Over the past decade, the Swiss trust market has seen increasing consolidation, with independent firms joining larger groups, private equity-backed platforms and international businesses.
When a trustee changes ownership, the client relationships and mandates generally continue uninterrupted. The trust remains in place. The legal documentation does not change.
What does change is the ownership of the business responsible for administering the family's affairs.
In most cases, families are not consulted before the transaction takes place. They remain entirely free to appoint a different trustee afterwards, but the ownership change itself does not require their consent.
For families selecting a trustee, this raises a question that is rarely part of the conversation: how much importance should be given not only to a trustee's technical expertise, but also to its ownership structure, long-term independence and alignment with the family's objectives?
For the families who rely on continuity, it may be the most important question to ask before the relationship begins.