Private Client

Estate planning in the 21st Century has become increasingly complex and multi-layered. Evolving cultural dynamics amongst generations and multi-jurisdictional families present their own set of unique challenges, each requiring a bespoke and tailored solution. In this dynamic and compliance-focused environment, our private client offering is specifically designed to help you make critical and timely decisions that affect your personal and business concerns, domestic or overseas.

Based on decades of experience in advising prominent Indian family businesses, entrepreneurs, and global high net-worth Indians on a broad spectrum of issues, we possess a deep understanding of the intricacies involved in crafting a lasting and resolute legacy – one which is not simply defined by your quantifiable wealth but also your hard-earned intangible assets (i.e. reputation, goodwill, and family values).

Our partner-led approach equips our clients with the right tools for the task at hand, whether it involves engaging with delicate questions of inheritance or creating effective and tax-efficient business succession structures. Our robust strategies help our clients better navigate the complex and multi-faceted labyrinth of domestic and cross-border wealth transfers, family disputes, tax and regulatory compliances, philanthropy, and ESG interests. We also extensively advise family offices on regulatory matters and family governance functions.

We regularly assist our clients in providing a broad range of services, including:

• Preparation and execution of wills and other testamentary documentation, power of attorney for medical incapacitation, guardianship of minors or persons with disabilities
• Assistance with obtaining probate.
• Succession planning through private family trusts to ensure asset protection and carving-out personal assets from business and commercial liabilities
• Setting-up of family office structures for pooling family wealth for investments in India and overseas
• Diagnostic review of historical succession planning frameworks and modernising them to reflect contemporary realities while addressing the long-term aspirations of multi-generational families
• Establishment of family governance mechanisms to address leadership transitions, continuity planning and conflict management for listed companies and family businesses
• Mitigation of existing or potential conflict resolution through the execution of family arrangements and family settlements
• Tax and regulatory-compliant structuring of cross-border assets and properties of families having members domiciled or resident in foreign jurisdictions
• Efficient streamlining and consolidating the family’s interests in the business, especially at the pre-IPO stage in the case of established companies and the pre-funding stage in the case of emerging start-ups
• Strategies for managing family reputation and navigating crises
• Assistance in philanthropic endeavours of families and businesses in a tax-efficient and regulatory-compliant manner, often integrating the CSR obligations of the family business with the charitable pursuits of the family members
• Offering legal support for the acquisition of luxury assets, art, and antiquities
• Risk management and regulatory advice, including compliance with securities laws, takeover regulations, and Indian foreign exchange regulations. This would also include liaising and dealing with regulatory bodies such as the RBI and the SEBI, as and when required
• Advise institutional trustees, private trust companies, and fiduciaries for rendering trust management services and fulfilling their obligations towards the trusts or their beneficiaries

The private client practice leverages the expertise of specialists across the firm in family law, real estate, taxation, fund management, and disputes, who work seamlessly to provide comprehensive legal solutions for our valued clients.

SELECT REPRESENTATIVE EXPERIENCE OF OUR TEAM

• Assisting members of one of India’s largest infrastructure development family businesses (net worth exceeding USD 4 billion) with their family governance structure. The engagement involved setting-up multiple private trust structures and private foundations, along with a robust family constitution outlining certain principles of succession and family values
• Assisting one of India’s wealthiest business families in drafting a comprehensive family settlement agreement to provide a bespoke and intricate ‘fail-safe’ structure for protection against an untoward event of a forced intestate succession
• Establishing a ‘master trust – sub trust’ private family trust structure in India and the US for the promoter family members of a listed business in the publication and education sector
• Preparing testamentary documents ensuring an appropriate guardianship of a family member with special needs
• Structuring advisory related to various jurisdictions such as Singapore and the UAE for setting-up overseas family offices for a high net-worth individual, with the objective of global diversification of family wealth
• Several international estate planning assignments for high net-worth individuals who are citizens or residents of the UK, the US and other countries
• Advising an institutional trustee on the Indian foreign exchange rules governing the distribution of the corpus and income of a private discretionary trust in India to the NRI beneficiaries and repatriation thereon.
• Estate and succession planning for the members of a royal family in the Middle East region (net worth exceeding USD 2.5 billion)
• Charity structuring for the philanthropic endeavours of certain members of the royal family in Europe

Our Team

• 

  Pallav Shukla

  Dispute Resolution, Private Client, White-Collar Crime

• 

  Tanmay Patnaik

  Corporate, Private Client