Successful entrepreneurs and business professionals frequently seek to safeguard for their children and future generations what they have built up during their lifetime. However, such desires can create complex questions regarding how wealth should be transferred, what taxes and legal pitfalls should be considered and when such a transfer should take place. Business succession planning is another matter that needs to be considered with expert counsel. Determining whether the business should be kept in the family or if the entrepreneur’s business partners should take a more prominent role is a key question.

There are complex legal considerations in all these matters. Clear planning is necessary to avoid potentially damaging disputes that may tarnish a legacy. In these situations, there are no standard solutions, and instead, thorough analysis and careful consideration are taken to find answers tailored to our clients’ needs. At Schlun & Elseven Rechtsanwälte, we have built up extensive experience in succession planning and other inheritance law issues. Our team will provide answers that consider important personal questions but also issues around tax law, corporate structures and inheritance law.

Our family office team provides insightful recommendations regarding investments. When building a client’s profile, we acknowledge that each client has unique investment objectives and requirements. Therefore, our firm provides solutions customised to their needs based on important factors, such as their growth expectations, what they value and the risk involved with the investments.

We use our knowledge of different areas of investment, the legal landscape involved in such investments and ensuring that the bureaucracy involved in such investments is carried out accordingly. When dealing with the specific characteristics of clients through their family office, our lawyers can advise them regarding diversifying their assets and suitable investment paths.

Our lawyers take the issue of governing a family office seriously, and place great time into implementing a suitable governance system. Such a system will create a clear structure for family assets, and will ensure that we can analyse where improvements should be made.

Organising this governance system will be done in a collaborative manner with our clients. However, governance of a family office needs to be managed on an ongoing basis, as the goals and needs of family may change over time and legal developments may impact the system. Our team is widely experienced at ensuring legal compliance, and in dealing with matters relating to tax regulations.

Our family office team understand the importance of ensuring a proper risk mitigation framework is in place. At Schlun & Elseven Rechtsanwälte, our team is ready to discuss a holistic, multi-step risk management approach with our clients. We seek to accomplish this by working with clients to define long-term goals based on the family’s views, collective voice and ethos. Once we are aware of the long-term goals, we will outline the risks involved in these targets. Certainly, some risks are foreseeable and generally apply, other risks may be specific to the family and their goals.

Upon identifying the risk, we can work together to establish a risk hierarchy based upon each risk’s probability and potential impact. By identifying such risks, we can create the risk mitigation plan, so that we are aware of how to react should that risk happen. By utilising resources to prepare for the risk and continuously monitoring the situation, our team is ready. For our family office clients, our team is prepared for open communication whereby their priorities are central to proceedings.