A well-structured estate plan is key to ensuring the longevity of your wealth and peace of mind for your loved ones. It helps manage the uncertainties surrounding wealth distribution, prevent conflicts among heirs, and avoid the dissipation of hard-earned assets. For SMEs and their shareholder-employees, this process carries even greater strategic importance, as it impacts both personal wealth and business continuity.
At RISTER, your fiduciary in Geneva, we provide comprehensive estate planning advice tailored to your needs. We help you structure the transfer of your wealth and business according to your wishes, optimizing tax efficiency and incorporating key levers such as professional pension plans and real estate investments.
Estate Planning: A Key Process to Protect Your Wealth and Family
Without proactive lifetime planning, the distribution of your inheritance will be governed by the legal provisions of Swiss matrimonial and inheritance law. Although these rules are protective, they may not always reflect your specific wishes or your family’s particular needs — especially when a business is involved.
The first step in estate planning is often drafting a will or an inheritance agreement.. These legal tools give you significant flexibility to:
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Transfer your assets according to your wishes: Beyond the statutory heir’s share (the minimum portion guaranteed by law to certain heirs), you may freely dispose of the remaining portion of your estate.
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Ensure the well-being of your spouse, family, and loved ones: Include specific provisions to protect the most vulnerable or those with special needs.
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Anticipate the transfer of your business : For SME shareholders, business succession is a critical issue. Proper planning allows you to organize the transfer of authority, ensure operational continuity, and minimize the tax impact on heirs and the company.
A well-structured estate plan is therefore essential for all families and entrepreneurs who wish to transfer their wealth efficiently and in accordance with their intentions.
Tools and Strategies for Optimal Succession and Enhanced Protection
RISTER assists you in exploring and implementing the most suitable instruments for your situation.
1. Family Foundations and Private Foundations: Long-Term Protection and Control
Family foundations (private foundations, although the term “private foundation” is not formally recognized under Swiss law as a category distinct from family foundations) are highly effective legal structures for estate planning and asset protection. They can be used in addition to a will and are particularly relevant for wealthy families or SME owners seeking a long-term solution.
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Asset protection: They allow the holding of various types of assets (financial, real estate, or equity stakes in SMEs) and protect them from potential external threats (creditors, legal disputes).
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Control and flexibility: You freely define the circle of beneficiaries of the foundation, as well as the rules and frequency of asset distribution. This allows you to preserve your wealth and ensure its long-term management over multiple generations while maintaining a certain degree of control.
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Structured transfer: These structures provide a framework for progressive and organized wealth transfer, avoiding the obstacles often associated with direct inheritance.
2. Life Insurance: A Tool for Protection and Tax Optimization
Certain types of life insurance policies are effective solutions for asset protection and estate planning, offering significant tax benefits.
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Wealth protection: By transferring your assets to a private wealth management life insurance policy (often referred to as a “capitalization” or “investment-linked life insurance”), you can benefit from asset protection against third-party claims in certain jurisdictions.
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Tax optimization: Contributions to Pillars 3a and 3b can offer significant tax advantages, allowing you to build capital while reducing your current tax burden.
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Flexibility: Unlike a “universal” life insurance policy focused on a high death benefit, private wealth management life insurance minimizes that coverage to reduce costs, focusing instead on managing and protecting capital.
3. Professional (LPP) and Individual Pension Planning: Filling the Gaps and Optimizing Succession
The professional pension system (LPP) is a fundamental pillar of your wealth and must be considered in any estate planning strategy.
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Legal order of beneficiaries: As with inheritance law, the circle and order of beneficiaries under the LPP are defined by Swiss legislation. It is crucial to take this into account during estate planning to avoid unexpected outcomes.
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Bridging pension gaps: The Swiss pension system is experiencing a steady decline in conversion rates. Careful financial planning allows you to fill these pension gaps by using the unrestricted individual pension (Pillar 3b), where you can freely choose the circle of beneficiaries and investment strategies — offering flexibility not available in the mandatory second pillar. Buy-ins to the second pillar are also a major tax optimization tool.
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Tax optimization: Contributions to Pillars 3a and 3b can offer significant tax advantages, allowing you to build capital while reducing your current tax burden.
4. Real Estate Taxation: Company and Shareholder
Real estate — whether owned by the SME or by the shareholder — is a major asset with complex inheritance and tax implications.
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Corporate real estate: If the SME owns real estate assets (commercial premises, income-generating buildings), their transfer upon the shareholder’s death must be carefully planned. This may involve transfer taxes, real estate capital gains taxes at the corporate or shareholder level, and valuation issues.
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Shareholder’s personal real estate: The shareholder’s private properties are subject to inheritance and wealth taxes. Proper planning helps optimize the transfer of these assets, potentially through early gifting or specific legal structures.
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Real estate acquisition advice: RISTER also supports you in acquiring properties, advising on the most tax-efficient and succession-friendly ownership structures.
5. Mandate for Incapacity: Protecting Your Family and Your Business
Beyond post-mortem succession, planning for incapacity is essential. Individuals and entrepreneurs would be wise to draft an incapacity mandate to protect their family and business in the event of a loss of mental capacity (due to an accident, illness, etc.).
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Protection of interests: This mandate allows you to appoint one or more trusted individuals to safeguard your interests in areas such as personal care, asset management, and legal relations with third parties.
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Business continuity: For SME owners, an incapacity mandate is crucial to ensure business operations continue smoothly, avoid management paralysis, and protect the value of the professional assets.
Our Essential Estate Planning Services at RISTER
RISTER, your fiduciary in Geneva, provides comprehensive expertise for smooth and efficient estate planning:
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Will and inheritance agreement: Drafting and advisory services to determine the most suitable provisions for your personal and family situation.
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Comprehensive estate planning: Analysis of your assets, transmission goals, and the development of a tailored succession strategy.
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Donations: Guidance on early gifts and their tax implications to optimize wealth transfer during your lifetime.
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Matrimonial law: Analysis of marital property regimes and their impact on inheritance, with advice on marriage or registered partnership contracts.
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Executor of the will: RISTER can act as executor to ensure that your final wishes are respected and carried out faithfully.
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Philanthropic foundations: Creation and administration of foundations dedicated to charitable or public-interest goals.
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Family Foundations and Trusts: Guidance on establishing complex structures for managing and transferring substantial wealth.
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Life Insurance: Integration of life insurance solutions into your protection and wealth transfer strategy.
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Incapacity Mandate: Drafting and advisory services for this essential document that protects your interests in the event of incapacity.
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Professional and Individual Pension Advice: Incorporating pension optimization into your estate plan to fill coverage gaps and maximize tax advantages.
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Real Estate Investment Advice: Analysis and guidance on property ownership and transfer within the framework of inheritance and succession planning.
Protect your wealth and ensure the successful transfer of your SME in Geneva! Don’t leave your family’s and company’s future to chance. Contact RISTER today for a personalized consultation and discover how our estate planning expertise can bring you peace of mind and long-term security.