Family, Succession and Family Business - Portugal
The growing demand for services related to Family Law and Family Business, as well as the specificities and specialization these areas require, led to the need to create a dedicated department at Belzuz Abogados Portugal. This department was established to provide a differentiated approach to the study and handling of various matters within these matters.
The Family and Family Business Law Department offers a wide range of advisory services, both in court and out of court. The department is well-prepares to handle all aspects of Family and Inheritance Law – including family wealth management – as well as matters related to Family Business Law or Family Governance Law, providing support for all situations involving family-owned businesses, including day-to-day affairs.
Using our head office in Spain and an international support network, the Family and Family Business Law Department can also provide support in all situations involving foreign jurisdictions, including from the perspective of planning and anticipating succession alternatives.
The Family and Family Business Law Department of Belzuz Abogados Portugal offers:
· Development of a defense strategy, based on analysis and legal opinions prior to any action.
· Its best legal know-how and strategy for negotiation between parties.
· Its best negotiation strategy to achieve agreements aligned with the parties’ interests and will.
· Experience and expertise in drafting contracts and agreements, including complex ones that could otherwise take years to resolve in court.
· Action through mediation or, where necessary, through judicial means.
· Sensitivity and discretion in handling privacy issues, due to the particularly intimate and sensitive nature of most matters in Family Law.
Family Business
Family businesses represent a vital part of the Portuguese economy, both in terms of quantity and relevance. They take various forms, from microenterprises to large corporate groups, but are mainly characterized by the family unity that binds them.
This familial link fosters long-term objectives, aiming to preserve family wealth continuity.
Although exact statistics are lacking, it is estimated that over 70% of Portuguese companies have a family-owned structure.
The main challenges family businesses face involves professionalizing management, developing an effective and transparent corporate governance model, and ensuring succession and business continuity.
The Family and Family Business Department at Belzuz Abogados S.L.P. provides a multidisciplinary, specialized service in advising on the legal and tax aspects of family businesses. This is based on an understanding of the need to combine elements common to all businesses with those specific to family enterprises.
Specialities
The close relationship between business and family, operating in unity, must be governed by discipline and effective governance control.
In this context, the drafting of Family Protocols is a crucial management tool for preventing conflicts in family businesses, reducing undesirable situations, and ensuring the continuity of the business within the family structure.
A Family Protocol is a consensual, written agreement between all family members that establishes a code of conduct regulating their relationship with the business, in terms of ownership, succession, governance, and the professional, economic, and personal connections between family and business.
As part of Family Protocol development, we assist clients in succession planning, defining family governance structures—especially the Family Assembly and Family Council—and in implementing corporate governance rules.
Our team is equipped to identify and address situations requiring the preservation of intergenerational family wealth. This includes creating structures to unify family interests over all or part of their assets, regardless of type (movable and/or immovable property). This approach also allows alignment of family asset organization with strategic objectives, potentially outlined in a family protocol.
Asset holders may use various mechanisms and instruments not only to facilitate succession but also to optimize resources and, where possible, achieve tax-efficient solutions.
Depending on each family’s goals, such structures may include:
- Establishing family offices;
- Creating family holding companies;
- Separating asset components, for example through the formation of companies or corporate groups;
- Creating contractual or statutory instruments regulating the transfer of shares upon death;
- Considering fiduciary/trust structures;
- Asset separation for specific objectives or tax efficiency.
In connection with Family Asset/Business Restructuring, Belzuz Abogados S.L.P. also advises clients on:
- Business internationalization through branch openings, incorporation of companies or other legal entities, and the execution of agreements such as joint ventures or partnerships;
- Acquisitions or sales of family businesses, business restructuring, and corporate reorganizations;
- Advising on family and business asset separation operations;
- Legal support in shareholder disputes.
Family Law
Drawing on the long-standing commitment of our parent firm in Spain and the high level of specialization, preparation, and experience of Clara Belzuz Fernández, head of the Family Law Department at Belzuz Abogados Spain, our new department adopts a primarily conciliatory spirit, favoring out-of-court solutions—particularly important in this area of law.
Specialities
The end of a shared life is increasingly common today, with single-parent families representing a significant part of modern society. Belzuz Abogados Portugal is well-versed in these matters and provides support through both amicable negotiations and formalizations of separation (divorce or mutual consent separation), as well as during contested proceedings involving the division of common assets.
Inheritance and all the legal acts inherent to this autonomous patrimony have taken on an unquestionable relevance these days, and Belzuz Advogados has not been indifferent to this, dedicating itself to advising its clients in a double ante-mortem and post-mortem aspect, which covers, among other things, matters related to wills, legacies, donations, administration and extrajudicial or judicial sharing (inventory process) of the inheritance.
In addition to the emotional aspect of family life, understanding the pros and cons of different forms of cohabitation is important. Belzuz Abogados Portugal assists clients with marriage procedures, choosing marital property regimes, drafting prenuptial agreements, and recognizing de facto unions and their legal rights.
The development of family relationships in EU and non-EU countries involves many Portuguese citizens, either because they acquired nationality at birth (place of birth, nationality of family members, etc.) or because they acquired it during their lifetime (marriage/de facto union, residence in Portugal, etc.). Given its Portuguese-Spanish nature, Belzuz Abogados has been advising and sponsoring its clients in transcribing marriages and registering divorces and other forms of marriage dissolution, as well
as in recognizing and validating foreign court decisions handed down in other countries that are intended to have effect in Portugal.
The separation of the parents does not have to mean that the child loses contact with either of them, except in exceptional cases where this is manifestly inappropriate. The regime that best fits the parents’ lives must be defined, considering the child’s best interests, either by agreement or by court decision.
Belzuz Abogados Portugal seeks a tailored solution in each case to balance key daily life concerns. This ensures that parental responsibilities are clearly defined while maintaining flexibility to avoid rigid and unworkable outcomes.
Family and inheritance law issues often have tax implications that must be anticipated and managed. For instance, donations may be subject to tax; divisions of property may trigger Personal Income Tax, Municipal Property Transfer Tax, or other taxes. All these implications must be foreseen to prevent unforeseen tax burdens on beneficiaries.
On the other hand, where possible, we identify solutions that allow family and inheritance law matters to be handled in the most tax-efficient manner.
Accordingly, the Family and Family Business Law Department is able to anticipate the tax implications of each situation, always seeking to maximize tax efficiency in decision-making.
Belzuz Abogados Portugal also offers specialized legal assistance in processes involving adults in need of protection (maior acompanhado) and in court authorizations to overcome legal incapacity of minors, ensuring rigorous and personalized support in these highly sensitive and relevant family matters.
The maior acompanhado regime replaced the former interdiction and incapacitation framework, promoting a more personalized and respectful approach to the person’s dignity and autonomy. We assist with the preparation, initiation, and management of these proceedings, ensuring that adopted measures meet the person’s needs while safeguarding their rights and interests.
When it is necessary to overcome a minor’s legal incapacity—such as to accept an inheritance, sign contracts (e.g., for property sales), or perform other significant legal acts—judicial authorization is required. We support families throughout these processes, providing the necessary legal advice and handling court proceedings.
Our team works with sensitivity, precision, and dedication, ensuring effective legal services guided by trust and commitment to our clients’ interests, particularly in legally complex and emotionally delicate matters.
Our Team
Partner, Portugal Branch
Teresa Lopes Ferreira
Female Associate Lawyer
Catarina Duarte
