Contribution Share and Special Benefits

Supporting one's parents is also a legal duty for children, so courts recognize a contribution share (기여분) only for special support that goes beyond that duty. Under case law, it must be shown that the heir specially supported the deceased, or specially contributed to maintaining or increasing their property, to a degree that requires adjusting the shares for fairness among the co-heirs.

Circumstances that make recognition more likely include living together for a long time and providing care personally without a hired caregiver, paying a substantial part of hospital and living costs, other siblings being barely involved, working unpaid in the parents' business for a long time, and protecting the property by paying off loans on their behalf. Holiday visits, occasional pocket money or a few days of hospital care are precious as filial devotion, but they are hard to have recognized as a contribution share.

The caregiving period can be shown through resident registration history, guardian signatures on inpatient and outpatient records, and records of long-term care services. For costs, the most reliable evidence is transfers from your account to hospitals or care homes and card payment records. If you paid in cash, gather at least the receipts and messages from that time.

Contributions that increased the property are documented with the money paid toward buying real estate, the principal and interest of loans repaid on the parent's behalf, and work records for the period of unpaid work. Note also that if there is no agreement, a contribution share must be claimed together with an adjudication on division of the estate, and it cannot be claimed separately in a forced heirship share lawsuit.

Not every lifetime gift is a special benefit (특별수익). Under case law, the question is whether, considering the deceased's assets, income, standard of living and family situation, the gift can be seen as giving a future heir part of the estate in advance. Funds to buy a home, business funds and large wedding costs are often treated as special benefits, while ordinary support for tuition or living costs is often excluded.

Special benefits are added back to the estate for the calculation and then subtracted from the recipient's share. So if your brother received a lot during your parent's lifetime, he may have little or no share of the remaining estate. You need to show the transfer records at the time of the gift, the cause of registration and the size of your parent's assets at that time.

The Civil Act amended on March 17, 2026 added a proviso to Article 1008: if a gift or bequest was made as compensation for specially supporting the deceased or specially contributing to maintaining or increasing their property, it is not treated as a special benefit to the extent that matches the contribution. This rule also applies to inheritances that began on or after April 25, 2024.

In the past, even if you received a house in return for caring for a parent, it was hard to argue back when other siblings called it a special benefit and demanded a deduction. Now, if you prove that the gift was compensation, that portion is not counted as a share received in advance, and the same principle applies to the forced heirship share calculation. Keeping records of the support and of how the gift came about has become important.