Ginsburg & Co., Advocates

Ginsburg & Co., Advocates, led by Adv. Yifat Ginsburg, is among Israel’s leading firms in the field of family wealth management. The firm is recognized for its holistic, creative, and thorough approach, under which a personalized and comprehensive solution is tailored to each client’s needs. 

The firm advises on the preservation, protection, and planning of family wealth, the drafting of complex family agreements, including for family members holding interests in public and private companies, the establishment of trusts and bespoke legal structures, prenuptial and marital agreements, philanthropic entities, enduring and complex powers of attorney, as well as guidance for attorneys-in-fact and guardians. 

The firm also conducts legal proceedings and litigation in these fields in Israel and worldwide. The firm adopts and adheres to a broad perspective of each client, developing strategies and solutions that integrate family and inheritance law with international tax, banking, compliance, and international law considerations. 

Planning, Formulating, and Implementing Complex Legal Solutions

The firm’s attorneys have extensive proven experience providing legal counsel to Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWI) and High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI), families, family businesses (public and private), trustees, trust companies, protectors, Multi Family Offices and Single Family Offices, quasi-family business partnerships, and international financial institutions.

The unique combination of these areas of expertise, together with extensive experience, sound business and legal judgment, and a deep understanding of family law in Israel and abroad, enables the firm to formulate and implement complex and comprehensive legal solutions for clients in Israel and internationally.

The firm’s attorneys provide advice and guidance across a broad range of matters, including the planning and establishment of complex trusts, Asset Protection Trusts, the establishment of ad hoc trust companies for UHNWI clients, prenuptial and marital agreements, divorce proceedings, planning and execution of intergenerational transfers of assets, businesses, and complex corporate structures, drafting wills containing special arrangements, shareholders’ agreements, including declaratory family constitutions, family control agreements, and other agreements required in connection with intergenerational succession, administration of cross-border estates, global tax planning, establishment of Single Family Offices for UHNWI clients, advising on the appointment of guardians and attorneys-in-fact pursuant to enduring powers of attorney that come into effect upon legal incapacity and are tailored to the specific needs of the client and family, representation of protected persons, and the management of high-value guardianship matters. 

The firm has also accumulated substantial experience advising family-owned businesses and companies, both private and public, and developing “family corporate governance” structures designed to preserve family enterprises across generations. Together with Israeli and international advisory teams, the firm has led intergenerational wealth transfers and succession planning for third, fourth, and subsequent generations of companies with significant value in Israel and abroad.

In recent years, the firm has also led complex and substantial legal disputes in Israel and internationally involving financial matters within families, including disputes among siblings, spouses, parents, and children, as well as inheritance and trust-related proceedings, including claims against trustees and protectors. 

Extensive Global Activity

For many years, the firm has represented Israeli and international clients whose residences and citizenships are dynamic and frequently changing. Accordingly, and in light of the complexity characteristic of such matters, the firm employs an integrated strategy that combines flexibility and creativity with caution and meticulous attention in designing the legal and tax structures best suited to each client and family.

By virtue of its holistic approach and unique expertise in global family wealth management, the firm takes all relevant considerations into account while implementing careful long-term planning. To provide professional and thorough advice tailored to a dynamic international environment, the firm leads multinational professional teams possessing the required expertise. 

Evolving Expertise in “New” Asset Classes

In recent years, the firm’s attorneys have been appointed by Israel’s Family Court as estate administrators in complex matters involving international aspects. At the same time, in light of developments in the technology and fintech sectors, shares in private start-up companies, cryptocurrencies (Cryptocurrencies and Cryptoassets), and NFTs increasingly form part of the asset portfolios of high-net-worth individuals. In many cases, particularly in relation to start-up companies, a significant portion of an individual’s holdings may consist of options, RSUs, or shares subject to special arrangements. Accordingly, within the customized legal structures established for each client, the firm has developed advanced and innovative solutions based on a deep understanding of these holdings, the unique complexities associated with such assets, and the implications of ownership in the event of incapacity or death, both from tax and timing perspectives, including the consequences of taking or failing to take action at a specific point in time. 

The firm’s attorneys have also gained significant experience advising foreign and Israeli financial institutions, including in the areas of compliance, information exchange regimes (CRS and FATCA), and cross-border matters, with the objective of helping clients navigate successfully the complex and rapidly evolving global regulatory environment. In this context, the firm provides ongoing legal services to leading financial institutions in the fields of regulation, compliance, and taxation, including advice relating to the establishment of licensed entities and ongoing counsel to such entities.