Law of inheritance and law on foundations

This legal discipline will gain in importance for years to come. Assets that change hands in the next 10 to 20 years from one generation to the next are incredibly high.

In many cases this process is going on much unstructured and more or less by chance.

It is my job to remind my clientele of the requirement of orderly succession. It is not only about e.g. big corporate property, but also a detached house should change hands from one generation to the next, for example, by means of last will and testament or a contract of inheritance.

The law on foundations becomes more important as well, particularly as after the amendment the founder can combine idealistic goals with tax benefits.

Foundations make sense, when for example there are no successors and a certain purpose means a lot to the founder. It is not urgent here, whether the assets transferred by the founder are especially great. Smaller assets can be created e.g. as dependent foundations and be administered by bigger ones on payment of a small fee.

In addition, foundations can play an important part as far as a company is concerned, when e.g. the lifework shall survive, the last one shall co-support the family too, whereas also an idealistic goal can be simultaneously pursued.

There are numerous design alternatives of foundations. Address me on that score.