Guide · September 2026
The family pact.
The contract that passes the business to the successor with all the forced heirs at the table, the accounts closed at today's value and a seal no other tool offers: no hotchpot, no abatement, and a tax exemption with five years of commitments. An independent guide for those with a business to hand down.
In families that own a business, the succession has one more stake, and it is almost always the largest and the most fragile. A business is not divided with a calculator: it is led, or it is lost. Yet most Italian generational handovers happen without a plan, with the wrong tools, or too late: only about one firm in three survives the second generation.
This guide tells the story of the tool the legislator built for exactly this, and which remains surprisingly little used: the family pact. First the foundations (why gift and will are not enough, the contract's anatomy, the seal that justifies it), then the accounts: the forced heirs' payout, the tax exemption with its five-year commitment, the corporate fittings, the remedies. Finally the use: a real firm passed on in three ways, the errors ranked, the five moves, and the criterion for judging whether the pact is the right tool for one's own family, or whether it is not.
It is an independent guide: it sells no deeds and no products, and when the right move is another one (a bridge will, a holding, a sale) it says so. It does not replace the notary, the tax adviser or the advisor: it prepares you to use them well, which is another thing entirely.
Inside
Why a business is the asset ordinary succession treats worst; the traps of gift and will, with the numbers; the pact's anatomy article by article; and the seal that justifies it all: no hotchpot, no abatement.
The forced heirs' payout at today's value, with the three roads for funding it; the most powerful tax exemption in the system and its five-year commitment; the fit with articles, partners and the family business; defects, late arrivals and dissolution.
A real firm passed on in three ways, with three outcomes; the typical errors ranked, starting with waiting; the five moves in a programme; and the pivot of it all: when the pact is the right tool, and when it is not. The glossary closes.
PDF · 50 pages · 13 chapters
Contents
Part One · The business and the handover
- 01 The business will not wait 6
- 02 Why gift and will are not enough 9
- 03 The pact's anatomy 12
- 04 The seal: no hotchpot, no abatement 15
Part Two · The contract and the accounts
- 05 The forced heirs' account 19
- 06 The pact's tax rules: the 4-ter exemption 22
- 07 Articles, partners and the family business 26
- 08 Defects, late arrivals, dissolution 30
Part Three · Conscious use
- 09 The complete case: one firm, three roads 34
- 10 The typical errors, mapped 37
- 11 The five moves 40
- 12 The pact, or the alternatives: the criterion 43
- 13 Essential glossary 46
- Disclaimers 49
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The other guides are on the Resources page. This one also exists as the Italian edition.
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