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.

For a direct cash gift, the family reconciles the decision, bank movement, value and any required filing. A family loan requires an agreement, commercially coherent terms, a schedule, actual payments and a current balance. A gift on paper (schenken op papier) is recorded by notarial deed; for the debt to be recognised in the intended estate context, interest must actually be paid each year under the current conditions. A spreadsheet accrual is not the payment.

This produces an evidence calendar: what is signed once, what must be carried out in cash, what is filed for a particular year and what is reviewed annually. The client sees not only the initial instrument but also the operating burden, the risk of a missed action and the person responsible for keeping the evidence.

Real estate, company shares and assets with a foreign connection require an additional route: title and restriction checks, a separate valuation, notarial or company actions and the relevant country analysis. A general transfer checklist does not replace those reviews.

• deed or agreement and decision date;
• valuation of the transferred asset;
• bank movement or other evidence of performance;
• return and filing evidence where required;
• interest, repayment, outstanding balance and annual review.

Key point

A family transfer is complete when the legal, cash and evidence routes align—not when a template has been found.

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.

Timing also matters. Under the general Dutch rule, a gift made within 180 days before death may be treated as part of the estate for inheritance-tax purposes; exceptions exist. The date, gift route, filings and tax already paid must therefore be reviewed for the particular facts rather than assumed from one general formula.