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Family estate and succession planning

We prepare you for all of life’s events.

Within estate and succession planning, we assist our clients in identifying and anticipating the legal and fiscal consequences of significant life events. We advise our clients on preparing for various situations and their implications, such as death, property transactions, marriage, divorce, starting a business, and other life events. Together, we ensure that both the management, succession and eventual transfer of your assets are appropriately arranged.

“Among the ancient Greeks, the deceased were given an obolus placed under their tongues to pay for their passage to the underworld. “

Family business succession

The protection, structuring and transfer of our clients’ national and international family assets, including personal property and real estate, is one of our core competences. This is particularly true when it comes to family business succession. The transfer of a family business is a pivotal moment for the family and the business. For both family peace and continuity within the company, it is of the utmost importance that, prior to the transfer, clear principles are worked out, enforceable agreements are made, and legally and fiscally everything is discussed and worked out in detail. Customisation is therefore applied, with attention to internal family ties and changing legislation in civil and tax law.

Within family estate and succession planning, we assist you with:

  • Gifts
  • Wills
  • Control structures (such as a partnership or foundation)
  • Power of attorney
  • Marriage and cohabitation agreements
  • Inheritance agreements
  • Family settlements
  • Declarations of estates

Corporate acquisitions

Although a company and its shareholders normally aim for continuity, its ownership structure often requires adjustments. Acquisitions of companies, no matter their form (transfer of shares or assets of the company), are an integral part of economic life. MA transactions and company transfers between family members in the context of estate planning require a different legal, fiscal and human approach every time. Obolos offers appropriate assistance in all these areas, thanks to its long-standing and extensive experience in these matters.

Obolos helps you with:

  • Share asset deals

Corporate governance

Stable share ownership, well-organised governance, and clear, binding agreements on share transfers are drivers of sound asset planning and help to avoid disputes. Companies often involve professional employees in the assets of the group they operate for. Even then, having good agreements at the outset is essential for further cooperation. Our legal and fiscal assistance helps the parties involved to assume an informed position within the shareholding and/or the management of a company, or to facilitate an organised exit.

Within corporate governance, we assist you with:

  • Shareholders’ agreements
  • Articles of association
  • Employee participation

Contract law

Contracts play a crucial role in the business world. Agreements between investors (such as joint ventures), between the owner and his/her company (management contracts), between companies (cooperation, financing, etc.), and within a corporate group (intra-group transactions, etc.) help shape the trajectory of the entrepreneur or company. Thanks to our extensive experience in these matters, Obolos provides high-quality advice, drafting, and negotiation of such contracts.

We draft various contracts for you:

  • Cooperation contracts
  • Joint ventures
  • Management contracts
  • Financing contracts

Reorganisations

The life cycle of any business comprises different phases. Obolos advises start-ups, growing companies and companies that are busy restructuring. Each phase requires its unique legal framework and tailored support. Growth, achieved through additional resources and mergers, demands comprehensive tax analysis. It often requires additional guidance regarding tax administration, such as when applying for a ruling.

Obolos also provides advice on migration or emigration with appropriate focus. The firm not only offers preparatory fiscal studies but also facilitates communication with tax authorities, auditors, accountants, and notaries.

Unfortunately, companies may also face financially precarious situations due to various circumstances. We advise entrepreneurs and companies experiencing financial stress, including guidance in (deficit) liquidations and judicial reorganisation proceedings.

In reorganisations, we assist you with:

  • Asset transactions
  • Ruling
  • Mergers
  • Demergers
  • Migration
  • GRP
  • Liquidations

Private equity

Financing start-ups, growing, or reorganising companies often relies on attracting solvent and committed investors. Our firm specialises in legal and fiscal services by assisting in selecting the appropriate legal structure, negotiating, and drafting various agreements and articles of association that govern relations between promoters and investors. From the initial phase to the actual financing, Obolos handles the legal aspects, always with a particular focus on the interests of the company.

Obolos offers advice on:

  • Term sheets
  • Investment agreements
  • Shareholders’ agreements

Family disputes

Obolos assists its clients in family property disputes. Family property law is a complex area of law. The complexity of matrimonial property law, as well as gift and inheritance law, demands in-depth expertise to protect your interests as a client and effect change. Our Obolos team has a long-standing and distinct expertise in disputes involving divorce and breakups, deceases, gifts and wills.

