Wealth Planning Rome
Wealth and succession planning for asset protection.
In Brief
Wealth and succession planning in Rome. Protecting family wealth through trusts, family business succession agreements and dedicated structures. Marzo Associati.
Asset Protection and Management
We provide highly specialised advice on the effective management of personal and family wealth, with particular attention to tax risk and intergenerational transfers.
Pianificazione Successoria:
Structuring the transfer of complex estates to ensure continuity and safeguard family values.
Asset Protection:
Analysis and mapping of assets (movable and immovable) to identify the most suitable solutions for asset ring-fencing and protection.
Strumenti Giuridici:
Establishment and management of family asset funds, family business succession agreements and insurance policies.
Investimenti:
Assessment of the tax implications of financial and property investments, for both businesses and individuals.
Wealth Planning in Rome: Protecting and Passing on Family Wealth
Wealth planning is the process of structuring and protecting family wealth, ensuring that assets accumulated over a lifetime are safeguarded against business risks, legal disputes and taxes, and can be passed on to future generations in the most efficient way possible.
Wealth Planning Tools
Marzo Associati works with all available legal and tax tools for protecting and transferring wealth:
- Trust: an asset ring-fencing arrangement originating in common law jurisdictions and recognised in Italy, offering maximum flexibility in the management and transfer of assets;
- Family Foundations: structures dedicated to managing assets intended for philanthropic purposes or business continuity;
- Family Business Succession Agreements: a tool for transferring the family business to future generations, with significant tax advantages;
- Polizze vita "unit linked": an insurance solution for asset protection and succession planning;
- Family Holding Companies: a corporate structure for the centralised management of shareholdings, property and financial investments.
The Issue of “Dopo di Noi”
One particularly sensitive area is wealth planning for families with members who have severe disabilities. Legge 112/2016 (“Dopo di Noi”) introduced specific tax-advantaged arrangements — including trusts exempt from inheritance and gift tax — to ensure continuity of care for people with disabilities after their carers have died. The Firm has developed specific experience in this sensitive area.
L'imposta sulle successioni e donazioni: aliquote, franchigie e pianificazione
Inheritance and gift tax — governed by D.Lgs. 346/1990 (Testo Unico Successioni e Donazioni — TUS) — was reintroduced in Italy by D.L. 262/2006 after being abolished between 2001 and 2006. The current regime provides for different rates and tax-free allowances according to the degree of kinship between the transferor and the beneficiary: 4% (with a tax-free allowance of €1,000,000 per beneficiary) for spouses and children; 6% (with a tax-free allowance of 100.000 euro) for brothers and sisters; 6% with no tax-free allowance for other relatives up to the fourth degree of kinship;8% with no tax-free allowance for persons outside the family. For transfers to people with severe disabilities (art. 3 L. 104/1992), an enhanced tax-free allowance applies of 1.500.000 euro regardless of the degree of kinship. Advance planning allows the available tax-free allowances to be used in full through progressive gifts over time: each allowance is “reinstated” in the absence of further gifts during the relevant period, and the value of previous gifts is aggregated with the inheritance for tax calculation purposes only where those gifts were not exempt. Proper structuring can drastically reduce the overall tax burden on intergenerational transfers.
The Family Business Succession Agreement: A Tax-Advantaged Tool for Business Owners
An family business succession agreement, introduced by L. 14 February 2006, n. 55 (artt. 768-bis e seguenti del codice civile), is an instrument that allows a business owner to transfer the business or shareholdings to one or more descendants, by way of derogation from the ordinary succession rules on bringing lifetime gifts into account and reducing gifts that infringe reserved inheritance shares. The main tax advantage is neutrality for inheritance and gift tax purposes: the transfer of the business or shareholdings to descendants who continue the business activity benefits from the exemption provided for inart. 3, c. 4-ter, D.Lgs. 346/1990, provided that the beneficiaries retain control of the company for at least five years. The exemption also applies to controlling shareholdings in companies with share capital (the same conditions apply to transfers on death through inheritance), making a family business succession agreement particularly advantageous compared with an outright gift of a business, which requires a case-by-case assessment. The Firm assists the business owner in analysing the corporate structure, negotiating with potential beneficiaries and drafting the notarial deed in compliance with all formal and substantive requirements.
