With a team dedicated to private clients, we have a specialised group of experts for comprehensive legal advice on inheritance law and related branches of law, with a particular focus on:
- preventive structuring of succession (intergenerational transfer of property)
- advice on and representation in probate proceedings
- inheritance disputes
- advice in connection with impaired legal capacity (such as illness and injury)
- inheritance with an international element
- related tax issues (including cross-border issues)
We provide legal, tax and commercial advice and support in analysing the situation, defining the strategy or implementing the solutions agreed upon, including the preparation of the necessary documents or communication with a cooperating notary. A natural part of our services is also direct representation in probate proceedings or inheritance disputes, or support of the administrator of the estate or the executor of the will in their activities.
We guarantee maximum professionalism and full understanding of our clients’ needs with regard to sensitivity to the situations they face in their lives. Our team consists exclusively of experienced partners and senior associates with extensive practical experience across legal disciplines as well as of resolving inheritance disputes. With offices in strategic locations in Prague, Brno, Bratislava, Plzeň, Olomouc and Ostrava, we provide legal services throughout the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
SERVICES
Structing intergenerational transfers of property
- analyses of property structure, family situation and succession issues with a view to making recommendations for an appropriate solution in the event of impaired legal capacity or death
- selection of an appropriate approach and strategy for property transfer planning
- related communication within the family (with relevant family members)
- setting up and managing appropriate types of family foundations (such as family endowment funds), addressing alternative forms of succession during life
- advising on dispositions mortis causa (creation or revocation of a will, agreements of heirs, codicil, creation of legacy, substitution or trust succession)
- issues relating to potential disinheritance of forced heirs (especially spendthrift children)
Probate proceedings
- comprehensive support and representation in probate proceedings, including communication with the notary and heirs
- supporting or taking on the role of administrator or executor of the estate in probate proceedings
- dealing with the estate (agreement of heirs, confirmation according to inheritance shares, waiver or refusal of inheritance, settlement of matrimonial property)
- legal assistance in the case of insolvency of the estate
Inheritance disputes and settlement
- resolution of disputes concerning rights of inheritance (protection of the eligible heir in proceedings before a notary, challenge of a will, disputes concerning rights of inheritance in court)
- analysis of the client’s situation and proposal of an appropriate course of action and resolution strategy in the context of inheritance dispute, assessment of the likely result of the dispute
- representation in litigation, where we can draw on the experience of one of the largest litigation teams in the Czech Republic and knowledge of the judicial environment
- ability to act as mediators – to seek and negotiate a commercial solution to the situation concerned (a major reduction in the time of property settlement)
Impaired capacity to make legal acts
- solutions in case of impaired legal capacity
- assistance in the event of a limitation of a family member’s legal capacity, declaration of a family member as missing or declaration of presumed death of a family member
- appointment of a curator
Probate proceedings with an international element
- resolving probate proceedings with an international element (both in and outside the EU)
- ensuring the exercise of clients’ succession rights abroad
Tax advice in connection with probate proceedings and passage of property
- tax effects of agreements of heirs
- foreign tax aspects of passage of property (foreign inheritance taxes)
- taking account of (future) local property taxes (including inheritance taxes)
