Inheritance Laws and What it Means for You as An Italian American.

Look, lets start this off by saying I'm not a lawyer, nor do I claim to be one with Italian inheritance laws in my back pocket. But what many Italian Americans don't realize is that if indeed their direct family members whether they be parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents left Italy to come to America, more than likely there is property in their native home towns that once belonged to them and could possibly be yours too or part of yours. This is unless too much time has passed and another Italian immediate family member just assumed ownership. Again, this must be verified.

For many Italian Americans this idea is completely foreign to them because like many Italians who came here they left everything behind and signed it off to distant relatives. I have a friend of mine whose father came to America in the 50s like my father and had a lot of land in Italy. He owned the land with his siblings who stayed in Italy. The father never renounced his part when he came to America but never disclosed to his American kids about the property.

When her father passed away she and her sisters had no idea there was a large chunk of land that was partly theirs. They were approached by the Italian side for a buyout and they obliged. Now, unfortunately Italians (who might even be your family- well this could be anyone really)are known for being shrewd and trying to out scam the next guy, so if you don't stay on top of knowing these things about your family, then you might be out of luck and land.

This is a very complicated process because Italian laws are not always clear. So, if you're interested in knowing anything about this..I would start with basic questions to the closest living relatives who would know if you are or could be still in the rightful possession of inheritance property in Italy. You can start by reading up on this here:

http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Europe/Italy/Inheritance Tweet