Trusts and the Romanian fiducie, family foundations, international succession and forced heirship: how wealth is transferred lawfully between generations.
Transferring wealth to the next generation is not a notarial formality put off until the end; it is a structure built in advance, with its own limits, some of which cannot be removed. The trust, the fiducie and the family foundation are the instruments most often invoked, and most often misunderstood.
The section brings together the analyses devoted to the transfer of wealth and to succession with an international element. They share a practical observation: the Anglo-Saxon instruments that circulate in public discussion (the trust, above all) have no perfect equivalent in Romanian law, and their use by a Romanian resident raises questions of recognition, taxation and forced heirship to which the answer is never the one in the sales brochure.
The material is organised on two levels. Trusts and the fiducie compares the Anglo-Saxon structure with the Romanian fiducie and with the continental family foundation, explains what happens on the recognition of a foreign trust when the beneficiary is Romanian resident, and covers the taxation of the three roles (settlor, fiduciary, beneficiary). International succession moves to the cross-border level: the law applicable to an estate with assets in more than one state, forced heirship as the iron limit of any planning, and the European certificate of succession as a tool for recognition between authorities.
It is addressed to families with assets in more than one jurisdiction, to entrepreneurs thinking about business continuity, and to their advisers, who need a sober reading of what each instrument can and cannot do. Each analysis starts from the applicable text (the Civil Code, the European regulations, the relevant treaties) and flags explicitly where Romanian law sets a limit.
A scope note: this section deals with the transfer of wealth and succession. The protection of assets during someone's lifetime, against business risk, is dealt with in the asset protection section, and international structures used for tax purposes, in the offshore section.
18 July 2026
The Anglo-Saxon trust splits ownership into legal title and equitable title; the Romanian fiducie (Articles 773 to 791 of the Civil Code) reproduces the tripartite structure, but blocks it with three restraints: a professional fiduciary, a 33-year duration, and the prohibition on an indirect gift in Article 775. Why the fiducie does not transfer wealth to children, what only the trust can do, and why Romania is not a party to the 1985 Hague Convention.
18 July 2026
Romania is not a party to the 1985 Hague Convention, so a foreign trust is not “translated” into Romanian law; it is analysed through Book VII of the Civil Code. What happens when the resident is the settlor (the Paulian action, insolvency) or the beneficiary (uncertain taxation, between income from other sources and a gratuitous acquisition), how the structure becomes visible through CRS and FATCA, and why forced heirship still applies to assets located in Romania.
18 July 2026
The family foundation is a legal person with no members, holding dedicated assets: the continental alternative to the trust. The Stiftung (Liechtenstein), the STAK (the Netherlands) and the private interest foundation (Panama): what each offers, why transparency has replaced secrecy, how the founder and the Romanian beneficiary are taxed, why the CFC rules (Article 40⁵) do not apply to individuals, and why forced heirship still applies to assets located in the country.
18 July 2026
Three roles, three regimes: the settlor (the transfer itself is not income, but unjustified wealth is taxed at 70%), the beneficiary (distributions most likely count as income from other sources, at 10%, but with no published ANAF practice), and the structure as an entity (the risk of Romanian tax residence under the place of effective management). Why the Article 40⁵ CFC rule does not catch an individual, and why documented transparency beats opacity.
18 July 2026
A flat in Brașov, a house in Spain, accounts in Austria, and a single law governing all of them. How Regulation (EU) 650/2012 decides the applicable law through habitual residence (Article 21), why the choice of the law of nationality (professio juris, Article 22) is the decisive lever, what the Regulation leaves out (taxation and matrimonial property), and the trap specific to Romania, which does not apply Regulation 2016/1103.
18 July 2026
A father wants to leave everything to a single child and “nothing to the other”. He runs into forced heirship (Articles 1086 to 1092 of the Civil Code): who the forced heirs are, how much the reserved share amounts to in figures, why lifetime gifts are notionally added back into the calculation estate, how the three-year reduction works, and why neither the trust, nor the foundation, nor the fiducie sidesteps it for assets located in Romania.
18 July 2026
The bank in Vienna and the land registry in Spain do not recognise the Romanian certificate of succession; they ask for “something recognised where they are”. That something is the European certificate of succession (Article 62 et seq. of Regulation 650/2012): what it is actually for, who issues it in Romania (the public notary), what effects it produces through the presumption of accuracy, and the practical trap of certified copies, valid for only 6 months.
The tax inspection procedure, from the compliance notice to the tax assessment decision and the appeal against it, including the review of an individual's tax position and the 70% tax.
38 analysesTaking ANAF to court: what you challenge and within what time limit, how to stop enforcement, which evidence wins the case and how the money comes back after a final judgment.
12 analysesTax evasion, embezzlement, money laundering and the related economic offences: from the figure in the findings report to a defence built on evidence.
30 analysesTax residence, double taxation treaties, foreign income and property, exit tax and DAC6, for interests in more than one jurisdiction.
17 analysesEconomic substance, jurisdictions and anti-abuse rules: what remains lawful after BEPS, ATAD and CRS, and where the line into criminal liability is crossed.
10 analysesSeparating personal wealth from business risk: principles, liability, the instruments that actually protect, and the line between lawful planning and fraud.
10 analysesParty-appointed and out-of-court tax expertise: the technical challenge to the loss calculation in an inspection, in litigation and in the criminal file, from objections to counter-expertise.
20 analysesThe file and the methods, the comparability study, ANAF adjustments to the median, intra-group services and loans, APAs and the inspection, for transactions between related companies.
11 analysesThe complete list of the 156 analyses published, in chronological order, with filters by area.
Go to InsightsAn initial conversation clarifies which law governs your succession, which instrument (a trust, a fiducie, a foundation) actually does what you need, and where forced heirship sets a limit that no structure gets past.