Trustee near you or trustee in Switzerland: how to decide

Choosing between a trustee near the settlor and a trustee in Switzerland is a practical question before it is a legal one. Where the trustee sits shapes how often you meet, which banks can hold the assets, which language the paperwork is in and how easily the trustee can reach every beneficiary. Neither option wins in every case, and this page sets out the criteria so that you can weigh them for your own family.

It deals only with where the trustee is based and how the role is exercised. It does not compare legal systems; that is a separate exercise.

Start from where your assets and family are

The most useful entry point is a simple map. Write down where the assets are held, where each beneficiary lives, where the settlor lives and where the people who will advise the family are based. The trustee's location should make that map easier to manage, not harder.

A trustee is not a distant figure who signs documents once a year. A trustee opens and operates accounts, answers beneficiary requests, keeps records, takes decisions and reports on them. Each of those tasks is affected by distance, time zones, language and the habits of the local banking system.

Two questions help to frame everything else:

• Will the trustee mostly deal with assets, with people, or with both?
• Who will need quick answers: you, your children, your adviser, a bank?

The two options at a glance

For this comparison, "near you" means a trustee, individual or corporate, based in the country where the settlor lives or where most of the family lives. "In Switzerland" means a trustee established and supervised in Switzerland, for instance a corporate trustee in Geneva or Zurich. The diagram gives the broad picture; the table below it adds the nuance.

Neither column is better in itself. Each column is stronger on a different set of criteria, and your own priorities decide which set counts most.

Distance and everyday contact

A trustee near you is simple to reach. You can meet in person, hand over originals, sign in front of a witness and settle small matters in one conversation. For a settlor who likes face-to-face contact, or whose beneficiaries are mostly in the same city, that is a real advantage.

A trustee in Switzerland is further away for most families, but distance matters less than it once did. Regular video calls, secure document exchange and scheduled visits cover most needs. What matters is not the kilometres but the rhythm: how often the trustee reports, how quickly requests are answered and how clearly meetings are minuted. Ask any candidate, wherever based, how contact works in practice; the due diligence page lists the questions.

Time zones also count. If a beneficiary lives far from Europe, a trustee in Switzerland and a trustee near the settlor may both be many hours away from that person. Working hours, not postal addresses, decide how easy the relationship is.

Banks and custody

Banks are often the deciding factor. The trustee opens accounts in the name of the trust, and each bank has its own onboarding rules, its own view of trust structures and its own appetite for cross-border clients.

A trustee near you will usually know the local banks and may already have working relationships with them. That can speed up account opening and day-to-day payments. The trade-off is that local banks may have less experience with trusts that hold assets in several countries.

A trustee in Switzerland works with banks that see trust accounts regularly and are used to documenting beneficial owners and the source of funds. Many international families also like to hold part of their liquid assets in Switzerland for diversification, which makes a Swiss trustee a natural counterpart to the bank. Still, the trustee remains responsible for the accounts, not the bank; see your trustee and the trust bank accounts for how that responsibility works.

Whichever option you lean towards, check that the bank relationship does not depend on one person. If the person who knows the bank leaves, the arrangement should still function.

Language and documents

Trust documents are long and precise. The trust deed, letters of wishes, minutes of trustee decisions and annual accounts are all written records that a beneficiary or a court may read years later.

A trustee near you can usually produce all of this in your language, which matters for family members who are less comfortable in English. A trustee in Switzerland will normally work in English and often in French or German, and sometimes in other languages. Ask what language the trustee works in, who translates and who bears responsibility if a translation differs from the original.

Language also shapes tone. A beneficiary who cannot follow a trustee's explanation tends to distrust it. If your beneficiaries live in different countries, a trustee who communicates clearly in a shared working language can be fairer to all of them than one who speaks only your own.

For the letter that records your intentions, see letters of wishes and your trustee.

Regulation and supervision

Where a trustee sits determines who supervises it. In Switzerland, professional trustees are regulated under the financial institutions legislation (FinIA in English, LEFin in French, FINIG in German) and the FINMA framework, with supervision through an authorised supervisory organisation. Anti-money-laundering duties under the AMLA also apply. The guide on FINMA and SO-FIT approval explains what this means for a client.

