Short answer. Generally no. Under Article 1063 of the Civil Code, property left by will is not subject to collation unless the testator expressly required it. The one firm limit is that the legitime of every compulsory heir must always remain unimpaired, regardless of what the will says.
What the law says
Property left by will is not deemed subject to collation, if the testator has not otherwise provided, but the legitime shall in any case remain unimpaired.
Civil Code, Article 1063 — Property Left by Will. Read the full provision →
Collation and why it comes up in estate settlements
When a parent dies, compulsory heirs are entitled to their respective shares. Collation is the process of adding back to the estate — on paper — gifts and advances the decedent made during their lifetime, so that shares can be computed fairly. Without collation, one child who received a house during the parent's lifetime might end up with far more than siblings who did not. The question here is whether a bequest in a will — property left through a formal testamentary disposition — is treated the same way.
The default rule under Article 1063
The Civil Code answers clearly: property left by will is not subject to collation, unless the testator said otherwise. A testamentary bequest is presumed to be a separate expression of the parent's wishes — not an advance on the recipient's share that must be accounted for alongside lifetime gifts. This makes sense: the testator had the opportunity to address distribution in the will itself, and the law respects that choice without forcing the heir to surrender the advantage.
When the testator can reverse the default
The testator retains the power to require collation. If the will expressly states that the bequest must be brought into the accounting, the heir cannot refuse. Equally, the will might give the heir more than the default share while expressly excluding collation — that too is honored. What the testator cannot do is instruct the estate in a way that impairs the legitime of another compulsory heir. That protection is absolute: "the legitime shall in any case remain unimpaired."
The hard limit: the legitime cannot be touched
No testamentary provision, however clearly worded, can reduce a compulsory heir's legitime below the minimum the Civil Code guarantees. If the combination of lifetime gifts and testamentary bequests leaves another heir with less than their mandatory share, the excess disposition is subject to reduction. Collation of the will's bequest becomes relevant precisely to compute whether that minimum has been breached. The heir who received property by will may find that the exemption from collation has limits when other heirs' legitimes are at stake.