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SERVICES: PRIVATE CLIENTS
Succession / Inheritance
Our partnership has extensive expertise in succession planning. As tax advisors, auditors and attorneys at law work closely together in interdisciplinary teams, we are able to answer any economic, tax or legal question in connection with succession planning by in-house experts. In case of succession planning with reference to other countries, we consult our foreign cooperation partners, if necessary. Our membership in JHI (Jeffreys Henry International), an international network of tax advisors, auditors and attorneys at law, enables us to quickly and reliably answer your questions in connection with foreign legal systems. The core area of our work in connection with the law of succession and succession planning are the anticipatory succession planning in the private sector and in the sector of company succession as well as the implementation of the individual succession concepts developed together with our clients. We offer our clients a complete and tailor-made succession guidance and a number of ideas for their succession solutions. Thereby, we give our clients legal and tax advice on questions of anticipated succession by means of an asset transfer by way a lifetime gift as well as on the structuring of their personal testamentary disposition (last will and contract of inheritance). As an anticipatory succession plan also includes a legally and tax-optimized structuring of marriage contracts, our business activities also comprise consultancy services on the conclusion of such marriage contracts.
This topic is part of our tax and legal expertise. Nevertheless, we would like to mentioned it separately. Because it belongs more to it. To listen carefully, for example. We look for complete solutions that make everyone happy at the end. The entrepreneur as well as the successor – and his/her brothers and sisters. And above all, the company itself. Maybe not so much the tax authorities. But we can live with that. RP Richter & Partner is listed as one of the leading firms in Germany in JUVE-Handbuch 2006/2007. In the section private clients (succession-property-foundations), RP for example shares nationwide the eight place. Inheritance Optimizer Award: According to Spezial Report (special report) 2006 of the daily WELT and the Sunday paper WELT am SONNTAG “Die Elite der Erbschaftsoptimierer im deutschsprachigen Raum“ (“The elite of the inheritance optimizer in the German-speaking area“), RP belongs to the most recommendable addresses in the sector of inheritance optimizer that have been awarded with the golden pyramid. Foundations Award: According to Spezial Report (special report) 2005 of the daily WELT and the Sunday paper WELT am SONNTAG, RP belongs to the most recommendable addresses in the sector of foundations that have been rewarded with the golden pyramid. Succession Award: According to FUCHS Report of FUCHS Briefe July 2003, RP “is the captain of all classes” in the sector of anticipated succession.
The basis for an anticipatory private succession planning is an ideal structuring of your testamentary disposition. Our experts help you with the development of your private succession arrangements in coordination with your family situation. As also in the sector of private succession planning, the right structure may result in a considerable reduction of the inheritance and gift tax, our consultancy services in this connection include not only the legal but also the tax aspects of succession. Against this background it may be suitable to transfer assets already during your life to future heirs or legatees by using tax-free allowances, whereby the right structure may also meet your pension interests. In the course of increasing globalization, succession planning and cases of succession bear more and more often an international relation, be it for assets located abroad, foreign residences or foreign citizenship of the deceased. Our experts have moreover the expertise in international law of succession as well as international tax law, which is required in connection with the legal and tax advice of our clients in cases pertaining to foreign law and thus may give extensive advice in this areas.
If the case of succession has already occurred, we also represent our clients in the dispute between the potential co-heirs and the assertion of the claims to a compulsory portion or the legacy. We advise you with regard to the decision on the acceptance or disclaimer of the estate and support you in the amicable settlement of the estate as well as the assertion of your claims to the inheritance within the course of court proceedings.
Not only because of tax relief for foundations and founders have foundations become more appealing but also because of the possibility to combine the bundling of property with the sponsorship of a certain purpose that is close to the donor’s heart. There are many possibilities to include foundations and trusts into the succession planning. We help you with the establishment of a charitable (independent or dependent) foundation during your life or mortis causa, a family foundation or a limited partnership with a foundation as general partner (Stiftung & Co. KG) or a foreign trust. The establishment of a Doppelstiftung may be of special interest to the entrepreneur as he can thus combine the good with the useful. While he protects the company, takes care of his descendants and saves taxes, he can sponsor charitable purposes at the same time. Our experts for foundation law would be pleased to advise you on the selection of foundation structures that match your wishes and ideas.
An anticipatory succession planning starts already with the drafting of the marriage contract. Upon conclusion of the contractual system of marital property, in particular in case of structures that deviate from the statutory property regime of the community of accrued gains, the inheritance and gift tax-related consequences at the end of the property regime are often disregarded. Furthermore, new jurisdiction of Bundesgerichtshof, the Federal Supreme Court, with regard to the control of the contents of marriage contracts, gives reason to review existing marriage contracts for their validity. Our experts would be pleased to advice you on the drafting of a marriage contract which is coordinated with your individual needs as well as your life situation and planning. We also verify together with you to what extent the provisions of your existing marriage contract are still in accordance with your current standard of living or your current plans for your marital live and to what extent they are structured in a tax-optimized way. Our experts are moreover familiar with the aspects of international property rights and can thus give you extensive advice on the structuring of marriage contracts between spouses of different nationalities.
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