Current information

On January 1, 2024, the law governing civil law partnerships (GbR) will be comprehensively reformed. There is a need for action for companies with real estate ownership or company participations. The GbR should be registered in the new company register.

If you want to fulfill your dream of owning your own house or apartment, you usually have to take out a loan. To protect themselves against payment defaults, banks and financing insurers usually have an enforceable land charge entered in the land register. If the loan cannot be repaid in accordance with the contract, the land charge makes it possible, under certain conditions, to foreclose on the property without prior court judgment. The lender receives his money back from the proceeds. In addition, land charge holders are often unaware that they are also liable with their wages and other assets to meet the bank's claims.

More and more people are no longer able to make decisions about their own personal and financial affairs due to illness, accidents or disability. Currently, around 1.3 million people in Germany are looked after by a court-appointed guardian. If you want to retain your self-determination in the event of care, you should take precautions while you are still healthy and have a power of attorney drawn up.

If there is a heated argument between parents and adult children or if the father and mother feel permanently neglected in their twilight years, they sometimes consider their offspring to be unworthy of inheritance. However, the legislator has set the hurdles for the assumption of unworthiness to inherit much higher than many believe. Even dropping out of education through one's own fault or choosing a spouse with whom one's parents do not "agree" in no way constitutes unworthiness to inherit.

When married couples separate, they generally do not want to leave anything to each other. However, divorce is only possible after one year at the earliest. If one of the ex-partners dies within this period, the statutory inheritance entitlement continues to exist. The statutory right of inheritance only becomes ineffective once an application has been filed and the conditions for divorce have been met. Spouses should therefore consider the consequences of separation and divorce under inheritance law at an early stage and arrange this with a notary. This applies all the more to unmarried partners who conclude an inheritance contract.

Many people want to leave something of value to their descendants so that they will be better off later. However, if the heirs are in debt, insolvent or receiving social welfare, worried parents often turn to a notary. A so-called indigent will with execution of the will and prior and subsequent inheritance can prevent creditors from gaining access to the estate. To this end, the will must always be tailored precisely to the individual case.