Overview
- Official 2024 assessments captured €113.2 billion in inherited and gifted assets with a record €13.3 billion in taxes, far below economist estimates of roughly €400 billion transferred each year.
- New polling reported by FAZ finds many urban residents still lack a will, including about half of respondents in Frankfurt and roughly three quarters in Munich.
- V-CHECK, a knowledge portal of Münchner V-Bank AG, released a free e‑book on real-estate succession that explains options such as usufruct (Nießbrauch), residential rights, early gifts, and the ten‑year reuse of tax allowances.
- Coverage highlights recurring pitfalls like co‑heir group deadlocks that can end in partition auctions, liquidity shortfalls for taxes or upkeep, and misconceptions about tools such as the Berliner Testament.
- Regional data point to rising receipts in Saxony (about €75 million in 2024 and €91 million in 2025, per report) as parties debate reforms, including a federal SPD idea for a €1 million one‑time tax‑free amount and a Bavarian push for state‑set rates that remains unresolved.