Wealth and legacy planning: your wealth does not end with you. Your decisions should not either.
Building wealth takes years. Losing control over how it passes can happen in a day. Legacy planning coordinates companies, assets, family, wills, powers, tax and jurisdictions so incapacity, death or succession does not turn a strong structure into a problem for the people left behind.
Legacy planning is not just “making a will”. It is designing what happens when you can no longer decide.
A will is one layer. The plan may also require lasting/preventive powers, corporate governance, shareholder rules, a family holding, life insurance, lifetime transfers, private foundations or trusts where appropriate, and tax coordination across countries. The central questions are who controls, who receives, when they receive and what legal/tax consequences arise in each scenario.
If your wealth depends on you, the plan is not finished.
You are owner, director, bank signatory and key decision-maker.
Temporary incapacity can block decisions before inheritance is even relevant.
Children may inherit equity without being the right people to run the company.
Ownership and management should not be forced to be the same.
You live in one country, hold another nationality and own assets elsewhere.
Succession law, tax and registries may follow different connecting rules.
Second marriages, children from different relationships or unequal needs.
Default inheritance rules may not match your actual intention.
The company is most of the family's wealth.
Dividing economic value and dividing control are different problems.
The plan exists only in your head.
Banks, partners, notaries and heirs need documents, not intentions.
Legacy has legal, corporate, tax and family layers.
Will / governing law
Defines beneficiaries and dispositions within the limits of the applicable succession law.
Preventive / lasting powers
Plans who can act if you later lack capacity to manage affairs.
Corporate governance
Articles, shareholder agreements and boards should address death, incapacity and transfers.
Family holding
Can centralise ownership while separating economic ownership from operating management.
Lifetime transfer
Gifts can advance succession but also transfer control and trigger tax before death.
International ownership layer
Trust/private foundation only where law, residence and purpose make it coherent.
For an international family, habitual residence can determine succession law.
EU Regulation 650/2012 generally applies the law of the State of the deceased's habitual residence to the succession as a whole. A person may, however, choose the law of a State whose nationality they possess to govern their succession. The Regulation covers civil succession, not tax, and excludes matters such as the creation, administration and dissolution of trusts.
General rule: law of habitual residence at death.
Professio juris: choose the law of one of your nationalities.
Applicable law governs beneficiaries, shares, reserved portions and partition.
Universal application can designate a non-EU law.
Succession tax is outside the Regulation.
Trust law and some company-law clauses sit outside and must be coordinated separately.
The European Certificate of Succession can make cross-border estates operational.
Regulation 650/2012 created the European Certificate of Succession so heirs, legatees, executors and administrators can prove their status and powers in other participating Member States. It does not replace every domestic document, but it has cross-border effects without a special recognition procedure.
Useful for assets/registries across participating EU States.
Can evidence heir/legatee/executor/administrator status.
Produces effects across participating Member States.
Does not itself resolve tax or every registry issue.
Ireland and Denmark do not participate in Regulation 650/2012; the UK is outside its EU scope.
Practical use depends on the relevant asset and registry.
Legacy planning starts before death: what if you cannot make decisions?
Spanish law, as one example, allows preventive powers that can survive a future need for support or become effective if that situation arises. They can contain instructions, controls and safeguards against conflicts or abuse. Similar capacity-planning tools vary by jurisdiction.
Who signs bank and commercial documents.
Who exercises voting rights.
Who can or cannot sell assets.
Controls over the attorney/representative.
Coordination between personal authority and company boards.
Cross-border recognition if capacity/residence span countries.
Succession planning that only starts at death leaves incapacity completely unplanned.
Inheriting shares does not necessarily mean inheriting control without rules.
For a Spanish private limited company, inheritance of shares generally makes the heir or legatee a shareholder, but articles may grant surviving shareholders or the company a statutory purchase right under the applicable conditions. Other jurisdictions use different corporate mechanisms, so wills and corporate documents need to align.
Will and articles should not contradict each other.
Shareholder agreements should fit the succession map.
Economic ownership and management can be separated through governance.
Valuation/liquidity matter if buyout rights exist.
Insurance can provide buyout/tax/equalisation liquidity.
Business succession starts with the cap table, not only the will.
In Spain, forced-heirship and tax can limit apparent freedom. Planning means working inside those rules.
Under Spanish common civil law, descendants' reserved share is two thirds of the estate, with one of those thirds available as an improvement among descendants; other protected rights can apply to ascendants and spouses. Spain also has regional civil-law systems with different succession rules, so common Civil Code rules are not universal across Spain.
Common civil law: descendants broadly have a two-thirds reserved share, one third being improvable among descendants.
Regional/foral civil laws can differ materially.
Inheritance tax depends on national ISD plus the applicable Autonomous Community rules.
State law contains a 95% reduction for certain qualifying family business/share inheritances/transfers; regional rules may differ or improve treatment.
