Inheritance Law in Hannover. Ordering assets, securing the family.

Transferring early allows the allowances to be used more than once and keeps the drafting in your own hands. What matters is that the transfer does not endanger your own provision and can be reversed if circumstances change.

• Gift agreements reserving a usufruct, a right of residence or a right of recovery
• Transfer of property, financial assets and tangible assets within the ten-year period
• Waivers of the forced share and provisions on set-off, to limit later claims
• Equalisation payments between siblings
• Where the property is let, a review of the existing leases with our practice area Commercial Lease Law

In business families it is the alignment of the articles of association with the will that decides whether the company survives the succession. Where the two diverge, the shareholding passes to people the articles never provided for.

• Reconciling succession clauses in the articles with the will and the inheritance contract
• Qualified succession, entry clauses and the handling of claims for compensation
• Provision for a minor successor, including a power of administration
• Transferring shares in stages while retaining the voting rights
• The shareholding itself is structured by our practice area Corporate Law

Where assets are to be held together across several generations, a testamentary provision is not enough. It governs the transfer, not the administration that follows. That calls for a structure which does not depend on individual decisions.

• Setting up private family foundations, with their statutes, purpose and governing bodies
• Family companies as a family pool, for the joint administration of property and financial assets
• Retaining the control and voting rights of the transferring generation
• Protection against claims arising from professional liability and against the risks of long-term care
• Custody structures, powers of attorney that survive death and banking mandates, with our practice area Banking Law

Where it comes to a dispute, information about the estate comes before payment. Anyone who does not know what the estate holds cannot put a figure on a claim. We act out of court and before the courts, throughout Germany.

• Certificate of inheritance proceedings, actions for information and actions for division, to dissolve communities of heirs in dispute
• Pursuing and defending forced share claims and claims to supplement the forced share
• Identifying and valuing assets in the estate, from property to a securities account
• Taking on the executorship and winding up the estate as the testator intended
• Where the estate is over-indebted, limiting liability with our practice area Insolvency Law