The professionals at ECOVIS STLex assist clients in all stages of the defence of family assets and their transmission and succession, offering specific advice on matters relating to wills and probate.
By implementing specific evaluations on the basis of the estate and the line of succession, the operations legally considered to be the most appropriate and advantageous to the beneficiaries are proposed. The Firm also takes care of collecting and preparing the necessary documentation for the purposes of the declaration of succession.
Protection of family assets
ECOVIS STLex offers specific asset protection solutions and tools that are best suited to the client’s needs. These include:
- Trusts and restriction on use
This is a tool originating in English-speaking countries through which the owner of an estate, known as the Settler, transfers the ownership of certain assets to a Trustee, who manages them by exercising the rights and duties of an owner and acting in accordance with the interests and directions of the Settler.
The purpose of the Trust is to protect the assets from the personal vicissitudes and actions of third parties.
In a purpose trust, the Trustee manages assets the in order to fulfil a specific purpose.
The assets are subject to the “restriction on use”, defined by the Settler in the deed establishing the Trust, and the “separation bond” according to which the assets are owned by the Trustee but do not form part of their estate. Over the years, the Firm’s professionals have extensively adopted the Trust as a means of asset protection as it is a flexible solution that can be adapted to the different purposes and needs of its clients, protecting their assets from possible legal risks, particularly those related to the nature of their business or their role.
- Simple Partnerships – Family Holding Companies
The simple partnership is an increasingly recurring instrument within the framework of the planning of generational succession in that its structure and flexibility make it the ideal “custodian” of a family estate, the holder of corporate shareholdings and/or the owner of financial securities and stocks.
- Equity fund
The experts in the protection of assets at ECOVIS STLex assist the spouse or both spouses who wish to set up an equity fund to which certain assets are to be allocated in order to meet family needs.
The equity fund is a simple but effective instrument of protection that aims to protect the assets allocated to the fund from the legal actions of creditors in the event that the business or professional activity, carried out by one or both spouses, enters an irreversible crisis or goes bankrupt.
