Washington DC · Los Angeles · Munich
Germany-USA: Law, Tax, Finance
A law firm for German-American estate planning, tax-optimized asset structuring and estate administration.
Licensed to practice law in Germany and in the United States (California, Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC, federal tax practice)
Licensed to practice law in both Germany and the United States
Most cross-border matters stall in the gap between two advisors who each are licensed only in their own country.
We are fully qualified and licensed on both sides, and prepare all documents, including tax returns, in-house.
Offices both in Germany and in the United States
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Email: info@ashfordinternationallaw.com
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A German-American Law Firm
The firm is led by attorney Caroline Esche Ashford, PhD, JD. She is one of the very few fully trained and dual-qualified German-American attorneys in the United States. A JD graduate of Columbia University Law School, she has seventeen years of experience advising German-American families and businesses on cross-border taxation, estate planning, and administration of estates and trusts. As an IRS-registered tax preparer she prepares all types of US tax returns, prepares German gift and inheritance tax returns, and advises on German income tax matters. Early in her career she was a member of the defense team that represented the Federal Republic of Germany in litigation under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. She advises in German, English and French.
Ashford International Law PC was founded in 2015. Every lawyer in the firm holds a German law degree, and the firm is licensed to practice law in Germany, California, Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC, with a federal tax practice. Where a matter also involves the law of a country in which the firm’s attorneys are not admitted, such as France, Switzerland, Italy or the United Kingdom, the firm works with a trusted network of local attorneys, tax advisers and notaries.
The Law Firm and TeamThree works written in the firm’s own practice, out of the matters it handles.
The American’s Guide to Germany: Wealth, Taxes and Estate Planning
For Americans with assets, heirs or a home in Germany: what each country taxes, in what order, and what the two conventions take back. Written for the reader who has to make the decision, not for the specialist who already knows the vocabulary.
Also written by the law firm
The reference work for CPAs, enrolled agents, attorneys and fiduciaries who meet a foreign element in a file and need the authorities set out. Five volumes, sold as a set.
Five guides to read before the first meeting
Each walks through one decision from start to finish, with the questions to ask and the documents to gather. Free against an email address.
The Ten-Year Rule for Americans Moving to Germany
18 pages. Updated in September 2026.
IRA and 401(k) Distributions to a Beneficiary in Germany, for Advisors
15 pages. Updated in September 2026.
The Taxation of American Retirement Distributions in Germany
15 pages. Updated in September 2026.
How Germany Taxes an Inheritance from the United States, for Advisors
16 pages. Updated in September 2026.
Inheriting from the United States While Living in Germany
16 pages. Updated in September 2026.
Read and prepare before you decide
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Articles, guides and standing explainers, filtered by who you are, by the area of law and by the jurisdiction the question sits in.
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One vocabulary, German and English, interfiled
People search in whichever language the term reached them in. Every entry links straight to the writing that uses it, and the twenty that carry the most weight have a page of their own.
The next seven sessions
All webinars and events →Held in English or in German, open to clients and advisors, and recorded, so a missed session can still be watched afterwards.
Fourteen more sessions run to May 2027
The full calendar, in both languages, with the recordings of past sessions.
Book an Initial Consultation Package
A thirty minute conversation yields partial information, and advice given on partial information is not advice this firm is willing to give. The initial consultation is therefore a package: the documents are read before the meeting, the questionnaire is completed where the matter is an estate planning matter, the hour itself is spent on analysis rather than on gathering facts, and the analysis is confirmed in writing afterwards. About three hours of the firm’s time go into it.
Before the meeting
- A secure client portal is set up for you.
- You upload copies of the relevant documents.
- In estate planning matters you receive an estate planning questionnaire, so that the advice rests on a complete set of facts.
- Your documents are reviewed before the appointment.
During the hour
- Your situation is analysed.
- Your options are identified.
- A course of action is recommended.
- Your questions are answered.
After the meeting
- You receive a detailed written summary of the analysis, your options and the recommendations.
- Follow-up questions are answered without limit for two days after the appointment.
Afterwards you and the firm each decide whether to enter into an attorney-client relationship.