate Planning FAQ

In Louisiana, the court process that transfers a deceased person’s property to the people who inherit it is called a succession, not probate, the term most other states use. A succession is testate when the person left a will and intestate when they did not, and it ends with a judgment of possession that puts the heirs or legatees in possession of the property. Property that passes by beneficiary designation, such as a retirement account or a life insurance policy, generally does not go through it. Todd M. Villarrubia, Board Certified in Estate Planning & Administration by the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization, has 30 years of experience planning Louisiana estates.

Not the way other states do it. Louisiana is a community property state and does not recognize the common-law forms of ownership that pass property automatically to a surviving spouse. In Louisiana, property owned together is either community property or owned in indivision, Louisiana’s term for co-ownership, and neither passes automatically at death. That is why a will or a trust matters: without one, keeping jointly owned property out of a succession takes deliberate planning, not just the way the title is worded. Todd M. Villarrubia plans how spouses hold property around Louisiana’s community property rules, not another state’s titling shortcuts.

A will, called a testament in Louisiana law, is the document that says who receives your property at your death. Louisiana recognizes two forms. A notarial testament is in writing, dated, and signed by you before a notary public and two witnesses, and each witness and the notary sign as well. An olographic testament is written entirely in your own handwriting, dated, and signed by you. Louisiana simplified the formal requirements for both forms effective August 1, 2025, but a will that misses a requirement can still be invalid. A will does not avoid a succession, and it cannot fully disinherit a forced heir: a child who is 23 or younger, or who is permanently unable to care for themselves or manage their affairs, is entitled to a forced portion of up to one-fourth of the estate for one forced heir, or up to one-half divided among two or more, unless there is just cause for disinheritance. Todd M. Villarrubia can review whether your existing will meets Louisiana’s requirements.

A living will, also called an advance medical directive, states your wishes about life-sustaining treatment, such as ventilators, artificial nutrition and hydration, and CPR, if you have a terminal and irreversible condition or are in a permanent coma and cannot communicate. It takes effect after two physicians, one of them your attending physician, certify the condition. It is separate from your will: a will governs your property after death, and a living will governs your medical treatment while you are alive. Louisiana law calls it a declaration, governed by La. R.S. 40:1151.1 and following, and it must be signed before two competent adult witnesses who are not related to you by blood or marriage and are not entitled to any part of your estate. Todd M. Villarrubia includes a living will in a complete Louisiana plan alongside a health care mandate, the Louisiana form of a power of attorney.

If you die without a will, you die intestate, and the Louisiana Civil Code decides who inherits instead of you. The order depends on whether the property is community or separate and on who survives you. When you leave a spouse and children, your children inherit your separate property and your share of the community property, but the surviving spouse has a usufruct, a right to use your share of the community property, which ends when the spouse dies or remarries. A will lets you choose a different arrangement, within the limits of forced heirship. Todd M. Villarrubia can walk you through what the statute would do with your family and your property.

A beneficiary designation names who receives an asset when you die, and it controls that asset whatever your will says. Retirement accounts such as IRAs and 401(k)s, life insurance policies and annuities generally pass this way and generally avoid the succession process. Because the designation overrides the will, a will can say one thing and an account another, so designations need to be reviewed after a marriage, divorce, birth or death in the family. A non-spouse who inherits an IRA generally has to empty it within ten years, and withdrawals from a traditional IRA are taxed as income. Todd M. Villarrubia coordinates beneficiary designations with the rest of a Louisiana plan so the documents do not contradict each other.

Louisiana law calls this document a mandate (Civil Code arts. 2985 to 3032). You name an agent, called a mandatary, to make financial or health care decisions for you, and depending on how the document is written, the authority can be broad or limited and can take effect immediately or only if you are incapacitated. A mandate generally does not have to be in any particular form, but when the law requires a form for the act it authorizes, such as selling immovable property, the mandate must be in that form. A mandate ends at your death, when the succession process takes over. Without one, your family may have to ask a court for interdiction to get authority to act for you. Todd M. Villarrubia prepares mandates that spell out who acts, for what, and when.

A revocable living trust is created under the Louisiana Trust Code (La. R.S. 9:1721 and following), by authentic act or by an act under private signature signed before two witnesses and acknowledged by the settlor. It has three roles: the settlor, who creates the trust, the trustee, who manages the assets, and the beneficiaries. You can keep the right to revoke it and, while it is revocable, be a beneficiary yourself. A trust does nothing for assets that were never transferred into it. In Louisiana, assets are placed in a trust in the form required for a donation, generally by authentic act, and real estate requires recording in the parish conveyance records. Putting property in a trust does not change whether it is community or separate, and a trust does not override forced heirship. Todd M. Villarrubia can review whether an existing trust actually holds the assets it was meant to hold.

A revocable trust is worth considering if you own titled assets such as real estate and want a successor trustee to manage them if you become incapacitated, want the terms of your plan kept out of the public succession record, or want to control when and how beneficiaries, such as minor children, receive property. Whether it is worth its cost depends on what you own, how it is titled, and who your heirs are, including whether any are forced heirs. Some families are well served by a will-based plan and others by a trust. Todd M. Villarrubia compares both against your own situation before recommending either.

First, start with your own plan, before anything you inherited is retitled, distributed or spent. Property you inherit is your separate property under Louisiana law, even if you are married, but it can lose that status in practice. Inherited funds deposited into a joint account can be treated as community property unless you can trace them, and the income from separate property, such as distributions from an inherited business interest, is community property unless you reserve it as separate by a written declaration. Keep inherited assets titled and accounted for separately, and ask a lawyer whether to sign a declaration.

Second, have the business interest valued as of the date of the original owner’s death. Inherited assets generally receive a new tax basis equal to that value, so the valuation and its records matter if you sell any part of the interest later.

Third, if the business has other owners, find out who controls the company and whether a buy-sell agreement already covers your interest. Federal estate tax applies only above $15 million per person in 2026, adjusted for inflation each year after that, so at this size the taxes that reach you are more likely to be income tax and capital gains tax than estate tax, and an inherited IRA or 401(k) gets no step-up in basis. Todd M. Villarrubia reviews the tax exposure, the business interest and your own plan together.