Contacts
What this office does
Role of the office. A significant share of our work on trust structures and the protection of capital for families with assets in several countries passes through the Zurich office. Part of the arrangements in the case of the Cyprus trust structure was concluded here.
How the work is organised. The office is a point of local presence, not a separate practice. Every matter is led by a partner from the head team, who is personally responsible for the result and coordinates the work across all the jurisdictions involved.
How exactly we help here
Our other offices
Why Zurich rather than Geneva or Zug
The country’s financial centre. Zurich is home to the headquarters of the largest Swiss banks and the SIX Swiss Exchange, so the infrastructure for opening accounts and working with Swiss financial instruments is physically here. In practice this means a wider choice of partner banks and shorter internal approval times than when approaching through a small canton.
How the canton differs from its neighbours. Geneva has historically specialised in private banking for family capital, and Zug in holding and crypto structures with a low cantonal profit tax rate. Zurich is above all a transactional and corporate centre: it makes sense to place an operating business or a structure tied to financial markets here, while the question of an individual’s tax residence is settled separately by comparing the regimes of the cantons as a whole, not only that of Zurich.
Swiss law has no concept of a “trust”
How it works in practice. Unlike Cyprus or Jersey, Swiss legislation has no trust institution. The Confederation merely recognises trusts established under foreign law, having acceded in 2007 to the Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Trusts and on their Recognition. The Zurich office therefore does not act as settlor or trustee itself. The structure is always created in another jurisdiction, and from Zurich we coordinate the banking, the management of assets within it and the subsequent reporting.
Licensing of managers. Since 2020, independent asset managers and trustees in Switzerland have been required to obtain FINMA authorisation or be supervised through an accredited supervisory organisation. This applies equally to those who administer foreign trust structures with accounts at Swiss banks. Before bringing a manager into a client’s structure, we check this status separately, before the assets reach the account and not afterwards.
How a structure is set up through the Zurich office
From the first conversation to a working account, with no skipped steps that later come back as a compliance refusal.
Review of the profile and source of capital
We gather documents confirming the origin of the assets and assess in advance which questions the compliance team of the bank or manager will ask. This saves weeks on later iterations.
Choosing the bank or licensed manager
We select the counterparty for the specific profile: the client’s country of tax residence, the size and structure of the capital, and any accounts already open in other jurisdictions.
Compliance and account opening
We go through the bank’s due diligence: verification of the source of funds and screening against PEP and sanctions lists. From filing the full package to the bank’s decision usually takes several weeks.
Support and reporting
Once the structure is open, we handle the automatic exchange of financial information (AEOI/CRS) and annual reporting to the bank and the manager, so the client does not have to deal with this alone.
The office in numbers
Frequently asked questions
Can I open an account with a Swiss bank through your office?+
We support the account-opening process and the bank’s compliance check, but the final decision to accept the client always rests with the bank.
How does a Swiss trust differ from a Cyprus trust?+
Switzerland offers stricter supervision and a stronger reputation, but also higher requirements for disclosing beneficial owners. We discuss the choice of jurisdiction individually, based on the client’s capital structure.
Is Swiss residence required for a trust structure?+
No. A Swiss trust can be administered without the settlor being resident, which is one of its practical advantages.