Foundations and Trust

Regulate your assets over several generations

Foundations (family foundations and charitable foundations) and trusts are the ideal

instruments for planning the succession of one’s assets over several generations.

When thinking about the succession of one’s assets, the following questions often come up, among others:

(1) Who should get something, just people in the family or third parties as well?

(2) How much should everyone get, just the income or the assets as well?

(3) When should the beneficiaries get it, immediately after my death or only when certain conditions are met, such as reaching a minimum age or only in a certain emergency situation?

(4) What are the tax consequences of my succession planning, today and in the future?

With the family foundation (under Swiss or Liechtenstein law) and the trust, you can

regulate the answers to these questions in detail, not just in one step, as is the rule with the contract of inheritance or the will, but over several steps and generations. Of course, the legal rules on the applicable law of succession, in particular the law on compulsory portions, and the tax implications must always be taken into account. We will be happy to advise and assist you in setting up and managing the structure that best suits your ideas.

And if you wish to donate at least part of your assets to charity, either during your

lifetime or upon your death, the Swiss charitable foundation is the appropriate vehicle. It ensures that a charitable purpose determined by you is pursued in the long term with the foundation’s assets. We will be happy to take over all the administrative work for you (such as bookkeeping, contact with tax and supervisory authorities, processing of applications), so that you can concentrate on the essentials, the fulfilment of the foundation’s purpose.

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