Italy: Ferrari: A Trust For Family Continuity.

The trust as an ideal legal instrument to preserve the family tradition of a historic company, respecting the founder's wishes and ensuring an orderly generational passage.

With exactly this aim in mind, Piero Ferrari, son of the founder Enzo and second shareholder (10%) of the historic Maranello's brand, decided to set up a trust to manage his shareholding in Ferrari.

A trust – essentially a family trust and intended to regulate the succession (as defined most recently by Circular 34/E/2022) – with Jersey governing law and designated beneficiaries the settlor's daughter and two grandchildren, one of whom was appointed as Trustee.

The settlor has therefore transferred to the trust fund the bare ownership of his shares (with an approximate market value of €4 billion) with the express provision that 80% of the dividends produced by such shares will be reserved to him, while the remaining 20% will be allocated to the trust.

Precisely in order to ensure as orderly a generational transition as possible and in line with the founder Enzo Ferrari's wish to keep part of the company 'in the family', it has been stipulated that it will be impossible to dispose of the shares even in the event of inheritance disputes.

Even more so, if possible, the trust proves to be a suitable instrument for the management and preservation of assets also with a view to inheritance and generational transition, with a truly reduced initial tax impact (in fact, only the registration tax in a fixed amount of €200.00 will be charged at the time of the transfer of assets) in full compliance with civil and tax regulations, as most recently set forth in Circular 34/E/2022 of the Italian Revenue Agency.

Our firm is at the forefront of these types of transactions and ready to assist you with any information you may need on trusts and asset and corporate restructuring in general.

Originally published 26 January 2023.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.