Wills & Contracts of Inheritance

Planning ahead. Preserving family harmony. Protecting your assets.

Planning your estate is one of the most personal and important legal decisions you will make. Without a will or other testamentary disposition, German statutory succession rules apply, which often do not reflect individual wishes or economic realities. As a civil law notary in Frankfurt am Main, I help you design wills and contracts of inheritance as part of a bespoke, legally robust solution that preserves family harmony and protects your assets.

Holistic estate planning: The bigger picture

A legally secure will is essential, but should never be considered in isolation. Thoughtful estate planning ideally starts during your lifetime. By structuring your assets in advance, you can reduce inheritance tax and avoid later conflicts among heirs. → Learn more about lifetime transfers and business succession.

Expertise for complex estates

The Super‑Legacy is just one building block of a tax‑aware strategy. For clients with larger or more complex estates, we also consider instruments such as the Güterstandsschaukel or Familienheimschaukel to maximize the use of allowances during lifetime or on death. → Learn more about tax‑efficient family and estate planning.

Will or contract of inheritance – what is the difference?

Both instruments serve to determine who is to inherit, but they differ in their binding nature:

• Will (Testament): A will may be made unilaterally (by one person) or jointly (by spouses or registered partners). It can, in principle, be changed or revoked at any time, subject to legal restrictions on joint wills.
• Contract of inheritance (Erbvertrag): This is a binding contract between two or more persons regulating inheritance matters. It is particularly useful if the beneficiary provides consideration (e.g. care obligations) or if unmarried couples wish to set up mutual protection.

For clients from common law jurisdictions: a contract of inheritance is a uniquely German (and civil‑law) concept that creates binding succession rights and can limit later changes, unlike a typical common law will.

Strategic tools: “Berlin will” & Super‑Legacy

For married couples with children, the so‑called “Berlin will” (Berliner Testament) is the classic model: each spouse appoints the other as sole heir; the children inherit as final beneficiaries after both parents have died.

• The tax risk: For larger estates, this structure can waste the children’s tax allowances on the first death, as they only inherit on the second death.
• The solution: Super‑Legacy (Supervermächtnis – a discretionary, flexible legacy)
  We enhance the Berlin will with a Super‑Legacy, a highly flexible instrument of German estate planning which allows the surviving spouse to decide at their discretion how much each child should receive on the first death:
• Tax optimization: The surviving spouse can decide whether and to what extent assets shall already pass to the children on the first death, thereby making optimal use of the children’s personal allowances (currently EUR 400,000 per child and per parent).
• Maximum flexibility: Allocation can be tailored to the children’s situation at the time of death.
• Control: The surviving spouse retains control over the estate and does not become financially overexposed too early.