Giancarlo Bonsel

Business owners rarely decide about their business in isolation. Where you live, how you own your company, whether and when you sell, how you pay yourself, what you do with what you have built and how it passes on to the next generation are usually one conversation, even when the questions end up with different advisers.

In my experience the expensive mistakes rarely come from complicated rules. They come from deciding too early, or from advisers working from different assumptions.

Your accountants, lawyers and tax advisers each answer their part. I help you work out what you want, which options are worth looking at, and which questions they need to answer first.

Commercial judgement, from both sides of the table. I have carried decisions as an owner and as a co-founder, working with fellow founders and investors, where advice comes from every direction but the final call rests with the entrepreneur. I know the Dutch–Portuguese side in particular: Dutch companies and holdings, emigrating, and setting up here.

Alongside my career, I manage my own assets, built up from savings and investments, and from an inheritance. That last one works both ways: receiving it brought its own decisions, and it made me plan how my own assets will one day pass on. I have structured all of this with tax and legal advisers, so I know these decisions from the owner's side: how to hold what you have built, how where you live changes what makes sense, how to plan for the next generation, and how to weigh a specialist's recommendation against your own plans.

I have also planned my own future in Portugal: the real cost of living here, what investments realistically return after tax, and what that means for when and how I can step back.

I have been a client of tax advisers and lawyers for years, which is exactly why I do not present myself as either. I do not give legal, tax, investment or other regulated financial advice, and I do not sell financial products or take referral fees. When a question needs a specialist, I help you find the right one, brief them, and make sure their answer fits the rest of your plan.