Dr. Marcel Duplois

Dr. Marcel Duplois advises family-owned businesses, high-net-worth individuals and family offices on all legal and tax-related matters pertaining to wealth succession and structuring. In the context of succession planning, he provides clients with comprehensive support – from analyzing inheritance tax risks and tax structuring to contractual implementation and coordination with tax authorities.

A particular focus of his practice lies at the intersection of corporate and tax law. This includes, in particular, the restructuring of family businesses and other assets in connection with asset transfers, as well as corporate governance issues. Before joining GRÄFE Tax & Legal, Marcel Duplois spent several years working in the private clients and tax law departments at the prestigious commercial law firms Gleiss Lutz and POELLATH. He has been listed multiple times in Handelsblatt in collaboration with the renowned American publication Best Lawyers® as “Ones to Watch” for his outstanding achievements in the areas of tax law and wealth management, succession planning, and foundations.

There is one thing that separates advising family businesses and private clients from other areas: the people behind the tax and legal issues. Even the most efficient tax structure will fail to achieve its goal if it is not consistently aligned with the client’s personal circumstances, family relationships, and strategic objectives. Marcel Duplois therefore follows a basic principle: he never advises his clients to act solely for tax reasons. The primary consideration is always this: which structure achieves the goals and aspirations in the most tax-efficient way, while truly aligning with the client, their family, and their values?

• Advising high-net-worth individuals, entrepreneurs, and family-owned businesses
• Structuring personal and business assets
• Wealth and business succession
• Corporate governance of family-owned businesses and family companies
• International tax and asset structures

• Admitted as a tax consultant in 2022
• Admitted as an attorney in 2019

• Comprehensive tax and legal support for an entrepreneurial family with shareholders and legal successors residing abroad in connection with the intergenerational transfer of the family business – ranging from the assessment of deferred inheritance tax liabilities, to the optimization of the company’s assets for gift tax purposes and the contractual implementation of these arrangements, to the adaptation of family governance and the establishment of a family office.
• Advising an entrepreneurial family on the establishment of German family foundations, particularly with regard to optimizing corporate assets for gift tax purposes and comprehensively restructuring the holding structure in preparation for the succession.
• Advising a group of shareholders in a shareholder dispute related to the transfer of operational responsibilities to the next generation and the associated adjustments to corporate governance.
• Comprehensive support for the shareholders of a sub-participation company during a tax audit regarding the tax justification of an atypical sub-participation holding, including obtaining a binding commitment.
• Comprehensive support for an executor in the settlement of an estate, particularly with regard to tax obligations, the preparation of the estate inventory, and the distribution of estate assets.
• Advice on the separation of shareholder groups through a cross-border spin-off to Austria.
• Assisting numerous private clients in drafting business wills, powers of attorney, and prenuptial agreements.

• Optimization of business assets for inheritance tax purposes (with Dr. Laurenz Lipp), Der Betrieb 2026, 629 (Part I) and 692 (Part II)
• “BFH: On the Gift Tax Liability of Personal Contributions to the Capital Reserve of a GmbH” (with Sebastian Löcherbach), Der Betrieb, Steuerboard, July 15, 2025
• Wealth Succession in Practice (with Dr. Erik Muscheites), RFamU 2023, 313 (Part I) and 361 (Part II)
• What future spouses should keep in mind (with Dr. Martin Liebernickel), FAZ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, June 27, 2023, p. 20
• The global mobility of family business owners: a challenge for advisory practice (with Dr. Erik Muscheites), FINANCIAL PLANNING Magazin, 01/2023, pp. 22–25
• Redemption of company shares: be aware of gift tax issues!, Handelsblatt Online, Steuerboard, June 9, 2022
• Breach of the restriction period under Section 6(5) sentence 6 EStG due to a change in legal form of an upper-tier partnership, Handelsblatt Online, Steuerboard, November 11, 2021
• “Calculation of the notional claim for equalization of accrued gains: the right to a compulsory share must be taken into account”, Handelsblatt Online, Steuerboard, March 1, 2021
• The influence of banking supervision law on corporate governance under stock corporation law (Doctoral Dissertation), Nomos Verlag, 2017

• Counsel, POELLATH, Frankfurt am Main, 2021–2026
• Associate, Gleiss Lutz, Frankfurt am Main, 2018–2021

• Legal clerkship at the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main, 2016–2018
• Ph.D. at the University of Freiburg (Prof. Dr. Hanno Merkt, LL.M.), 2014–2016
• Studied law at the University of Freiburg, 2009–2014

• Handelsblatt Best Lawyers 2025, “Ones to Watch” in the areas of tax law as well as succession planning and foundations
• Handelsblatt Best Lawyers 2024, “Ones to Watch” in the areas of tax law as well as succession planning and foundations
• Handelsblatt Best Lawyers 2023, “Ones to Watch” in the areas of tax law as well as succession planning and foundations
• Handelsblatt Best Lawyers 2022, “Ones to Watch” in the area of tax law