The testator can appoint a trusted person as executor to look after the estate after his death. The executor administers the estate and ensures that the will of the testator is implemented. He fulfills estate obligations and asserts rights for the estate.
Attorney Steffen Köster is a certified executor himself (DVEV). In this capacity, he regularly advises executors in the exercise of their office and will also be happy to personally assume the office of executor for you.
A will regulates the inheritance. A will is a unilateral disposition of property upon death by which the testator can designate an heir, grant a legacy or impose a condition.
If no effective will was made or an inheritance contract concluded before death, the legal succession automatically comes into force. This succession does not always correspond to the testator’s wishes and often leads to disputes among the relatives. Statutory succession provides, for example, that in a childless marriage the parents become heirs alongside the surviving spouse and form a community of heirs with the latter. Communities of heirs often argue for years about the distribution of the estate. The tax office also levies inheritance taxes. It is not uncommon for estate real estate to be auctioned off or family businesses to be sold or liquidated as a result of these disputes and tax claims.
Legal succession can be excluded in whole or in part by means of a will (or an inheritance contract). Wills and inheritance contracts are therefore unavoidable and should be drafted in such a way that disputes and taxes are avoided as far as possible.
As a specialist lawyer for inheritance law, Steffen Köster is your contact for the content, creation, revocation, interpretation and contestation of wills as well as for sensible and tax-optimized anticipated succession, i.e. the transfer of assets during one’s lifetime. As a certified executor (DVEV), Mr. Köster advises on the execution of wills, represents executors in extrajudicial and judicial proceedings and, at the request of the testator, regularly assumes the office of executor for the administration or settlement of the estate.
If foreign assets are included in the estate, Mr. Köster, as Vice-President of the European Lawyers Association “AEA International Lawyers Network” (www.aeuropea.com), has excellent contacts to cooperating law firms worldwide, with whom estate proceedings can be effectively handled.
Transfer your assets to the next generation in a sensible way and avoiding inheritance disputes!
In the course of seminars and lectures, Steffen Köster regularly shows what needs to be considered when drafting a will, using practical examples and interesting court decisions.
