Estate and Succession Planning
Organization of assets, family governance and instruments for transferring wealth between generations.
Succession planning brings together family law, inheritance law, corporate law and tax rules. The structure must start from the composition of the estate, the marital property regime, the heirs and the objectives of management and transfer. Holding companies, gifts, wills and shareholders' agreements serve different purposes and are not interchangeable solutions. Legal limits, such as the protection of forced heirs, must be observed, as well as the rights of creditors and other third parties connected to the assets.
The advisory work involves comparing instruments, defining management rules and examining the tax and registration effects. A gift with reserved usufruct, for example, requires organizing property and voting rights in a manner compatible with the corporate documents. Assets held abroad and interests in regulated companies add jurisdictional and authorization issues of their own. The proposal must take into account maintenance costs and situations of incapacity, conflict or changes in the family, without assuming that a holding company eliminates probate, taxation or disputes.
Our work
- Comparison of holding companies, gifts and wills
- Management rules and family governance
- Analysis of the tax and corporate effects of the transfer
Does a holding company automatically eliminate probate and taxes?
No. Its effects depend on the ownership of the assets and interests, the instruments adopted and the applicable legislation. The structure also has its own costs and obligations.
Editorial review: