Short answer. No. Article 2035 makes future legitime one of the things on which no compromise is valid. An heir cannot sell, waive or settle his expected legitime while the person he would inherit from is still alive, because before that death there is no inheritance yet — only an expectancy the law refuses to let anyone trade.
What the law says
No compromise upon the following questions shall be valid
Civil Code, Article 2035 — What Can Never Be Compromised. Read the full provision →
What the law says
Future legitime
Civil Code, Article 2035 — What Can Never Be Compromised. Read the full provision →
You cannot compromise an inheritance that has not opened
Article 2035 provides that No compromise upon the following questions shall be valid, and the last item it lists is Future legitime. While the person whose estate is in prospect is still living, a prospective heir cannot validly compromise, waive or dispose of the legitime he hopes one day to receive. An agreement among children, say, dividing or renouncing shares in a parent's estate while the parent is alive is void as to that future legitime. The reason is basic: until the death, there is no estate to inherit — only an expectancy that may never mature as anyone imagines.
What a legitime is, and why "future" matters
The legitime is the portion of a deceased person's estate that the law reserves for compulsory heirs, which the deceased cannot freely give away to others. It becomes a concrete right only when the person dies and the succession opens. Before that moment it is future — an expectancy contingent on outliving the decedent, on what property is left, on debts, on later changes to the will or the family. The prohibition fastens on exactly that contingency: a right that does not yet exist cannot be the honest subject of a settlement, because no one can say what, if anything, it will turn out to be.
The policy behind the bar
The law is wary of bargains struck over a living person's estate. They invite pressure on vulnerable heirs to sign away shares cheaply, they set relatives to wagering on when someone will die, and they can distort the very freedom the owner has over his own property while he lives. Refusing to enforce compromises over future legitime removes the incentive to make them. It keeps the estate open and unencumbered by private deals until the death actually occurs and the true shares can be known, rather than fixed in advance by guesswork and leverage.
After the death, the rule changes
The prohibition is tied to the word future. Once the person has died and the succession opens, the legitime is no longer a mere expectancy — it is a present, vested share in an existing estate. From that point an heir may deal with it: he can waive it, assign it, or compromise a dispute about it like any other property right. So the timing is everything. The same renunciation that is void when signed during the decedent's lifetime may be perfectly valid when made after death, which is the distinction anyone tempted to settle an inheritance early needs to understand.