Investing from limited company vs Family Investment company (FIC)

[mickael28]

Hello,

We've got a small limited company from where my wife and I get a salary and some dividends. We have surplus cash in the company and were wondering what could be the best structure to invest for the long term for us and our kids.

I've read articles about Trusts and Family Investment Companies (FIC) as a way for wealth preservation, however I read as well that Trusts for example are not a legally recognized structure in Spain (whereas we might live in the future), hence that it could be not convenient from an IHT point of view.

As we already have a trading limited company, do you think it's worth investing directly from there so that we don't have the overhead of another FIC company just to deal with the family investments; I was thinking that this would be like a FIC with some trading activities for now, and maybe in the future we'd stop the trading activities?
or is it better to create a different company just for the investment purpose?

Regarding IHT, could we start gifting shares to our kids once they're 18 so that they can receive an income as well?
And if we're shareholders, what's the IHT rate that they would be applied for an FIC company?

Many thanks!