Age band 30–55 years
Mid‑life decision maker
Married, children, a home or several wealth components—often the organisational centre of gravity and keenly aware of being the hinge for the family system.
“Without me, my family is lost.”
-
01 Understand
We make complex topics around inheritance, provision, and the digital estate understandable.
For informed decisions.
-
02 Structure
We create a structure that lets successors take on legal succession securely from day one.
Because no one should have to search a sock drawer for information.
-
03 Hand over
We ensure that information too dynamic for paper reaches the right people at the right time.
As a necessary complement to the will.
-
04 Preserve
We highlight optimisation potential so as little wealth as possible is lost when inheriting.
So what we worked a lifetime for is preserved.
In this way we ease the burden on families when it matters, help avoid conflicts, and support a dignified farewell.
Learn moreThere is nothing wrong with choosing not to actively shape your estate. The state, churches, banks, lawyers and other non-profit organisations in 🇩🇪 welcome roughly €19 billion in revenue each year. But if you take that path, it should be for the right reasons—and based on informed decisions. On NachlassGestalten.de there is a guided tour that conveys the necessary basic knowledge in less than 10 minutes.
Who this is particularly relevant for:
Shaping your estate early always pays off—especially when you want wealth preserved across generations and you don't want to leave loved ones facing an overwhelming burden in a crisis.
For certain life situations, however, the need is substantially greater:
Note: On mobile devices there is not enough space to map age bands precisely on the age scale. For that reason, the groups are shown at full width there.
Roughly age 0
Roughly age 10
Roughly age 20
Roughly age 30
Roughly age 40
Roughly age 50
Roughly age 60
Roughly age 70
Roughly age 80
Roughly age 90 and older
Age band 30–65 years
Patchwork family
Complex family structures, high emotional dynamics, unclear inheritance claims and heightened conflict potential in probate.
“We need clear rules so there won't be fights later.”
Age band 25–70 years
Experienced heir
Has lived through an inheritance case in their circle—experiencing chaos, conflict or organisational overload—and understands the implications.
“I'll do it better.”
Age band 60–90 years
Convinces
their own
family
to put provisions in place
Age band 45–65 years
Childless couples
Without direct descendants
“Inheritance rules don't apply to me.”
Age band 65–85 years
Lifetime wealth distributors
Affluent, structured, informed
“The state gets nothing.”
Age band 25–70 years
Sole proprietor
Have to keep dozens of logins to software, accounts and services under control themselves. They know that without their knowledge, services fail or open receivables become inaccessible.
“Without me, the shop doesn’t run tomorrow.”
Age band 20–45 years
Digital‑native households
Many complex digital assets, no estate structure
“Risk management is part of it.”
Age band 45–90 years
Convinces
their own
family
to put provisions in place
How we deliver Structured Estate Control:
In an age when nearly every digital product is being augmented with artificial intelligence or developed directly as AI-native, we deliberately take a different path. Because when it comes to estate matters, reliability matters more than probability.
Therefore our Structured Estate Control is not based on generative artificial intelligence, but on standardized, traceable, and sustainably maintainable systems.
The decisive difference does not arise from individual technologies alone, but from their controlled linkage.
We bring together information from all areas of the system in a targeted way and transfer the respective context in a traceable manner between the individual components. This creates a coherent understanding of the estate from isolated functions.
We rely on technologies that have proven themselves millions of times worldwide:
- Family trees
- Data structuring
- Workflow logic
- Encryption
Thereby standardized systems become structured, context-oriented estate control.
What context means when shaping an estate, in concrete terms:
Context boost
Typical approach in the system
New context produced
Context boost
Typical approach in the system
New context produced
Context boost
New people are automatically positioned correctly within the family tree. The system then captures, in a targeted way, supplementary information relevant to each person.
Typical approach in the system
New context produced
From family context, statutory rules of succession—including potential minimum quotas—can be derived as orientation.
Context boost
For each estate segment, matching access elements are determined automatically.
Typical approach in the system
New context produced
Access elements are organised into Vaults while information is captured.
This yields clearly separated data contexts that can be assigned to specific individuals in a targeted way.
Context boost
Content to follow.
Typical approach in the system
New context produced
Content to follow.
Context boost
Workflows bring family context and data context together: participants on one side, bundled estate information on the other.
Typical approach in the system
New context produced
From the structured allocation of estate information to individuals, one can derive a foundational expression of the testator's intent and—with that—a resulting inheritance context.
Context boost
The rough inheritance context makes it possible to give estate distribution an initial structure.
In addition, family context together with succession law can show which statutory quotas would apply to whom.
Typical approach in the system
New context produced
Estate distribution creates a concrete distribution context for planned share assignments to individuals.
Context boost
In combination with family context and distribution context, applicable succession law supports traceable estimates of potential inheritance-related costs—for instance via taxes.
Typical approach in the system
New context produced
What you end up with is structured estate context that can serve as a sound basis for consultations with legal or tax advisers.
Why context can make the difference
Every early step toward arranging your own estate is worthwhile—whether it is a shared conversation about your intentions, drawing up a will, or documenting access credentials.
