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Our Private Clients practice advises high net worth individuals and business owners on all legal and tax matters related to their private affairs. We act as a trustworthy partner, assisting you with all your asset and succession planning requirements.
Our Private Clients service is also targeted at banks, asset managers and family offices. We either advise them directly on wealth management issues or work with them to develop customised solutions on behalf of our longstanding clients.
Interdisciplinary and international – our Private Clients Team
Trust-based client relationships in the private clients market depend on outstanding expertise allied with the requisite tact and sensitivity when dealing with a clientele that expects the highest standards.
Accordingly, the Private Clients team at CMS Germany is made up of experienced experts covering corporate, tax, inheritance, family and real estate law. In addition to providing comprehensive advice, they also represent private clients in court proceedings and vis-à-vis government bodies.
Our Private Clients experts also apply their wide-ranging expertise in the international arena. The CMS Private Clients Specialty Group established by the international CMS organisation offers cross-border wealth management and succession planning for global companies, business-owning families and high net worth individuals.
Our skillset for private clients – as diverse as our client base
The high net worth individuals and businesses who instruct us have many different needs in relation to asset and succession planning. Examples of the advice provided by our Private Clients experts include:
WirtschaftsWoche Top-Kanzleien 2020; In Kooperation mit: Handelsblatt Research Institute
"Sources enthuse that CMS is "a powerhouse with the ability to handle complex matters" and that "they deal with some of Germany's richest clients." The firm can provide in-depth advice on all legal and tax matters for high net worth families. Its areas of expertise include family businesses and foundations, corporate succession and international wealth planning."
Chambers HNW, 2018
"The team in Stuttgart is particularly praised for its work. One legal insider reports: "They act for some very substantial high net worth clients in that region and are very good on succession law and litigation." Another wealth expert adds: "You know you can always rely on their lawyers to be precise and accurate in what they are doing.""
Chambers HNW, 2018
Nennung als Top Kanzlei für den Bereich Erbrecht
WirtschaftsWoche Top-Kanzleien 2020; In Kooperation mit: Handelsblatt Research Institute
"Sources enthuse that CMS is "a powerhouse with the ability to handle complex matters" and that "they deal with some of Germany's richest clients." The firm can provide in-depth advice on all legal and tax matters for high net worth families. Its areas of expertise include family businesses and foundations, corporate succession and international wealth planning."
Chambers HNW, 2018
"The team in Stuttgart is particularly praised for its work. One legal insider reports: "They act for some very substantial high net worth clients in that region and are very good on succession law and litigation." Another wealth expert adds: "You know you can always rely on their lawyers to be precise and accurate in what they are doing.""
Chambers HNW, 2018
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Asset Structuring
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.
Our Private Clients Team specialises in wealth and succession planning. We provide cross-disciplinary advice to private clients, entrepreneurial families, their advisers and family offices on any legal...
CMS Expert Guide to contingency planning with proxies
An accident or illness can make someone (temporarily) unable to act. Through the use of proxies, it is possible to not only protect the person affected. Relatives can be taken care of and enterprises...
CMS Germany starts new year with nine new partners
Berlin – Commercial law firm CMS Germany has appointed nine new partners as of the start of the new year. This will strengthen the partnership in the Employment, Restructuring & Insolvency, Dispute...
Apotal Group sells online pharmacy’s mail-order business and diabetes arm...
Stuttgart – Company founder Heinz-Peter Fichter and other shareholders have sold the mail-order business of online pharmacy Apotal and its diabetes division to the listed Zur Rose Group of Switzerland...
Germany offers short-term tax relief for companies during crisis
According to the BMF letter, taxpayers verifiably, directly and not insignificantly affected by the fall out of the coronavirus can apply for a deferral of taxes (Steuerstundung) already due or due by...
Our Private Clients Team specialises in wealth and succession planning. We provide cross-disciplinary advice to private clients, entrepreneurial families, their advisers and family offices on any legal...
New matrimonial property law: Need of adaptation and shaping possibilities
Far-reaching changes concerning matrimonial property rights for marriages and same-sex registered partnerships in Europe On 29 January 2019, two pivotal European Council Regulations dealing with property...
Safeguarding assets Collecting art satisfies the desire to create something lasting and preserve our cultural heritage. Such cultural and financial assets require corresponding protection. We provide...
CMS advises capiton on the Acquisition of a Majority Stake in Gemaco-Group
Berlin – capiton V GmbH & Co. Beteiligungs KG has entered into an agreement on the acquisition of a majority stake in Gemaco Group with the current majority shareholder Saffelberg Investments. Besides...
Museum of Fine Arts Bern wins Gurlitt case with aid of CMS: museum cleared...
Munich – Munich Higher Regional Court ruled on 15 December 2016 that Cornelius Gurlitt’s last will and testament is valid, following an appeal in the inheritance proceedings that have now lasted for...
Der Güterstand der Gesellschafter bei der Unternehmensnachfolge
Fehlende Güterstandsregelungen gefährden Unternehmen - erfahren Sie warum und lesen Sie, was Schutz bietet.
Familienunternehmen sind etwas Besonderes und etwas Wunderbares. In Familienhand und in erster...
Der Gesellschaftsvertrag – Fit für die nächste Generation?
Der Gesellschaftsvertrag ist die Magna Charta des Unternehmens. Er gibt die wesentlichen Regelungen des Gesellschaftsvertrages für alle Gesellschafter verbindlich vor. In Familienunternehmen ist der...
Rechtsanwalt | Fachanwalt für Erbrecht (Certified lawyer for inheritance law) | Co-Head of the CMS Private Clients Group | Head of Private Clients, CMS Germany
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