Succession & Estate Planning

Implementing effective estate planning is essential and requires a structured process based on the client’s particular circumstances. For this to be achieved, the client will have to make a number of considerations including, the identification of the assets that he or she owns, the identification of the intended beneficiaries, the manner in which the estate should be split up, the form of the will to be drawn up, restructuring of the estate (if necessary) including the creation of trusts and partnerships, and the tax considerations involved relating to such restructuring.  

Through proper estate planning, the client will continue to enjoy and control his or her assets during one’s lifetime, keep the family wealth private and secure and protect it for future generations.

Advocates Primei also assists clients in drafting the legal documents to protect the assets including wills. Under Maltese law, two types of wills may be drawn up. A public will is received and published by a notary in the presence of two witnesses and is enrolled at the Public Registry. A secret will may be drawn up by the testator himself where the testator knows how to write. In such circumstances whereby the testator does not know how to write, the testator would require the assistance of a judge or a magistrate. Once drawn up, a secret will shall be delivered by the testator to a notary, or in the presence of a judge or magistrate sitting in the court of voluntary jurisdiction, to the registrar of such court.

We also advise on cross-border legal matters including cross-border wills and matrimonial property regimes. We assist clients in drafting wills that deal with international assets and assist clients who live abroad but wish to draft a will for their property situated in Malta.

We also assist clients with any Succession related procedures including testamentary searches, opening of succession procedures, renunciation of succession, and Causa Mortis declarations.