As is well known, under Italian law, a certain share of the inheritance (legitimate or reserved share) is reserved by law for the so-called legitimate heirs (i.e., spouse and children, and, subordinately, parents).
The reserved share is calculated based on the estate’s assets, which in turn consist of the residual assets at the date of death and any gifts made by the deceased.
If these shares are violated by wills or gifts made during one’s lifetime, the affected heir can request a reduction of the will, and therefore also of the gifts, in order to restore their reserved share.
Until now, however, the injured heir could also appeal to the third-party purchaser of the donated property to restore their share, in the event of insufficient means of the donee, if the donation was made less than 20 years earlier.
Following a recent legislative change, this is no longer possible, so buyers of donated properties are now protected from potential attacks by injured forced heirs. This naturally entails less protection for legitimate heirs, who can only resort to the assets of the donee.