Private Clients

Families typically have a strong interest in safeguarding family assets and keeping them intact down the generations. At the same time, alternative family structures and the global spread of families due to international careers and lifestyles make it increasingly difficult to retain family assets at a single location. Forward-looking asset structuring and ongoing asset monitoring are becoming more and more important in such scenarios.

In the middle of an active, busy (working) life, many families and business owners are reluctant to even consider the possibility of an accident or illness. As a result, contingency planning tends to be neglected. When something does happen, it often turns out there is no general power of attorney or enduring power of attorney for care or healthcare in place, and nobody thought of a living will or final will.

One of the biggest challenges currently facing family firms is maintaining the family's wealth and securing the continued existence of the business. The experts in our Private Clients practice have been successfully advising business owners for decades on corporate succession planning and implementation.

Family business owners face special responsibilities, and often feel a particularly strong sense of commitment to the company and its employees. Continuing the traditions of a family-owned company down the generations while adapting it to the challenges of new technologies and markets represents a formidable challenge for family business owners.

Family-owned businesses may decide to establish a foundation for a variety of reasons. The objective might be to safeguard family assets beyond the outgoing generation, to prevent the business from being split up in the event of divorce or death, or to prevent creditors from accessing the assets. In many cases, there are also income tax or inheritance tax reasons for establishing a family foundation or non-profit foundation.

With a view to safeguarding the achievement of many decades and building on that success, family businesses are increasingly turning to professional asset planning and administration via a family office. A family office takes care of asset allocation and management, thereby relieving the family-owned business or wealth owner of many routine tasks.

Unlike contingency planning, succession planning deals with the long-term transfer of assets. Families and family business owners are faced with the question as to whether the legal order of succession should apply or whether they wish to make arrangements for the estate during the person's lifetime.