Anyone who also wants to plan strategically and achieve concrete goals should view the estate as a whole. Such goals may include, for example:
- reducing inheritance tax across multiple successions
- avoiding potential disputes after death from the outset
- preparing descendants optimally for the estate and for taking over legal succession
Because which arrangements make sense depends on the specific context. What helps in one situation can even be disadvantageous in another.
From the testators’ perspective
Selected levers for reducing tax and their effect
Choose community of property
Where assets are very unevenly distributed within a marriage, switching to community of property can help distribute the assets more evenly between spouses during their lifetime. Put simply, the joint assets are then generally treated as 50/50. That way, less of the joint assets may sit with the deceased in the first succession.
Advantages
The estate is smaller in the first succession. Inheritance tax and compulsory-share claims can therefore be lower. At the same time, more wealth remains with the surviving spouse.
Disadvantages
By shifting more assets to the spouse, allowances of other heirs may not be used optimally (for example those of children). In the second succession, that can lead to a higher tax burden.
Use allowances optimally
Gifts and inheritances are generally subject to the same personal allowances. The key difference: while an allowance can be used only once in a succession, for gifts it generally becomes available again every 10 years.
Advantages
Anyone who wants to transfer assets during their lifetime and factors in the 10-year periods can use personal allowances multiple times and thereby reduce the tax burden substantially.
Disadvantages
Arrangements that mainly benefit the surviving spouse in the first succession (e.g. a Berlin will) can mean that allowances of other relatives—for example children—remain unused in the first succession.
Usufruct (Nießbrauch)
Usufruct can separate ownership from economic use. Ownership can already be transferred to a descendant, for example, while the resulting benefit remains with the transferor. At the same time, the value of the usufruct is taken into account in the tax valuation of the transfer and can significantly reduce the taxable value of the ownership interest.
Advantages
Allowances can be used earlier—and, thanks to the reduced valuation, more effectively. In addition, the costs of transferring ownership arise before the succession.
Disadvantages
Depending on how it is structured, usufruct can mean the transfer is still taken into account years later when calculating compulsory-share claims.
Family-home exemption
Owner-occupied family homes can, under certain conditions, be fully exempt from inheritance tax. The deceased must generally have lived in the property themselves, and the heir must move in without delay and use it themselves for at least ten years.
Advantages
For owner-occupied family homes, properties that often make up a substantial part of the estate can be fully exempt from inheritance tax (for children only up to 200 m² of living space).
Disadvantages
Letting before the succession can be problematic—for example if the deceased already lives in a care home. After the succession, the conditions for the exemption must still be met. Otherwise the exemption can lapse retrospectively and inheritance tax may be reclaimed.
Allocate assets purposefully
Beyond the family-home exemption, there are further asset classes where targeted allocation can have a major impact on the tax burden:
Business assets
If a business is transferred to a person who continues the operation, business assets can, under certain conditions, be 85 % or even fully exempt from inheritance tax. Key factors include continuation of the business, retention periods and, for certain companies, the development of the payroll sum.
Agriculture and forestry
Agricultural and forestry assets can also benefit from tax relief in a suitable succession. Who takes over the business and how it is continued afterwards can therefore play an important role in succession planning.
Household effects
For selected household effects, there is an additional tax exemption of €12,000–41,000 on top of the personal allowance. If household effects are distributed among several people, the respective exemption can generally apply to each recipient.
Especially for distant or unrelated persons, this can substantially increase an otherwise tightly limited allowance.
Account for rented residential property
A property rented for residential use is valued 10 % lower for inheritance and gift tax. Especially with valuable properties, that can make a substantial difference.
For gifts in particular, this can help conserve part of the personal allowance and use it for other assets.
Account for estate liabilities
Not only assets, but also liabilities form part of the estate.
If debts still exist at the time of succession (e.g. an outstanding mortgage, a private loan or unpaid invoices), they can reduce the taxable value of the estate.
So the rule is:
Anyone who wants to record the estate fully should document existing debts and other open obligations alongside all assets—if they are known.
Costs of succession
Just like estate liabilities, costs that arise only from settling the estate can also reduce the taxable acquisition. They include, for example, funeral costs as well as costs of ascertaining, valuing, administering and dividing the estate.
These costs can be claimed according to the actual expense incurred, or alternatively as a flat amount of €15,000 per succession.
The latter is particularly relevant if the testator has already prepared a great deal during their lifetime and thereby avoided later costs, for example: inventory and asset schedule/valuation, a notarial will as a substitute for a certificate of inheritance, etc.
Use life insurance purposefully
Life insurance can combine several advantages in estate planning. It can channel money to a specific person without becoming part of the ordinary estate and, depending on how it is structured, can also be tax-efficient.
Outside the estate
The insurance benefit is paid directly to the beneficiary and does not first have to be distributed through the community of heirs.
Tax advantages
For tax purposes, what matters is who pays for the life insurance and who is the beneficiary on death. If the beneficiary pays part of the premiums themselves, the corresponding share of the payout is generally not taxable as an inheritance. In a community of property this can be particularly relevant when premiums are paid from joint assets.
