06. Can you transfer wealth during your lifetime?

A transfer may help a child now, teach stewardship gradually, balance family positions or reduce the concentration of assets in one generation. Those objectives differ in timing, reversibility, control and documentation.

Saying that it is ‘better to give during life’ is not enough. The family should know the recipient, asset, timing, restrictions, relationship to the future succession intention and acceptable degree of control after the transfer.

The reserve should cover not only ordinary expenditure, but also known major commitments, a possible fall in income, delay in selling assets and implementation costs. An illiquid asset should not be treated as available cash merely because it has an estimated value.

The scenario model compares the baseline, an additional stress and delayed access. It shows the surplus above the user-selected minimum and the sensitive assumptions, but does not confirm lifelong solvency or recommend the calculated amount.

Key point

A zero or negative surplus is a reason to revisit the assumptions, not an automatic legal prohibition.

A direct cash gift changes liquidity immediately. A transfer of another asset requires valuation, title review and checks on restrictions. A family loan preserves a receivable and requires servicing. A papieren schenking—a notarial gift by acknowledgement of debt—and a gift-and-loan-back arrangement depend on formalities, cash flows and recurring actions that cannot be treated as complete merely because a document has been signed.

For each route, compare control, income, reversibility, evidence, the tax layer, effects on the partner and other children, and the administration required after the first year.

A gift may create expense, a filing obligation, investment risk or a family expectation. A minor or vulnerable recipient requires a separate management analysis. Transferring an interest in a business does not transfer the competence to run it.

The family should discuss in advance whether the transfer is an advance against a future position, how it will be explained to the other children and what information will be retained for a later succession calculation. Those decisions deserve clearer documentation than a general promise that ‘we will equalise everything later’.

The implementation map records the agreement or deed, actual payment, valuation, return, interest, evidence and responsible person. Where an action recurs annually, it belongs in the Operating Calendar with a due date and completion evidence.

Rates, exemptions and thresholds are separated from the chapter's enduring logic. Before every implementation, they must be checked for the relevant year against a primary source; the public calculator deliberately does not calculate schenkbelasting or erfbelasting.