The synthesis of a range of achiral and chiral bidentate aminophosphine ligands and their complexes with nickel(II) and palladium(II) has been investigated. The ligands and the complexes have been characterized by NMR spectroscopy, and X-ray structures of representative compounds have been determined. In addition, DFT calculations have been performed to investigate different geometries of the nickel(II) complexes in the solid state and in solution.