Most investors in France are aware of the concept of the hereditary reserve whereby a certain percentage of a person’s assets are vested in the children on death by operation of law. This can cause difficulties where one parent has remarried and wants to ensure that the surviving spouse will have peaceful enjoyment of the residence in France. Different techniques can be used to try to improve the situation of the surviving spouse and to limit tax exposure: e.g. drafting a will for assets in France, setting up a property holding company, entering into a marriage contract in France, building a “tontine” clause into the purchase deed, etc. No solution is perfect and each case must be carefully analysed in order to determine the technique the best adapted to the case in question.