Lifetime gifts and inheritance are not economically or tax equivalent.
Residence, asset location and regional connecting rules can change the tax result.
Trust, foundation, holding, usufruct, insurance… the tool comes after the question.
An international legacy structure may use several tools, but none should be chosen by fashion. A trust/private foundation may organise control and continuity in some jurisdictions; a holding centralises ownership; usufruct separates use from bare ownership; insurance can create liquidity. Each tool changes tax, control, reporting and beneficiary rights.
Trust/foundation: ownership, continuity and distribution rules where recognised.
Family holding: corporate ownership and governance.
Usufruct/bare ownership: separate enjoyment from title.
Insurance: liquidity for tax, buyouts or heir equalisation.
Staged gifts: lifetime transfer with corresponding loss/change of control.
Wills/powers/shareholder documents: essential even without complex structures.
The difference between leaving assets and leaving a system.
Leave an old will unchanged after relocating.
Assume your nationality automatically determines succession law.
Make all heirs owners without deciding who should manage.
Create a trust/foundation without testing your residence's treatment.
Gift shares without modelling future control/tax.
Rely on family conversations rather than enforceable documents.
Coordinate residence, nationality, wills and assets.
Separate ownership, management and economic benefit.
Plan incapacity as well as death.
Align articles, shareholder agreements, wills and insurance.
Model tax before lifetime transfers.
Review after relocation, marriage, birth, exit or wealth changes.
The same estate can require very different tools depending on the family.
| Situation | Tools to assess | Goal | Critical question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Founder with children | Powers + will + corporate rules | Avoid paralysis and separate ownership/management | Who runs vs who inherits |
| Family business / multiple heirs | Holding + agreements + succession plan | Continuity and governance | Forced heirship, liquidity, value, control |
| Family across countries | Governing law + coordinated wills + ownership map | Reduce conflict-of-laws risk | Residence, nationality, assets and tax |
| Second spouse / prior children | Will + insurance + economic rights | Balance protection and inheritance | Reserved rights and spouse protections |
| Illiquid estate | Insurance / reserves / succession finance | Create liquidity for tax/buyout | Cost, beneficiaries and timing |
| International HNWI | Holding + trust/foundation if justified | Multinational governance/legacy | Control, UBO, CFC, tax, succession law |
We start with people and decisions, not legal vehicles.
Family, residence, nationalities, wealth, companies and dependencies.
Incapacity, death, exit, divorce, relocation and succession.
Who decides, manages, receives and when.
Inheritance, gifts, shares, insurance, countries and liquidity.
Wills, powers, articles, holding, insurance and cross-border coordination.
Questions worth answering while you can still choose the answers.
Is legacy planning just making a will?
No. A full plan can coordinate powers, companies, articles, shareholder agreements, insurance, lifetime transfers, holdings and cross-border structures.
Which law applies if I live abroad?
Under EU Regulation 650/2012, the general rule is the law of habitual residence at death, subject to exceptions. You may also choose the law of a State whose nationality you possess.
Can I choose Spanish law if I am Spanish?
Where the Regulation applies, a Spanish national can choose Spanish law to govern the succession, provided the choice is made correctly in a disposition upon death and coordinated with the relevant countries.
Does the EU Succession Regulation also determine inheritance tax?
No. Tax is excluded from Regulation 650/2012. Succession law and inheritance tax need separate analysis.
What if I lose capacity before death?
Preventive/lasting powers and corporate governance can be designed so personal and business decisions do not simply freeze.
Do my children automatically inherit my company?
They may inherit shares under the applicable succession law and will, but articles, buyout rights, shareholder agreements and governance can shape how business continuity works.
What is the difference between a trust, foundation and family holding?
A holding is a company owning shares. Trusts and foundations are different legal ownership/succession tools available in certain jurisdictions. Recognition and tax treatment vary substantially.
Is gifting during life better than inheritance?
It depends. Control, tax, valuation, capital gains and timing differ. Spain and other jurisdictions can provide business-transfer reliefs subject to detailed requirements.
What is the European Certificate of Succession?
A certificate created by Regulation 650/2012 to evidence an heir's, legatee's, executor's or administrator's status/powers across participating Member States.
When should I review the legacy plan?
After relocation, marriage/divorce, births, deaths, major acquisitions/sales, new shareholders, material wealth growth or legal changes.
Legacy planning sits where family law, company law and tax meet.
Technical review: 7 September 2026.
Wealth takes years to build. Lack of a plan can hand control to chance in a single day.
We design who controls, who receives, which law may apply, what taxes arise and how the business keeps operating. Where needed, we turn that strategy into a legacy map and roadmap coordinated with local specialists.
General information only. Succession law, inheritance tax, trusts, foundations, reserved shares, company transfers and incapacity planning depend on jurisdiction and individual facts.