Advice to companies

We have summarised our portfolio for you in the list below:

Business advice

• Traditional business advice when analysing/optimising processes
• We compile cost accounts via DATEV for you in agreement with you
• Advice on funding
• Advice on traditional marketing and online marketing
• We provide a lot of advice to skilled tradesmen
• Advice on handing over tradesmen’s businesses
• Review of internal control systems
• Introduction of construction site controlling

Advice on setting up a business

• Compiling the business plan
• Reviewing a company plan that has been submitted
• Support in compiling business plans
• Advice on selecting the legal form
• Financing planning including support during discussions with banks
• Grant programmes / Advice on subsidies
• Sustainability checks

Economic advice

• Private financial planning
• Pension planning
• Enforcement of wills
• Assessment of asset values in divorce cases and mediation
• Asset succession planning:
• Purchase or sale of a company
• Entry and departure of shareholders into/from a partnership/incorporated company
• Divorce and separation matters with regard to money
• Inheritance disputes and gifts
• Incorporation of a business into a company

Due Diligence reports for company transactions

Are you intending to buy a company or acquire a holding?

In general Due Diligence (abbreviated to: DD) is understood to mean “the careful investigation and analysis of the target company as part of the preparations and implementation of a transaction, in order to indicate the main influencing factors for this transaction and analyse them”.

In general a DD is undertaken on the instructions of the potential purchaser or investor.

A DD report is intended to assist you in making strategic decisions on the basis of the nature and manner for obtaining and preparing the information as part of investments or disinvestments in a target. There is often a structural information imbalance between potential purchasers or sellers, which should be rectified.

Any DD that is carried out chiefly has three aims for the client:

• Obtaining information (reducing an information deficit)
• Making opportunities and risks transparent
• Securing evidence (as a precaution in case of later disputes)

We can offer you the following types of DD in a report:

• Financial DD
• Tax DD
• Legal DD

In a DD report, which contains a Financial, Tax and Legal DD, we will analyse and assess for you for example:

• The asset, financial and profit situation of the target company
• Analysis of the annual accounts
• Identifying balance sheet risks
• Verifying the plausibility of the planning accounts submitted
• Reviewing tax returns and tax reserves
• Identifying opportunities for tax optimisation
• Identifying tax risks
• Preparing legal framework conditions etc.

Before a DD can be carried out, a confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement is concluded between the parties involved together with a non-usage obligation. A list is provided to potential purchasers in a downstream information memorandum about the information to be provided, which his expert is permitted to assess. As the negotiations might still fail after the assessment of the information provided, the answer to the question regarding which information is urgently required for an assessment in further negotiations, is an extremely sensitive matter. This is why a so-called Letter of Intent (LoI) is also signed before the start of a DD, where in particular contractual penalties are regulated in the event of breaches against the above-mentioned obligations.

Assessment of asset values in divorce cases and mediation:

An intended divorce between spouses does not necessarily have to start with a visit to a lawyer, even if this is compulsory in any later court divorce proceedings. It’s often the case in a separation about regulating the finances in the broadest sense or expressed more simply “As usual it’s all about the money”! We can therefore help couples or other life partners wishing to divorce with financial dependencies when it’s a matter of finding a fair financial settlement for both sides. The first step of our approach to advice and mediation is to create a basis for discussions between the partners involved. We act merely as mediators and always in the position of a neutral and independent person. In these discussions we note the wishes of our clients and present them to a notary in agreement with the clients. The notary checks the legal situation or its legal implementation as an independent body for the administration of justice in a second step for the purpose of an intended notarial certification. Clients can save a lot of time through this approach, but above all there is no exchange of correspondence with content, which can often be extremely worrying for the people concerned. We recommend that first our clients free themselves from any legal opinions, because this is what the notary will do later, and consider which payments are economically feasible and which are not. In doing so, giving and taking should be in balance and in particular a long-term financing of what is requested. Assets are therefore assessed neutrally by us and the financial circumstances are made transparent for both parties etc., because these values act as the basis for the notary to settle the equalization of the accrued gains and maintenance payments in the notarial contract. Of course, a notary will also stipulate the partition of the household effects or regulations on the pension rights adjustment in this document. If there are maintenance obligations towards children, this will also be settled in the notarial document. A notarial document with an enforcement clause is naturally something for enforcement if one partner changes their mind after a notarial agreement. We recommend using a joint lawyer for the final divorce proceedings for reasons of cost, which is generally possible because all the financial details have already been stipulated from a notarial perspective in this last step of the proceedings. Unfortunately, these mediation proceedings are not suitable for everyone wishing to divorce because often a tax adviser or a notary, who both work towards an amicable resolution of conflict, do not score with this strategic approach if there are wounded vanities or feelings. In this case, the normal path of everyone consulting a lawyer in advance, is inevitable.