Estates with assets, companies or heirs outside Colombia

The structure is not the first question

The question that arrives is usually which vehicle to use for a property or an investment abroad. That is not the first question. The first is who in the family is a tax resident in Colombia, because everything else follows from it: what is declared, what is reported and what each movement triggers. Getting that wrong at the start means the whole structure is built on a mistaken premise.

What we review

• The tax residence of each family member and its effect on the estate being organised.
• Reporting duties over assets held abroad and over holdings in entities incorporated outside Colombia.
• Actual ownership of the existing companies, accounts and structures, and the documents supporting it.
• The consequences of being a partner, shareholder or beneficiary of a foreign vehicle, including the obligations that triggers in Colombia.
• Structures inherited from old decisions that today create more administrative burden than benefit.
• Consistency between what is declared in Colombia and what appears in the other country's registries.
• Documents evidencing the source of the funds used to acquire the assets held abroad.

The reverse case: heirs abroad, assets in Colombia

This is increasingly common. The children live in another country, hold residence or nationality there, and are about to inherit shareholdings and real estate located in Colombia. That raises questions worth settling in advance: how shareholder rights are exercised from a distance, who represents the stake, how notarial and registry procedures are handled from abroad, and what obligations the inheritance triggers for the heir in their own country. That last part is for a lawyer in that jurisdiction; we flag it and coordinate it.

What we do not do

We do not advise on foreign law. Our role is to define precisely what a lawyer in the other jurisdiction has to resolve, to put the specific questions to them and to coordinate the answers with the Colombian side of the plan. We say so from the outset, because the common failure in these matters is each adviser assuming the other already covered a point that in fact nobody reviewed.

How we work

• Map of the situation. Which assets sit in each country, in whose name, and what obligations follow from that position.
• Defining the perimeter. What is resolved under Colombian law and what belongs to the other jurisdiction, in writing, so no grey areas are left between advisers.
• Coordination with foreign counsel. With specific questions rather than open-ended consultations, and with follow-up on the answers.
• Colombian tax reading. Together with our tax practice, before any movement is executed.
• Documentation. Drafting the instruments that belong to the Colombian side and handling the registry procedures.

What the client receives

• A written map of the estate by jurisdiction, with title and supporting documents for each asset.
• A position on the tax residence of each family member, with its consequences.
• The list of Colombian reporting obligations and of the points that must be checked abroad.
• The questions put to counsel in the other jurisdiction and the integration of their answers into the plan.
• The Colombian documents drafted, signed and filed.

Typical situations we handle

• A family resident in Colombia that bought property or opened an investment abroad.
• A shareholder who left the country and is no longer clear on how their stake in the family business stands.
• Heirs resident abroad who are about to receive shares and real estate located in Colombia.
• Foreign structures set up years ago that the family no longer knows whether to keep.
• A family about to move its residence abroad that wants to know what changes before it goes.