The detailed advance planning of a transfer of assets to the next generation plays a major role in preserving assets and avoiding disputes. This particularly applies to corporate and business succession, but also to the transfer of private property.
We have many years’ experience (in some cases extending over generations) in advising family offices, private persons and entrepreneurs in all questions of property and business succession, including the use of trust solutions. We work together with tax advisers to achieve optimal fiscal conditions for the succession.
Our lawyers have comprehensive inheritance law know-how, which also extends to cross-border situations. For example we advise clients on the relocation of their registered business seat or private domicile to Germany or aboard, on the accompanying international private law issues and – in the event of an applicability of foreign law - closely cooperate with the lawyers in the relevant foreign jurisdiction.
Property succession can often be made easier by an appropriate structuring of the family assets in advance; for example by using companies or trusts. We inform our clients of the various structural options available, and advise them on the applicable regulations. Within the scope of finding the best solution for our clients, we ensure due regard is paid to the clients’ personal preferences and to the tradition of their enterprises.
In addition to the anticipatory creation of inheritance structures under the law of succession, we also counsel on the administration of estates. We advise and represent the successors, their companies and the executors of the estate both in and out of court. In the event of inheritance disputes, our clients benefit from our firm’s particular expertise in the area of litigation.
Finally, client have - for generations – relied on our firm’s expertise in the field of executorship. Our partners are regularly appointed as executors. Within the scope executing testaments, we make it our priority to act in accordance with the clients’ last wishes and in the best interests of their families.