Cross-Border Family Wealth: Why Do Structures Fail Abroad?

When families go global before they plan, their structures often break across borders. A prenuptial agreement respected on the continent may be ignored by a London court, a trust that works in Nigeria can be taxed away in Belgium, and incapacity is rarely planned for at all. This conversation looks at how advisers build governance and control first, then fit tax efficiency around it, and why corporate housekeeping now decides whether a structure survives.

Chapters:
0:00 Introductions and the firms
2:28 Where cross-border family wealth planning breaks down
3:03 Nigeria: customary, Sharia and fragmented assets
5:21 Europe: civil law agreements versus common law uncertainty
7:41 Balancing tax efficiency and family control
9:23 Belgium: Dutch-speaking tax focus versus French-speaking structure focus
12:14 Succession pitfalls across jurisdictions
12:49 Family wealth and business wealth intertwined
14:28 Trusts, private foundations and family constitutions
15:37 Why trusts do not work in Belgium succession
17:21 The impact of rising tax transparency
18:58 Defensible structures and better record keeping
19:32 Structures are not playgrounds: corporate housekeeping
20:41 Belgium Cayman tax and shrinking transparent structures
21:51 Closing thoughts: governance over wills, advisers as living awareness

Featuring Global Law Experts members from Nigeria and Belgium.