Even if the estate is renounced
The beneficiary can generally still receive the insurance benefit even if they renounce the inheritance because of over-indebtedness or for other reasons.
Secure liquidity
The payout can provide quickly available funds—for example to pay out other heirs, settle debts, or enable taking over a property or a business.
Compulsory share
For the compulsory share, life insurance is not automatically valued at the full payout, but only at the surrender value. Other heirs may therefore receive less as a compulsory share than with an ordinary gift of the same amount.
That is why active estate planning should always be grounded in the full context. Only when all relevant areas are considered together does a complete picture for recommendations emerge.
From the heirs’ perspective
Context helps not only with estate planning…
… it also makes it much easier for heirs to take on legal succession.
In doing so it can offer not only additional orientation — there are situations in which heirs relatively quickly face different duties to fully document the estate’s assets and liabilities, for example:
-
Disputes over the estate
To make the estate transparent to those entitled to a compulsory share, a compulsory-share inventory listing all assets and liabilities may be required.
-
Determining inheritance tax
To establish the taxable acquisition and the inheritance tax due, one may be required to file a tax return with details on assets, liabilities, values and tax-specific points.
-
Limiting the heirs’ liability
To protect personal assets from the liabilities of the estate—for example by applying for a limitation of liability or initiating estate administration or estate insolvency—an inventory of all assets and liabilities of the estate is needed.
-
Managing assets
In special succession setups—for example underage heirs or prior/subsequent heirship—documentation of the affected assets is needed for delineation.
Who is my context determined for, and how is it stored?
The central challenge for digital estate-planning offerings is that highly sensitive information is often stored and processed in one place you do not operate yourself.
This is far from everyday user data—it covers net-worth signals, family relationships, contractual relationships, access credentials, and personal documents, all with an unusually high sensitivity profile. The common reassurance that “nobody could really do anything harmful with this anyway” does not hold up in this case. Estate data carries exceptional analytical value for third parties, while conventional cloud software routinely depends on you placing long-term trust in whoever runs the servers.
One solution. Many paths.
Decide where your data lives and how it reaches its recipient when it matters:
Local only
- All data stays on your device
- Independence from external services
Flows via infrastructure
-
Flows can also be started without
your device - Vaults are distributed manually
Vaults & flows via infrastructure
- Vaults are distributed automatically in the estate case
- Always the latest version of the vaults
DigitalerNachlass.App is a system in which technical control over sensitive information stays with the respective owners—at all times:
1
Baseline data stays untouched
The original data remains in each source system and is not altered or replaced. Existing access-and-permission structures in those systems stay fully intact.
Outcome
Anyone with access to a source can read the data held there in plaintext.
2
DigitalerNachlass.App · local encryption
All information stored inside DigitalerNachlass.App is written to disk encrypted, locally on the device in question. Each device derives its own cryptographic key material.
Outcome
Only people with access to that specific hardware and the unlocked DigitalerNachlass.App desktop application can reach the datasets held inside DigitalerNachlass.App.
3
Key exchange
Recipient devices derive cryptographic keys locally on their phones. Only the corresponding public portion leaves the handset; later it may be used solely to encrypt information for that recipient’s channel.
The matching private‑key portion stays safeguarded on the device and is—even for the recipient—out of reach at this stage.
Outcome
Payloads can later be encrypted selectively for individual recipients, and the timing of decryption can be controlled.
4
Vault encryption
The payloads contained in vault compartments are encrypted with the person‑bound keys of each assigned recipient.
Only the assigned recipient’s devices hold the private keys that can later make the information readable again.
Outcome
Vault payloads remain unreadable without the matching keys — independent of where they are stored.
5
Distribute vaults
Encrypted vaults can either be distributed by you directly or delivered through DigitalerNachlass.App’s infrastructure. Each person chooses the balance they want between control and convenience.
Outcome
Until encrypted vaults and private keys are brought together under control, nobody can access the information they contain.
Private keys on intended recipients’ devices are strictly separate from DigitalerNachlass.App’s infrastructure.
6
Updating vault contents
Vault contents can be revised, extended, or re-encrypted at any time.
Outcome
In an estate event, recipients gain access to the last released information baseline.
7
Estate event · verified
For defined estate events, individualized release workflows are stored—started by designated trusted parties in the mobile app and confirmed within the prescribed process.
Outcome
Upon release, the required private keys—and, if you choose, the encrypted vaults—are delivered under control. Recipients can decrypt the data from that point onward.
8
Recipients receive plaintext information
Decryption makes the assigned information available to recipients again in plaintext, ready to use in the intended context.
Outcome
Recipients hold the relevant information they need to manage the estate and step into legal succession.
Your life’s work does not have to end with death…
Anyone who actively shapes their own estate creates the foundation for their life’s work to continue after death. Wealth can be preserved across generations, unnecessary losses of value can be avoided, and one’s own intentions can still be carried out even when one can no longer decide.
Clear and complete documentation gives descendants orientation and enables them to take on legal succession quickly and securely.
DigitalerNachlass.App is the next generation of estate planning.
So your estate stays in safe hands – yours.
From pricing to subscription
There may well be good reasons to put this off again today.
Price isn't one of them.