Estate planning
Our Estate Planning team advises entrepreneurs and individuals in structuring and planning their assets. Aspects on which we regularly advise include: business succession and family charters, inheritance and gift taxation, income tax, structuring (investment) assets, real estate, charities, family foundations/trusts, etc.
Our focus in this regard is on family entrepreneurs. A large majority of Belgian companies have a family character.
Our team has built up unique expertise in assisting these family businesses. Our advice pertains to the current situation of the company, optimising its structure, and the possible family succession. Always with a focus on the continuity of the family business.
We also advise wealthy individuals on how to structure their private assets. This often involves complex situations including cross-border succession planning, international real estate structuring, emigration or immigration, optimisation of foreign assets (trust, fiduciary, foundations, dedicated funds, etc.), structuring of private collections (works of art, classic cars, etc.), specific wealth planning for a foster child, preventive measures to protect assets in the event of dementia, etc.
The main priority of asset planning is often to limit taxes. However, asset planning is much more than that. Attention to taxation is clearly necessary, but even more important is the family's peace of mind and the continuity of your business.
Good planning starts with cataloguing your assets and analysing your current situation. Based on this balance sheet, the following questions are examined together:
How are my assets distributed? To whom will they accrue, and how can I adapt this?
How can I protect certain heirs and my partner?
How can I transfer my assets while retaining income and control?
What is the tax burden and how can we limit it?
Your personal asset planning is always tailor-made, taking into account your current situation, the scale and composition of your assets, and your objectives in both the short and long term. However, planning everything in one go is unrealistic. Moreover, your vision and your assets will evolve over time, so it is advisable to make a regular evaluation. Asset planning starts from a snapshot, but it is dynamic and needs to be monitored and finetuned where necessary.
Estate planning does not necessarily have to lead to complex constructions. Our advice is easy to understand, and targeted. Advice that serves you and your family, and that can be implemented in practice.
We advise in both relatively simple cases and in setting up more complex structures, to ensure the transfer of assets goes hand in hand with a certain level of permanent control over the management of these assets. The structuring of assets is a delicate balancing act between protecting private interests and reducing the tax burden when assets are transferred.
What makes us different?
We follow up on your estate planning and finetune it where necessary.
Effective estate planning also actually needs to be implemented. It needs to be checked whether a donation has indeed been transferred to the register of shares or parts, or transferred to another bank account. We also follow up whether it has been correctly 'translated' into the IT systems of the financial institutions or into the company's registers.
When a partnership is set up and used, in principle, a general meeting must be held every year and a report drawn up. We help you organise and implement these formalities.
In the event of new regulations or new positions adopted by the administration, jurisprudence or the rulings department, an existing planning sometimes needs to be revised and adapted. That is why we keep an eye on this aspect for our clients, if they request us to do so.