Warning, borrowing money also costs money.
Plan Your Estate: Lower Taxes, More Peace of Mind for Your Loved Ones
Planning the transfer of your assets is essential. It’s the best strategy to legally reduce inheritance taxes, avoid family conflicts, and ensure your wishes are respected. Discover how to protect the value of what you’ve built.
Discover the Keys to OptimizationLegal Notice
** A loan commits you and must be repaid. Check your repayment capabilities before committing. The rates indicated are for information purposes only and subject to approval of your application.
Why planning your estate is the greatest gift you can give?
Inheritance taxes can reach very high rates, sometimes heavily cutting into the assets you wish to pass on. An unplanned estate is often a source of stress, rushed decisions, and tension among heirs. To plan is to take control.
Preparing your estate is, above all, about:
- Significantly reducing the tax burden: Using legal tools (gifts, life insurance…) to minimize the taxes your heirs will have to pay.
- Preserving family harmony: Avoiding misunderstandings and conflicts by clarifying the distribution of your assets during your lifetime.
- Protecting your assets: Preventing valuable assets (the family home, a business…) from being sold in a hurry to pay taxes.
- Ensuring your wishes are respected: Deciding for yourself how your estate will be passed on, for instance, by protecting a more vulnerable heir.
Far from being a taboo subject, estate planning is an act of foresight and kindness towards those you love.
Key Tools for Optimizing Your Estate
Several legal and financial tools exist for an intelligent and tax-efficient transfer of assets.
1. Lifetime Gifts
The most powerful tool. Gift taxes are often much lower than inheritance taxes. A well-planned gift can save your heirs tens of thousands.
2. The Will
Essential for overriding legal devolution rules and distributing your assets according to your specific wishes, while respecting the legal share of certain heirs.
3. Life Insurance
A life insurance policy allows you to designate a specific beneficiary who will receive the capital outside of the estate, often with favorable tax treatment.
4. Other Techniques
Other solutions exist: marriage contract planning, creating a holding company, split purchases (usufruct/bare ownership)… Expert advice is essential.
Planning your estate: where to start?
The planning process follows a few logical steps:
-
1.
Assess your assets
List all your assets (real estate, personal property, accounts, insurance…) and your debts to get a clear picture of what will be transferred. -
2.
Define your goals and wishes
Who do you want to protect? How do you want to distribute your assets? What are your wishes for the family home? -
3.
Consult with experts
An estate planning lawyer is your key contact. They will explain the rules, calculate the tax implications, and draft the necessary documents (deed of gift, will…).
Don’t wait. The earlier you start, the more flexibility you will have, and the greater the impact of your planning will be.
The Safety Net: What If Planning Isn’t Enough?
Even with the best planning, your heirs may face a lack of cash to pay the remaining taxes.
Absolute peace of mind for you and your loved ones
Knowing that a financing solution exists for your heirs is the perfect complement to your planning strategy. It ensures they will never be forced to sell an asset in a hurry.
An Inheritance Loan is that safety net. It can be considered to:
- Cover remaining inheritance taxes without touching savings.
- Allow one heir to buy out the others’ shares of a family property.
- Provide the necessary time to sell an asset at the best price.
By including this possibility in your thinking, you provide a complete solution and total peace of mind for your family.
The Inheritance Loan
The solution to help your heirs meet their financial obligations with complete serenity.
Learn moreEstate Planning FAQ
Answers to your questions about organizing and optimizing the transfer of your assets.
There is no “too early” age. Ideally, you should start thinking about it as soon as you build significant assets (buying a house, growing a business…).
Starting around 50-60 is a good practice, as it allows time to use tools like lifetime gifts, which sometimes require a certain period to be fully effective for tax purposes.
The difference is fundamental:
- A gift takes effect immediately. You transfer ownership of an asset during your lifetime. It’s a tax optimization tool because gift taxes are often lower.
- A will only takes effect upon your death. It is used to organize the distribution of your assets, but it does not change the inheritance taxes that will be due by your heirs on the value of those assets.
The two tools are complementary in good estate planning.
Yes, absolutely. This is a very common planning technique. It involves gifting the “bare ownership” of your house to your children, while retaining the “usufruct” for yourself.
- Bare ownership: Your children are the owners “of the walls.”
- Usufruct: You retain the right to live in the house or even to rent it out and collect the income until your death.
Upon your death, the usufruct ends, and your children become full owners without any additional inheritance tax to pay on that property.
Yes, they are indispensable for serious estate planning. Their role is multifaceted:
- Impartial advice: They explain all the possible options based on your family and financial situation.
- Legal certainty: They draft legally binding documents (deeds of gift, authenticated wills…) that are difficult to challenge.
- Tax expertise: They calculate the taxes and help you choose the most legally advantageous solutions.
Trying to plan an estate without a lawyer is extremely risky and can lead to costly mistakes and family conflicts.