Supervision elsewhere varies widely. Some countries regulate trustees closely; others regulate them lightly or not at all. A trustee near you may therefore be well supervised or barely supervised, depending on your country. This is one of the points where the answer depends on your situation, and it is worth checking before you choose rather than after.

Switzerland has also been party to the Hague Convention on the law applicable to trusts and on their recognition since it entered into force for Switzerland on 1 July 2007, and the Federal Office of Justice confirms that foreign trusts have been recognised in Switzerland since that date. In practice, this means that a Swiss trustee can take on a trust that was created elsewhere. The question of which law governs your trust is separate from the question of where the trustee sits, and it needs individual advice.

A worked illustration: children in three countries

Example: a settlor in Lausanne has three adult children, one in London, one in Madrid and one in Singapore. The family business is sold and the proceeds are to be held in a discretionary trust for the next generation.

A trustee near the settlor, in Lausanne or elsewhere in Switzerland, would be convenient for the settlor and would sit at a natural midpoint for the children, as the family often meets in Switzerland. A trustee in London would be easy for one child and awkward for the others. A trustee in Singapore would be close to one child, far from the settlor and in a time zone that suits nobody else.

In this illustration, the question is not "which country is best", but "which place is least inconvenient for the greatest number of people who need the trustee". For a family dispersed across several continents, a central, neutral location is often easier than the home country of one branch. For a family with everyone in one country, the same reasoning points the other way.

The same logic applies to assets. If the family holds property in one country and securities in another, ask where the work actually happens. A trustee who must instruct local agents anyway may gain little from being close to just one of them. See trustee duties when the trust owns property for how property changes the picture.

It does not have to be either or

The choice is not always binary. Several arrangements let you combine local presence and Swiss administration:

• A Swiss corporate trustee with a local protector. The trustee administers; a trusted adviser near you holds protector powers. See working with a protector.
• Co-trustees in two places. One trustee near you, one in Switzerland, deciding together. This adds coordination work and needs clear rules on who signs what. The page on one trustee or co-trustees develops this.
• A local adviser or family office with a Swiss trustee. The adviser handles day-to-day family contact while the trustee holds legal responsibility. The situation of an adviser or family office looking for a trustee shows how this can work.
• A later move. A trust can sometimes change trustee as the family changes. The guide to changing trustee step by step describes the process.

Each of these has costs and risks. A hybrid adds parties and therefore adds the need for clear roles; it is worth choosing only if it solves a real problem.

When the settlor moves

A settlor who relocates changes the picture. A trustee who was close at the start may no longer be close, and the new country may treat the trust differently. A trustee in Switzerland can remain constant while the settlor moves, which some families find reassuring. Others prefer to reassess. The pages on what your trustee does when the settlor moves country and on keeping your trustee after moving abroad cover this in more detail.

Questions to ask yourself

Before comparing candidates, work through the following checklist. The answers often point clearly to one option, or show that you need a hybrid.

• List where each beneficiary lives and where each is likely to live in future
• List where the main assets are held and which banks hold them
• Decide which language the family will accept for formal documents
• Decide how often you want to meet the trustee in person
• Check how the trustee is supervised in each country you are considering
• Ask each candidate what happens if the person you deal with leaves
• Ask each candidate how they handle a beneficiary in a different time zone
• Ask how fees are set and when they are indicated, without assuming a figure

If the answers are mixed, that is normal. A short list of three or four criteria that matter most to your family usually helps more than trying to optimise everything. The twelve steps to choose a trustee offers a longer method.

Selon votre situation: what decides it

In summary:

• A trustee near you suits families concentrated in one country, who value in-person contact, local language and local bank relationships, and where local supervision is robust.
• A trustee in Switzerland suits families spread across several countries, with assets held in more than one place, who value a neutral base, Swiss supervision and experience with cross-border structures.
• A hybrid suits families who want both and can accept the added coordination.

The right answer depends on residence, the countries of the beneficiaries, the nature of the assets and the local rules that apply. This page gives general information, not advice. A confidential assessment looks at your specific facts and can say which arrangement fits them; fees depend on the structure and are indicated after that assessment.