When it comes to preserving wealth across generations, wealthy families often encounter legal, financial, and strategic complexities. When faced with these challenges, estate planning becomes not just a formality but a vital part of a financial strategy to protect the family’s future. QWealth offers a smart solution: setting up a Serbian foundation, a powerful tool for managing family assets.
What Is a Serbian Foundation?
A Serbian foundation is a legal structure used for managing assets and planning inheritance. It’s a Central-EasternEuropean alternative to Anglo-Saxon Trusts and Liechtenstein Foundations, offering privacy and discretion.
The foundations operate under Serbia’s “Law on Purpose Foundations,” providing clearrules for creating, managing, and closing such entities. The foundation becomes a legal entity on the day it is registered and can be established either by a founding document or a will.
Why Use a Serbian Foundation for Estate Planning
A Serbian foundation is a legal entity similar in function to a trust in common law countries, which is why it is sometimes described as a civil-law equivalent of a trust. However, it follows civil law principles and has a different legal nature.
Essentially, for families seeking confidentiality, asset protection, and long-term wealth planning, these foundations are an excellent choice. Let’s go through the advantages.
Flexible Purpose and Use
Serbian law allows foundations to be created for both private and charitable purposes. It provides the founder full freedom to define the foundation’s goals, meaning the foundation can be tailored to meet specific family needs and priorities.
Long-Term Protection of the Founder’s Wishes
One major advantage of a Serbian foundation is its unlimited lifespan. The founder’s intentions and how they should be fulfilled are clearly set out in the foundation’s charter and are legally protected from future changes by other parties..
Efficient Management
A board of trustees or administrators manages the foundation. They act under a foundation agreement that clearly outlines their duties and responsibilities. As a result, the foundation is professionally managed to help the founder achieve the goals set.
Independent Legal Entity
A Serbian foundation is a separate legal entity, independent from its founders and beneficiaries. This separation forms yet another protection layer for the family’s assets.
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Legal Rules for Beneficial Ownership
If you set up a Serbian foundation, you must disclose the identities of its beneficial owners. Under Serbian law, a beneficial owner is an individual who owns or controls the foundation (directly or indirectly), makes major decisions, or receives financial benefits from it. These can include people in executive, management, or strategic roles.
One unique aspect of Serbian foundations is that profits can be retained and accumulated without direct involvement from the founder or beneficiaries. As long as the foundation charter outlines how profits should be used (and the board of trustees monitors compliance), third-party managers can run the foundation on its behalf.
In line with global transparency efforts, Serbia has created a Central Register of Beneficial Owners. All legal entities, including foundations, must disclose who their ultimate beneficial owners are. As is evident, Serbia is committed to international FATF and EU standards. At the same time, foundations still maintain a degree of privacy for the public while sharing required data with the authorities. A professional and compliant setup is key to meeting all legal requirements.
Estate Planning Services in Serbia
QWealth’s experts support clients in solving sensitive estate planning issues such as:
- Structuring assets in line with tax laws;
- Resolving family disputes;
- Providing for adopted children or relatives with special care needs;
- Setting up confidential mechanisms when the founder wants to keep some family members unaware that they are beneficiaries;
- Handling other complex inheritance matters.
Our team offers discreet and professional assistance at every step — from setting up the foundation to managing it over the long term. We understand that estate planning is a crucial part of life for wealthy families and, therefore, deserves all due expertise and consideration.
Our approach is based on:
- Strict confidentiality
- Diplomacy in handling family matters
- Long-term strategic thinking
- Deep expertise in Serbian law
A Serbian foundation is a powerful way to preserve and pass on family wealth.
By partnering with QWealth, you gain a trusted advisor who will help you structure your legacy and transfer assets to the next generation according to your wishes.
To learn more about our estate planning and family wealth services, you can book a consultation with one of our experts using the live chat.
