Is the child that provide care for parents entitled to larger inheritance in Vietnam?

Typically in Judgment 13/2018/DSPT dated April 27, 2018 on property inheritance disputes, according to which:

Hoang Van D, born in 1920, and Hoang Thi K (G), born in 1925, have 6 biological children: Hoang Van C, Hoang Thi B1, Hoang Van V, Hoang Thi B2 (B), Hoang Thi L and Hoang Thi M (including 2 sons, Mr. C, Mr. V and 4 daughters).

Since Mr. C and Mr. V got married, they only lived with their parents for a short time, then returned to their wife's hometown for more than 30 years. Mrs. B1 and Mrs. B2 have to shoulder all the big and small things in the house from the New Year's anniversary, filial piety, support, funeral, and sand for their parents. The sons are not responsible for anything. In the year that Mr. D died, Mrs. B1 handed over Mr. C and his wife the responsibility of the eldest child to take care of the afterlife for their father, but Mr and Mrs. C did not accept them. When Mr. G died, Mrs. B1 and her sisters also took care of everything.

The court found that Mrs. B1 and Mrs. B2 had merit in taking care of and supporting their parents from the time they reached the end of their working-age until their death, as well as having had the effort to manage and maintain the property left by their parents since the end of 2002 to present. Therefore, it is necessary to make deductions for Mrs. B1 and Mrs. B2 to each enjoy about 12 million VND for their efforts to take care of their parents/1 year from the time when Mr. year, equal to 240 million VND/person. And the effort to manage and maintain the property from 2002 to now is 16 years, 1,000,000 VND per year, equal to 16,000,000 VND. The total effort deducted for Ms. B1 and Ms. B2 is 496,000,000 VND, equivalent to 301m2 of land."

The judgment declared: The legacy of Mr. K left behind is 2 plots of land, according to the actual measurement of 697m2, worth 1,650,000 VND/m2, equal to 1,150,050,000 VND, minus the effort to take care of and nurture his parent and efforts to manage and maintain the assets of Mrs. B1 and Mrs. B2 is 496,000,000 VND, and 654,050,000 VND is the inheritance of Mr. D and Mr. K, which will be divided according to the law of inheritance for 6 children.

Currently, the law has provisions on efforts to contribute to the management and embellishment of inheritance in Precedent 05/2016/AL on the inheritance dispute. But there is no legal regulation on the issue of calculating the amount of money for the care and support of parents, which is usually considered by the Trial Panel based on the actual situation to consider whether or not.

Although in the Civil Code 2015 of Vietnam there are provisions on people who are not entitled to inheritance as follows:

Article 621. Persons not entitled to inherit

1. The following persons are not entitled to inherit:

a) Persons convicted of having intentionally caused the death of or harmed the health of the deceased, of having seriously mistreated or tortured the deceased, or of having harmed the honor or dignity of the deceased;

b) Persons having seriously breached their duty to support the deceased;

c) Persons convicted of having intentionally caused the death of another heir in order to obtain all or part of the entitlement of such other heir to the estate;

d) Persons deceiving, coercing or obstructing the deceased with respect to the making of the will, or forging, altering or destroying the will in order to obtain all or part of the estate contrary to the wishes of the deceased.

2. Persons provided in Clause 1 of this Article may, nevertheless, inherit the estate if the deceased was aware of such acts but, nevertheless, allowed them to inherit the estate under the will.

But if you want to conclude that a person is not entitled to an inheritance due to a violation of the obligation to take care of the person leaving the estate, it is very difficult. Because the Civil Code 2015 does not have many guiding documents and if you look for similar provisions in the 2005 Civil Code of Vietnam, there is no explanation and clarification from the legislature on what is a "serious violation of the obligation to nurture the person leaving the estate".

In my opinion, it is necessary to have precedent or legal regulations on this issue so that in cases similar to the above judgments, The trial panel has grounds to cite the settlement as well as to have fairness between the filial children and the unfilial children in the division of the inheritance.

The beneficiaries of the estate will receive from the estate leaver an amount called "expenses" to carry out the maintenance of the estate leaver. Although we know that taking care of and nurturing elderly parents comes from the filial piety of their children and grandchildren, if there is a guarantee of the rights of the law for caregivers, it will contribute to encouraging the next generation to take care of them, nurturing the previous generation, promoting the fine traditions of the Vietnamese nation.

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