Pratice Areas Wealth Law
Family Groups and Family Law
We provide integrated advisory services to family groups, coordinating family, succession, corporate, and tax law, from the creation of family holdings to conflict management and business continuity.
Families with significant wealth and their own businesses face challenges that simultaneously cross family law, corporate law, and taxation, such as matrimonial property regimes, prenuptial agreements, inheritances, succession in management positions, corporate reorganizations, the entry and exit of family shareholders, or marital separations with an impact on shares and holdings.
The correct coordination between family law and corporate structures is essential to avoid future conflicts and ensure asset and corporate stability. The use of structures such as a family holding company can facilitate the concentration and management of shareholdings, investment diversification, succession planning, and the clarification of internal governance rules. However, its creation and evolution require careful legal design, attentive to the specificities of each family and the legal and tax requirements in force.
In moments of breakdown, such as divorces, the death of key members, or disagreements between family branches, decisions made within the scope of family law have immediate repercussions on the company, assets, and personal relationships. Our intervention focuses on protecting assets and business continuity, preserving as much as possible the stability of family relationships, and ensuring legally sound and tax-efficient solutions.
Services
We support the incorporation and reorganization of family holdings, centralizing shareholdings and other assets to facilitate management, succession, and asset protection. We prepare articles of association, shareholders' agreements, and dividend distribution policies, defining clear rules for the entry and exit of family members, criteria for decision-making participation, deadlock resolution mechanisms, and ways to preserve control over the company. We coordinate these instruments with matrimonial property regimes, prenuptial agreements, and other relevant family law realities.
We provide specialized consultancy in family law with a direct impact on entrepreneurial family groups: matrimonial property regimes, prenuptial agreements, adoptions, parenthood, guardianship, and curatorship. We prepare contracts and agreements that reflect the interests of the couple and the family, protecting assets and clarifying expectations regarding the division of property and responsibilities.
In case of separation or divorce, we evaluate the most appropriate avenue, whether extrajudicial or judicial, represent clients in mediation and in court, and coordinate the division of assets with the holding of quotas, shares, and other relevant assets for the family group, always based on an integrated analysis of family law and corporate law.
We develop succession plans centered on the continuity of the family business and the preservation of wealth. We prepare wills, succession pacts, and family governance instruments that define succession rules for corporate bodies, criteria for the transfer of quotas and shares, as well as the rights and duties of heirs who do or do not assume management functions. Our intervention seeks to reduce the likelihood of succession disputes, accelerate asset divisions (partilhas), and frame the generational transition of leadership in a legally secure manner.
We support family groups in preventing and resolving conflicts between family partners, between them and the company, or between different branches of the family. Whenever possible, we operate within a structured mediation framework, promoting dialogue and the building of agreements that preserve the continuity of personal and commercial relationships. When litigation is inevitable, we represent clients in judicial or arbitral proceedings, outlining strategies that balance the firm defense of the rights at stake with the need to protect the family reputation and legacy.
We monitor changes in family, corporate, and tax legislation with an impact on family groups, including reforms to the matrimonial regime, shifts in property and succession taxation, new governance and transparency requirements, or rules applicable to family businesses. We conduct periodic reviews of existing structures, such as holdings, shareholders' agreements, provisional wills, and family pacts, proposing adjustments that prevent contingencies and ensure continuous compliance with the law and good governance practices.
Our approach
Global and multidisciplinary vision
We combine corporate, tax, family, and succession law analysis to protect both the family business and its individual members.
Preventive planning
We structure family holdings, shareholders' agreements, family pacts, and succession plans, integrating family law solutions that clarify expectations and reduce the risk of litigation.
Crisis management
In situations of divorce, the exit of family partners, or conflicts among family members, we define strategies that prioritize negotiated solutions, maintaining business continuity whenever possible.
FAQs
We work with family groups as a whole: the business, the assets, and family relationships. We coordinate corporate, tax, succession, and family law so that decisions regarding quotas, shares, or real estate do not clash with matrimonial property regimes, inheritances, or internal agreements.
When the family has several companies, properties, or scattered investments and wants to concentrate shareholdings, simplify governance, and prepare for succession. We design the family holding, articles of association, and shareholders' agreements, defining rules for the entry and exit of family members, income distribution, and decision-making powers.
Matrimonial property regimes, prenuptial agreements, adoptions, parenthood, guardianship, or curatorship have a direct impact on who holds quotas and shares and what happens in the event of divorces or deaths. Therefore, we treat family and corporate law together to avoid surprises in the control structure.
We use wills, succession pacts, agreements between heirs, and governance rules to define who can be a partner, who can manage, and how quotas and shares are transferred. The goal is to guarantee business continuity and reduce succession disputes.
We start by understanding the conflict, whether it is between family partners, different branches of the family, or different generations, and we evaluate the scope for structured mediation. We work on agreements that clarify roles, powers, and potential exit paths. When litigation is inevitable, we represent family members in court or arbitration, while also protecting the group's reputation.
We continuously monitor family, corporate, succession, and tax legislation with an impact on family groups. Whenever there are relevant changes in family legislation or property taxation, we review holdings, shareholders' agreements, wills, and family pacts, and propose concrete adjustments.
We analyze the matrimonial property regime, evaluate the value and function of the shareholdings, and define what should be divided and what should remain allocated to the business. We work on solutions that, as much as possible, close the divorce cycle without destroying the family business or generating corporate deadlocks.
Yes. We help structure family investment companies, define decision-making and exit rules, and coordinate these vehicles with the personal assets of each member. The idea is that joint investments do not compromise the financial autonomy of each family branch.
It depends on the family, but typically it is continuous: we assist with reorganizations, successions, governance changes, the entry of new generations, and the periodic review of structures in light of the law and the group's reality.
Before serious conflicts or irreversible events occur, such as deaths, litigious separations, or the abrupt exit of key managers. At this stage, it is still possible to design clear structures for family groups and prevent the business from being held hostage by personal disputes.