“A step forward to protect families”: inheritance bank fees now capped at 850 euros

Fees charged by banks for transactions on a deceased person's account will no longer be able to exceed 850 euros. The ceiling was set by a decree published Thursday in the Official Journal , following the passage of a law on the subject in May.

This text had already prohibited banks from applying fees from November 13, 2025 – for example, to close a savings account – if the deceased was a minor, if the total balance of the accounts was below a certain threshold (currently set at 5,910 euros), or in the case of the simplest inheritances.

For more "complex" estates, for example, when the deceased had a mortgage or no designated heir, the law had authorized fees to be charged. But the initial ceiling was set at 1% of the amount of the funds held. The decree published Thursday restricts this ceiling even further: in all cases, the fees cannot exceed 850 euros, even if 1% of the funds held exceeded this amount.

This limit will be reassessed annually to keep up with inflation .

This law, introduced by Socialist MP Christine Pirès Beaune and supported by the government, was adopted in May after a case that sparked outrage: parents had to pay 138 euros to close the Livret A savings account of their 8-year-old child who died in 2021.

At the time, the Minister Delegate for Trade and the Social and Solidarity Economy, Véronique Louwagie, welcomed "a step forward to protect families and ensure confidence in the banking system." She added: "The pain of the absence should not be compounded by excessive bank charges, which are often misunderstood and unclear."