MEXICO Law and Practice Contributed by: Christian Lippert, Gabriela Pellón, Fabiola Jiménez and Cecilia Díaz de Rivera, Galicia Abogados
may remain protected by copyright and may form part of the estate. Access credentials and other sensitive information may be safeguarded by the notary public, either in the appendix of the notarial instrument con- taining the will or, in the case of digital notarial acts, in a permanent storage system in accordance with the Notarial Law of Mexico City. The Code further contemplates that, in the absence of instructions from the testator, the executor or estate administrator may request the deletion of certain digi- tal information in order to safeguard the deceased’s privacy – a concept related to the developing notion of the right to be forgotten in Mexican jurisprudence, though not yet expressly codified as such. In practice, the effectiveness of such requests may be limited by freedom of expression, the public’s right to informa- tion, applicable data protection rules, and the contrac- tual policies and terms of service of digital platforms. Mexico does not have a system of uniform state laws addressing digital asset succession analogous to the US Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA). This reflects the structure of Mexico’s civil law federalist system, under which each state maintains its own civil code and there is no equivalent co-ordinating body to the US Uniform Law Commission. The Mexico City reform accordingly rep- resents a local precedent that has not yet been repli- cated in other states, and legislative developments in this area remain limited and primarily local in scope. From an estate planning perspective, it is useful to consider the nature of each digital asset before deter- mining how it should be addressed, since there are some assets that are unlikely to be transmissible, other that have mixed inheritance rights and some other assets that are more clearly inheritable on pat- rimonial grounds. In this regard, from a practical estate planning perspec- tive, it is advisable to expressly identify digital assets of potential value and to include specific instructions regarding their administration, access, preservation or deletion. Particular attention should be given to assets whose control depends on private credentials, such as cryptocurrency wallets, where loss of private keys or recovery phrases could prevent heirs from accessing
the assets entirely. Where Mexico City law applies, the notarial safeguarding mechanism under Article 1392 Bis offers a practical vehicle for preserving such cre- dentials securely. Practitioners should also carefully distinguish between granting access to digital content (which may be achievable through platform tools and notarial instruments) and transmitting ownership of the underlying rights, which is governed by succes- sion and intellectual property law and subject to the contractual limitations discussed above.
8. Family Business Succession Planning 8.1 Succession Strategies
Fideicomisos de control (control trusts) and fam- ily companies are the most common and suitable strategies for family business succession planning in Mexico. SAPIs are the most efficient companies for succession planning since, among other benefits, they allow for the creation of series and classes of shares each with different rights. Control trusts are commercial agreements that afford the settlors the possibility of specifying voting and decision-making arrangements, distribution policies and transfer restrictions. Please see 6.1 Common Planning Techniques for more detail. 8.2 Legal and Tax Considerations Mexico is generally considered a favourable jurisdic- tion for family wealth and succession planning, par- ticularly when compared with many other countries that impose estate, inheritance or gift taxes. From a Mexican federal tax perspective, the transfer of assets upon death can occur without a direct tax burden for the heirs, which makes testamentary transfers an effi- cient planning mechanism. Similarly, lifetime transfers through donations may also benefit from important exemptions. These rules significantly influence estate planning strategies in Mexico. Families often structure their
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