Our latest offering: Estate Planning

We don’t have easy solutions for how to slow down time, but what we can offer is to take some worries off your back so you can focus on the more meaningful, higher-level concerns and delights in your life. Over the last few years, we’ve realized that many of our clients don’t tackle their estate planning simply because the complex paperwork is too tedious for them to grapple with, so this issue which should take priority keeps getting postponed instead. Drafting wills are time-consuming, emotional and riddled with complicated tax law considerations – particularly so if you own assets in two countries. However, take a second to consider this: isn’t the financial reward from all these years of hard work wasted if you don’t think this through and make life easier for your loved ones later?

Perhaps this seems more urgent and apparent to us because we handle all the financial and tax reporting on behalf of our clients, and we have a lot of this information with us already. Prabha Srinivasan, our Director and Co-Founder, is concerned that clients don’t address this sooner rather than later.

“I feel obligated to alert our clients to tackle this and to give them a sense of direction in this area precisely because we are already privy to their asset base in both countries and we know where they are headed in life”, she says. “We can make this exercise quite painless with just a few additional inputs from them.”

After handling the process of setting up an estate plan, formulating wills and trusts for a few clients, Ventura Pranas has got a system in place to make the process and the paperwork a lot less cumbersome. We’ve also faced the other side of what this looks like: when a client passes on without a will, the spouse and loved ones have to go through tremendous hardship to accomplish some otherwise very easy steps in being able to access the assets. This experience with a few clients has prepared us to walk future clients through all the potential scenarios they should consider.

The process, you might imagine, isn’t as simple and straightforward as we wish it were. Even when beneficiaries are named, there are tax implications and compliances that need to be considered. The toughest part of this exercise is usually aggregating the information. With most of this information readily available with us, we’re in a competent position to handle this process well.

A well thought-out will smoothens the whole inheritance process and it can help you avoid tax pitfalls. If your assets are in different countries, you’ll need to speak with lawyers at both ends, and no one understands tax laws in the US and in India like we do – it’s what we’ve been examining closely for the last 8 years. You may also need to set up a trust with a lawyer, name a trustee to safeguard the interests of your loved ones, secure your paperwork, and then revisit it every 3 – 5 years as your financial situation evolves.

Some essential points to consider before you approach us to draft a will are:

1. A list of potential trustees
2. A list of beneficiaries
3. An executor of your will (ideally, someone younger and with good judgement).
4. The percentage share that each beneficiary will get.
5. Conditions you might want to stipulate before the beneficiaries gain access to the assets.
6. A succession plan, if you have your own business.
7. An inventory of all your assets worldwide.

Our services for the will cover:

1. An estate plan write-up.
2. Drawing up United States as well as India-pour-over-wills for husband and wife (that’s 2 wills for each country).
3. Preparing a US living trust deed.
4. Assigning assets to a living trust.

Fees

Our fees start at $2500 for an estate size that is below the current estate tax exemption of a joint couple in the United States, to $4500 for larger, more complex finances. We also take special cases that involve irrevocable gift trusts and cases where one spouse is a non-US citizen/resident. Fees include getting the trust/deed vetted by our attorneys in the United States as well as India.

There are times when the obvious bears repeating: make sure your assets are documented, and that you have a carefully considered estate plan in place. It will make life easier for your loved ones, and we’ll make the process easier and short (roughly 3 months for the entire exercise, once we have all your information in place).

Contact Details

To set up a meeting with us, get in touch via phone at +91-44-4201-4626 or send an email to us at contact@venturapranas.com and ea@venturapranas.com

All appointments will be scheduled by our office, but should you wish to reach out to Prabha Srinivasan directly, you can send her an email at psrinivasan@venturapranas.com

CONTACT US FOR AN APPOINTMENT

Testimonials

Dr. Sridhar Mitta, founder & managing director of NextWealth Entrepreneurs Pvt Ltd and longtime client of Ventura Pranas

“Typically when you go to an organisation, they know the laws of one country, but not the regulations and compliances of another. They might have a partner or a subcontractor in the other country. What’s unique about Ventura Pranas is that Prabha Srinivasan is well-versed with the legal nuances of both countries, so they’re in a position to offer the practical advice.”

Dr. Vivek Mansingh, General Partner at YourNest VC Fund and Board Member of Innovatia.

“I've met many legal and tax advisors in India and the US before, but none of them know the complexities in both countries as well as Prabha does. In addition to her expertise and knowledge, Prabha is extremely hardworking and accessible - she really takes the time to understand the specifics of each client's personal situation. All of these qualities together are of huge value to me.”