Services · Private clients
Estate and succession planning
Wealth and family businesses passed on as you intend, with the tax modelled in advance and the records in place for the day the plan is used.
A plan is tested on the day it is used
A succession plan is tested at a difficult moment: after a death, during an illness, or when a founder steps back. If a will refers to shares that have since been transferred, a trust has never kept accounts, or nobody knows which bank holds what, the people left to act inherit a puzzle along with the estate.
We model the tax on each way of passing on your wealth, work with your legal counsel on the documents that carry the plan, and keep the accounts and records it depends on. When the plan is needed, the information to carry it out already exists.
What we bring to the plan
The figures, the tax analysis and the records, alongside the legal work of your counsel.
Tax modelling
Lifetime gifts compared with transfers on death in every country with a claim, whether it taxes by citizenship, residence, domicile or the location of the asset, with the outcome for each heir shown.
Family business succession
Routes for passing ownership and management to the next generation, to managers or to a buyer, with the tax on each route and the valuation it depends on. Where the route is a sale, our transaction advisory work prepares the business for buyers.
Coordination with legal counsel
Wills, trusts, holding structures and shareholder agreements are drafted by your lawyers. We supply the figures behind them and check that each document matches the plan and the others.
Records for each structure
Trust accounts, holding company books, share registers kept in step with transfers, and a schedule of assets showing where each one sits and who controls it.
Governance
Dividend policy, pay for family members who work in the business, and the information given to shareholders outside it, set down with your counsel in a family charter or shareholder agreement.
Support for executors and trustees
An inventory of assets and liabilities valued at the date of death, estate accounts showing what was collected, paid and distributed, and the final returns for the individual and the estate where they are required.
Families we work with
People who want the handover of their wealth decided in advance, not left to circumstance.
- Founders planning to hand a business to their children, managers or a buyer
- Parents considering lifetime gifts who want the tax understood first
- Families with heirs living in different countries
- Trustees who need accounts and returns for an existing trust
- Executors administering an estate with assets in more than one place
How a plan comes together
Four stages, with your legal counsel involved at each.
Understand the family
Who is involved, what they own, where it sits and what you want to happen, discussed privately at our office, at yours or by video.
Model the options
Each route compared on tax, control and timing in a written report you can share with your counsel.
Put the plan in place
Your lawyers draft the documents; we review them for financial effect and set up the accounts and registers they require.
Keep it current
The plan revisited after a birth, death, marriage, move or sale, so it still works when it is needed.
Your lawyers and us
Each part of a plan has a legal side and a financial side. This is how the work usually divides.
| Element | Your legal counsel | Pi |
|---|---|---|
| Wills | Advises on succession law and drafts the will | Models the tax and confirms assets are held as the will assumes |
| Trusts | Drafts the trust deed and advises trustees on their duties | Models the tax on settlement and distributions, and keeps the trust's accounts |
| Holding structures | Forms the entities and drafts their constitutional documents | Designs the financial flows and keeps each entity's books and returns |
| Shareholder agreements | Drafts transfer, pre-emption and exit terms | Models valuation formulas and the tax on each exit route |
If the plan includes a foundation or other charitable gifts, see philanthropy and giving.
Questions
When should a family business start planning succession?
Well before a handover date is set. Valuations, the tax on transfers and the readiness of the next generation all take time to work through, and a plan prepared under pressure has fewer options.
Our heirs live in different countries. Does that matter?
Yes. Countries tax gifts and inheritances on different bases: the residence or domicile of the person giving, the residence of the person receiving, or where the asset is. Some also fix the shares heirs receive under their succession law. We model the tax across every country involved, and your counsel advises on the law. See also cross-border tax.
What will our executors need?
A list of assets and liabilities with values at the date of death, records of income received during the administration, estate accounts for the beneficiaries, and the tax returns that fall due. If we have kept the records beforehand, most of this already exists.
Can you work with lawyers we already use?
Yes. We work with the counsel you already have, agreeing at the outset who does what and sharing our models and schedules with them once you have given consent.
Speak with a partner
Every enquiry is read by a partner and answered within one business day. Meetings are held at our offices, at yours, or by video.