Total private wealth held in Africa is expected to rise 30% by 2030 and more and more high-net-worth families are turning to ALN for trusted, independent advice.
ALN has acted for family businesses and high-net-worth entrepreneurs in East and Central Africa for over fifty years. The firms take immense pride in witnessing the growth of the family businesses they represent, many of whom are now large international conglomerates with successful cross-border operations spanning many countries. Our established Private Client and Family Wealth teams provide a wide range of sophisticated solutions relating to estate and succession planning, corporate governance and the intergenerational transfer of wealth all in the context of family wealth and family businesses. Our services including tax planning and optimisation, use of family shareholder agreements and family constitutions, the use of local and offshore trusts, foundations and other innovative structures for the holding of family assets and wealth and private wealth tax planning. We also advise on local and international wills and probate.
We help private clients navigate the rapidly changing global environment as it relates to tax, disclosure obligations, the structuring of family wealth and the ever-growing influence of the younger generations on the operation of family businesses. We assist clients in making critical decisions that affect important personal, business, tax, civic and charitable concerns. The teams fully appreciate the need for confidentiality and discretion when dealing with private matters.
Principal Areas of Practice:
Representative transactions include advising:
In connection with his wealth and succession planning matters, including establishing new purpose trust (STAR) structures in the Cayman Islands, amending existing trust structures in Guernsey and Switzerland, drafting of complex wills in Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda and the United States of America, structuring outward investment from the United Arab Emirates to Ghana, and drafting shareholders agreements and convertible loan agreements and structuring ownership of property investments in the United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom.
In connection with the family’s wealth and succession planning matters, including obtaining advice from a Sharia’h scholar on issues relating to establishing a trust, establishing an offshore trust to hold the client’s assets, and restructuring of the group into a single holding structure.
In connection with the interpretation and validity of a poorly drafted will seeking to create unworkable trusts which could have resulted to a potential family dispute arising from its unclear provisions. We sought a court order to approve our interpretation of the will and handled the probate and distribution of the deceased’s vast estate.
In connection with his succession planning matters, including restructuring of the shareholding in the existing businesses in a tax-efficient manner, establishing a local Kenyan trust, and drafting wills for the client.
In connection with their wealth and succession planning matters, including advising on UK wills and bank accounts, risks of Sharia’h in the UAE and the application of forced heirship rights in the UAE and Ethiopia, including establishment of a new purpose trust (STAR) structure in the Cayman Islands with unique provisions relating to a committee of elders, drafting of complex wills in Kenya, UK and Ethiopia to ensure that the clients wishes were fulfilled, establishing a charitable trust in Kenya and providing corporate restructuring advice.
In connection with the review of the existing family trust structure governing the shares of the family holding company, which holds significant assets in the horticultural and real estate sectors and advising on a restructuring of the trust, including drafting resolutions to wind up the initial trust structure, establishing a new family trust, drafting an appropriate trust deed to govern the trust, transferring assets from the previous trust arrangement into the new one, drafting a complex will for the settlor of the new trust structure and drafting a deed of counter indemnity to provide additional protection from potential claims of indemnity from previous trustees.