Family Business Succession: Planning Ahead
Transferring the family business to the next generation is one of the most sensitive events — and one with significant tax implications — in a business owner's life. A well-structured family business succession agreement, combined with a family holding company or a trust, can allow the business to pass to the children with a minimal tax burden, while preserving unified control of the company. It is essential to act before the event (the founder's death or incapacity): post-mortem planning is always less efficient than advance planning. The Firm supports business-owning families throughout this process with an integrated approach that considers taxation, family governance and protection against future creditors, ensuring business continuity and peace of mind for the whole family.
An Integrated Approach to Wealth
The Firm is located in the Salario district of Rome, a short distance from Parioli and Trieste, traditionally residential areas for families with complex wealth management needs. Our advice combines expertise in tax, civil and company law to provide a comprehensive service from planning to implementation.
Domande Frequenti — Wealth Management
Is a Trust Revocable? Can I Regain Control of the Assets Transferred?
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This depends on the structure of the trust. A revocable discretionary trust allows the settlor to revoke the trust and regain control of the assets, but this flexibility reduces the instrument's protective effectiveness, as the assets remain open to claims by the settlor's creditors. An irrevocable trust offers much stronger asset protection, but requires the assets to be definitively ring-fenced. The Firm helps clients choose the structure most suited to their specific needs.
What Is the Difference Between a Trust and a Family Asset Fund?
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A family asset fund is an instrument under Italian law that protects assets allocated to the family's needs from creditors (with certain exceptions). A trust is an instrument under international law (recognised in Italy under the Hague Convention) that offers greater flexibility in the allocation of assets, can include multiple beneficiaries across several generations and is not subject to the same limitations as a family asset fund. In general, a trust is preferable for complex estates or where multigenerational planning is required.
How Are Transfers of Assets into a Trust Taxed?
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Under D.Lgs. 139/2024, which introduced art. 4-bis into the Testo Unico Successioni e Donazioni, the rule is taxation 'on distribution': inheritance and gift tax applies when the assets are transferred to the beneficiaries, not when they are ring-fenced. However, the settlor (or the trustee, for testamentary trusts) may elect to pay the tax in advance when the assets are transferred into the trust or when the succession opens, calculated on the value of the assets and using the rates and tax-free allowances in force at that time; the election is final and the tax paid is non-refundable. The rates are those applicable to gifts: 4% for spouses and children (a tax-free allowance of €1 million per beneficiary), 6% for siblings (a tax-free allowance of €100,000) and other relatives up to the fourth degree, and 8% for unrelated persons. Specific regimes remain in place, particularly for trusts benefiting people with severe disabilities. The Firm assesses on a case-by-case basis whether and when an election for advance payment is consistent with the planning objectives.
Can Property Be Placed in a Trust to Protect It from Creditors?
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Yes, property can be transferred into a trust to ring-fence it from the settlor's assets. However, its protective effectiveness depends on certain conditions being met: the transfer must not take place while insolvent or in anticipation of claims in respect of existing debts (risk of an action to set aside the transfer), and the trust must not be a sham or lack genuine management autonomy on the part of the trustee. The Firm supports clients in structuring trusts that withstand scrutiny by the tax authorities and creditors.
Specialist Professionals
Wealth Management — Where We Operate
Our Firm provides services in wealth management from our office in Rome to clients throughout Italy. We also assist businesses and individuals in Milan, Naples, Florence, Turin, Bologna and the main cities in Lazio.
Do you need assistance?
Our team is available for a tailored consultation.