How to transfer a trust to a trustee in Switzerland

If you want to transfer a trust to a trustee in Switzerland, the work is less about moving documents than about moving responsibility. The existing trustee retires or is removed, a new trustee is appointed under the rules of the trust deed, and everything the first trustee held or knew about the trust passes to the second. Done well, beneficiaries notice little; done badly, gaps in records and bank access surface months later.

This page explains how a takeover from a foreign trustee works in practice, starting with the question most settlors ask first: what must the outgoing trustee hand over?

Who this service is for

The service suits settlors, protectors and beneficiaries whose trust is administered elsewhere and who want a Geneva trustee instead. Typical triggers are a trustee that is slow to answer, a settlor who has relocated, a family that wants its trust closer to its advisers, or an outgoing trustee that is closing its trust business.

Example: a family established in Lausanne holds a trust set up years ago with a trustee in an offshore centre. Distributions take weeks to approve, nobody on the family side has seen accounts recently, and the protector wants a trustee reachable in the same time zone. They ask what moving the trust would involve before approaching anyone.

Whether a move is the right answer, or whether the existing relationship can be repaired, is a separate question; see switching trustee or staying and fixing the relationship.

Start with the deed

Everything depends on the trust deed. Before any approach to the outgoing trustee, the deed and its amendments are read for:

• who holds the power to appoint and remove trustees, and whether that power needs the protector's consent;
• any restriction on the identity or location of a successor trustee;
• the governing law and the courts named for disputes;
• the form a retirement and appointment must take.

If the deed is silent or unclear, the route may differ: some changes can be made by the people named in the deed, others need agreement among the parties or a court. Which route applies depends on the governing law of your trust, so it calls for individual analysis. The deed of retirement and appointment is the document that records the change once the route is clear.

What the outgoing trustee must hand over

The handover is the heart of the move. In outline, the incoming trustee asks for the following.

A fuller list is in the handover file from the outgoing trustee and the documents to gather before changing trustee.

Handover timeline

The order matters, because several steps depend on the one before.

No period is fixed in advance. The pace depends on the number of banks and jurisdictions involved and on how cooperative the outgoing trustee is.

How the work runs

Review and history checks

The incoming trustee does not accept a trust blind. It reviews how the trust has been run, looking for missing minutes, unexplained transfers or conflicts with the deed. Findings do not necessarily prevent a move, but they shape what the new trustee will ask the outgoing one to clarify first. An independent review of an existing trust can be done on its own if you are not yet ready to move.

Coordination with the outgoing trustee

Retirement is rarely just a signature. Outgoing trustees often keep a duty to cooperate and may ask for a release or a retention for open matters. Terms of that kind are negotiated, and the incoming trustee coordinates the exchange so that the family does not have to.

Banks and custody

Each account must be re-papered in the new trustee's name or under its authority. That means updating signatories, custody instructions and statements addresses. Our overview of the trustee and the trust bank accounts describes what banks usually ask for.

What changes under Swiss rules

A Swiss trustee taking over a trust must carry out its own checks. Under the anti-money laundering act (LBA / AMLA / GwG), trustees covered by the financial institutions act (LEFin / FinIA / FINIG) count as financial intermediaries (art. 2 para. 2 let. abis LBA). They must verify the identity of the contracting party on the basis of a supporting document (art. 3 LBA), identify the beneficial owner with the required diligence (art. 4 LBA), and keep records (art. 7 LBA). In a takeover, this is why the new trustee asks for identification papers even though the trust already exists.

Two further points matter for a trust coming from abroad:

• The Hague Trusts Convention does not prevent the application of mandatory rules of the forum, such as those protecting minors, creditors or good-faith third parties (art. 15 of the Convention).
• Foreign decisions in trust matters are recognised in Switzerland in listed situations, including when issued by the court validly designated or by the state of the trust's seat or governing law (art. 149e LDIP).

How these provisions apply to your trust depends on its governing law, its assets and where the parties live. For the supervision side, see what FINMA and SO-FIT approval means.

What the service covers and what it does not

The change-of-trustee service covers a review of the deed's rules on appointing a new trustee, the handover of records, accounts and assets, coordination with the outgoing trustee, checks on the history of the trust, and updating of bank and custody details.

It does not cover advice on tax in your country of residence, comparison of jurisdictions, or litigation against the outgoing trustee. Those questions call for specialist advisers, and the trustee will work with them where needed. Honorarium terms depend on the structure and are indicated after the confidential assessment.

What the confidential assessment establishes

The assessment sets out whether a move is feasible and on what route. It identifies who holds the power to appoint, what the outgoing trustee is likely to resist, which banks are involved and which documents are missing. You leave with a clear list of decisions and an order of work, not an obligation. For a similar story in practice, read the case of a trust moving from an offshore trustee to Geneva.