Family Business Owners

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.

CMS Germany – assisting and supporting family business owners

CMS Germany has been advising family business owners for decades on all matters related to commercial law, tax law and inheritance law. Family-controlled and family-managed firms value our role as a reliable partner who provides advice on the company's strategic direction both within Germany and internationally, assists with operational aspects of the business and helps to plan the transition to the next generation.

We tailor our services to the client's specific needs. The experts from our Private Clients practice support family business owners via interdisciplinary teams that comprise corporate law experts, employment lawyers and specialists on tax, family and inheritance law. Our lawyers acquaint themselves fully with the client's business, allowing them to respond appropriately at all times.

Our services for family business owners

Our lawyers and tax advisors help family business owners to successfully address the many challenges posed by today’s markets. Our input commences with the development of a strategy for aligning business interests and family well-being. This includes selecting the management team for the business and the asset managers, for example, or the decision to establish a family office. Ongoing monitoring of business strategy and the family constitution is also part and parcel of our work.

In close consultation with the family business owner, we assess asset management risks, provide support for investment projects and transactions, and develop strategies for corporate succession.

Our services for family business owners include:

• Legal and tax advice on asset planning and structuring
• Assistance with corporate transactions and the legal aspects of financing
• Estate planning, estate administration and management
• Foundations and trusts
• Tax planning, assistance with complex tax issues and criminal tax proceedings
• Family constitutions, organisation of family meetings
• Advising family offices, banks and asset managers
• Contingency planning for the family
• Advising family business owners on private matters, including marriage contracts, change of domicile, naturalisation and denaturalisation
• Litigation, arbitration and alternative dispute resolution

Family business owners outside Germany

We also advise families and family-owned companies with substantial assets on their business interests in other countries. Tight integration of our experts into the CMS Private Clients Specialty Group established by the international CMS organisation enables us to provide excellent cross-border advice covering all key areas and to represent our clients as required.