Obolos helps you with:

  • Settlement distribution after a death or divorce
  • Disputes of wills or gifts

Tax law

Obolos has a reputable knowledge of tax law. Our tax practice not only involves providing advice and second opinions on tax matters but also extends to comprehensive tax guidance for transactions within the firm’s other areas of expertise. Additionally, we support our clients in tax disputes and regularisation processes.

Within tax law, we help you with:

  • Tax advice
  • Tax guidance
  • Tax disputes

Litigation

A dispute can never be completely ruled out. Even in the event of a dispute, Obolos acts appropriately and professionally. Where possible, we aim to reach an amicable settlement. If no agreement can be reached, we will take well-considered legal action in consultation with the client. Obolos also assists its clients in both national and international arbitration or mediation proceedings.

You can count on us for

  • Disputes
  • Proceedings
  • Arbitration
  • Mediation

Can we help you?

We advise and support a loyal client base consisting of family businesses, listed companies, multinationals, start-ups, investment vehicles, private equity funds, nonprofit organisations, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals.

Obolos combines expert knowledge with experience and creativity. Our advice is accurate, practical, and to the point, without losing sight of the human aspect. We always strive to provide comfort and peace of mind to our clients.

Get in touch with Obolos
Get in touch with Obolos

A new name, an ancient symbol

‘Obolos’ profiles itself as a high quality law firm within a niche of corporate law.

The firm was founded in 2005 under the name “Derycke & Vandenberghe lawyers.

A good 20 years later, there was a growing realization that, despite the firm’s name recognition and reputation, a new name would help the growth of younger talent and raise the profile of younger partners and associates.

Thus began a collective search for a suitable name. A name with meaning, anchored in a past and universally recognizable, with symbolic power as well as meaning within our fields of work.

Obolos ultimately had our preference.

What is an obolos?

‘Obolos’ is an ancient Greek currency whose Dutch name sounds familiar to all: obool.

Originally, the obool is a measure by which weights were expressed. No one knows when its name and use originated, but it is reasonably assumed that its historical origins are at least three thousand years old. It is also a coin with an extremely long history: the last obool was minted around 1700.

In classical Greece, the coin was commonly used throughout the sphere of influence of Greek civilization. Its best-known version is the Athenian: a silver coin with the image of patron goddess Athena on the obverse and an owl on the reverse, often in the company of an olive branch.

As a result, the coin has become the bearer of a rich symbolism. Athena is the goddess of wisdom and, armed if necessary, protects civilization. The owl is to this day the symbol par excellence of wisdom and insight, and the ancients also saw the owl as a messenger of prosperity and destiny (“fortuna”). Even the olive branch, after thousands of years, has lost nothing of its power as a symbol of peace and prosperity….

Wisdom, prosperity, protection … all are the values for which the “new” Obolos wants to stand. Your interests, your prosperity must be protected by our commitment. A commitment in decisiveness and wisdom.

So universal was the obool that it was even considered a mythological currency. In ancient Greece, the obool was given to allow the deceased to reach Hades, the afterlife. Hades now could only be reached by crossing the subterranean river Styx by ferry, a ferry operated by Charon the gloomy ferryman.

An unpaid Charon meant no crossing and therefore no peace of soul.

The connection to our field of work

As a consulting firm, Obolos has profiled itself as a supporting partner within processes of transformation: business transfers, complex reorganizations, structured wealth planning, …

Our lawyers realize that these processes have much in common with a journey: they require effort, time and … a goal. The obool is therefore the symbol of the contribution our office intends to make to the realization of your trajectory. Obolos wants to be your experienced guide, protect your well-being, reach your goal with you. Your passport and your pass currency.

Transactions, transformations, succession: no process can be properly managed without fiscal support. The words of American statesman Benjamin Franklin have lost nothing of their accuracy: “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

Not surprisingly does the obool also symbolizes the tax/burden that each of these events undergoes. But the right burden is only that which is inescapable. The ferryman must be paid but paid correctly. Obolos also provides tax advice for your proposed transactions and assists you with tax analyses and optimizations.

Obolos as guide and counselor: practical legal wisdom.