Setup
Family office setup
Design and stand up the single or multi-family office structure and its operating entities.
Family office setupFamily Office
in Switzerland.
A family office needs an operating spine as much as an investment view. The entities, the substance, the reporting, the succession plan and the tax position all have to hold together across generations and jurisdictions. We provide the corporate and fiduciary base a Swiss single or multi-family office runs on.
At a glance
The corporate, fiduciary and tax backbone of a family office, on one desk.
Independent since 2007 · IFLR1000-ranked · offices in Zurich and Zug · one partner per file.
- Setup
- Single or multi-family office
- Spine
- Entities, substance, reporting
- Succession
- Multi-generation planning
- Vehicles
- Foundations, trusts, holdings
The challenge
What this sector has to get right in Switzerland
A family office is a business that happens to serve one family, and like any business it needs a structure that works. That means the right holding and investment entities, real substance behind them, books and reporting the family can rely on, and governance that survives a generational handover. Whether the office is run by the family or shared across several, the corporate plumbing is what keeps it compliant and auditable while the principals focus on assets and strategy.
The structuring questions are rarely one-off. Wealth is held through foundations, trusts and holding companies; income and gains cross borders; and succession has to be planned long before it is needed, around Swiss forced-heirship rules and the laws of the family's other jurisdictions. Each of these touches tax, and the tax position has to be coherent across the whole structure rather than optimised entity by entity.
We act as the corporate and fiduciary engine room, incorporating and administering the entities, providing substance and directors, keeping the reporting current, and aligning tax and succession, so a family office has a single, accountable provider for the parts that have to be right and quiet.
What this desk handles
The services this sector uses most
Each links to the service page itself. Most mandates here combine several; one partner co-ordinates them.
Wealth
Wealth structuring
Arrange holdings and vehicles so the family's assets sit behind a coherent structure.
Wealth structuringOngoing
Entity management
Keep registers, filings and board records current across every entity the office runs.
Entity managementTax
Tax advisory
Keep the tax position coherent across the structure and across the family's jurisdictions.
Tax advisorySuccession
Succession & estate planning
Plan the generational handover around Swiss and foreign succession rules.
Succession & estate planningVehicle
Swiss foundation
Use a Swiss foundation for family governance, philanthropy or succession.
Swiss foundation Talk to the desk
Speak to a partner who knows the sector
No intake form to a junior, no call centre. The partner who reads your enquiry is the one who has run this structure before, and the one who will own your file. Outline your situation and you will have a considered reply, with the likely route and the next step, within one business day.
Why Goldblum and Partners
Swiss depth, one accountable partner
The family office work that has to be right is rarely the work that gets noticed — until it fails. We run the entities, substance, reporting, tax and succession on one desk, have been independent since 2007, and have been ranked by IFLR1000 across editions from 2015 to 2026. One partner is accountable for the whole spine.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions.
01What services does a family office provide in Switzerland?
A family office centralises a family's wealth and affairs into one accountable function: consolidated reporting across holdings and accounts, oversight of banks and external managers, accounting and tax coordination across entities and countries, governance, succession and the next-generation transition, and administration of the family's entities and real estate. It ranges from a light outsourced arrangement to a fully staffed dedicated entity, sized to what the family actually needs coordinated.
02Does a family office need a FINMA licence in Switzerland?
Not automatically, but the position has to be checked before the structure is built. A single-family office managing only its own family's wealth generally sits outside the portfolio-manager authorisation the Financial Institutions Act requires, but the boundary depends on how the office is set up, including whether it manages assets for parties beyond the family and how mandates are framed. Building the office the wrong way can create a licensing obligation that was never intended.
03What is the difference between a single-family office and a multi-family office?
A single-family office serves one family exclusively, while a multi-family office serves several families and shares infrastructure and cost between them. The distinction affects both economics and regulation: a single-family office managing only its own family's wealth has more room to stay outside the supervised financial perimeter, whereas an office serving multiple unrelated families is more likely to be carrying on a regulated financial activity. Most families choose between running their own office or using a multi-family office as a provider.
04Where should a family office be based in Switzerland?
There is no default answer; it depends on where the family and its assets are centred and what the office is for. Switzerland offers stability, neutrality, a deep pool of advisers and supervised institutions, strong banking and a central position for cross-border families, which makes it a natural home for a coordinating function, but the location also carries tax and substance consequences for the office and sometimes for the family. For a family already resident or substantially invested in Switzerland, a Swiss-based office usually makes sense.
05How is inheritance taxed in Switzerland for a family with assets in more than one country?
Inheritance tax in Switzerland is cantonal rather than federal, so the outcome depends on where the deceased was resident, where any real estate sits, and the relationship between deceased and heir. The surviving spouse or registered partner is exempt in every canton, and direct descendants are exempt in most but not all cantons, while unrelated heirs are taxed, sometimes heavily, with rates varying widely between cantons. Foreign inheritance or estate tax may also apply for a cross-border estate, so the position has to be modelled across every jurisdiction involved.
06What changed in Switzerland's forced heirship rules in 2023?
A reform effective 1 January 2023 reduced the compulsory portions reserved for close heirs under forced heirship, expanding the part of an estate that can be freely disposed of. Descendants' compulsory portion was cut from three-quarters to one-half of their statutory entitlement, and the parents' compulsory portion was abolished altogether, while the surviving spouse's or registered partner's compulsory portion remains one-half. A succession plan made before 2023 should be revisited in light of this added freedom.
07Can a foreign national in Switzerland choose their home country's inheritance law?
Often yes. Under Swiss private international law, a foreign national resident in Switzerland can, by a disposition such as a will, subject their estate to the law of their nationality instead of Swiss law, a choice that can change which forced-heirship rules apply. For someone from a common-law country with more testamentary freedom this can be valuable, though for others it may not help, and those with EU connections must also weigh the EU Succession Regulation's own choice-of-law mechanism before deciding.
08What is a Swiss foundation and how is it used by families?
A Swiss foundation, or Stiftung, is a pool of assets the founder dedicates, by public deed or by will, to a defined purpose; once endowed, the assets belong to the foundation itself and must be used only for that purpose. It has no owners and no members, and is governed by a foundation council and overseen by a state supervisory authority. Families use foundations for philanthropy and for holding and protecting family wealth across generations, though the founder gives up the ongoing control an owner of a company would have.
09How does entity management help a family that owns multiple companies?
It replaces scattered, person-dependent administration with one accountable team and one consolidated register covering every entity's officers, filings, statutory deadlines, registers, and bank and authority relationships. In many family structures each company's compliance lives with a different person or spreadsheet, so when that person leaves or misses something, filings lapse and registers fall out of date until a bank or authority asks. Entity management removes that fragility, giving the family a single, reliable view of every entity's obligations and status.
10Can wealth structuring eliminate a family's tax liability entirely?
No, and a structure promising that should be treated with suspicion. The aim is a tax position that is efficient and, crucially, sustainable, using legitimate reliefs, residence and ownership choices, and treaty positions that hold up when examined. A structure engineered to pay near-zero tax through artificiality typically relies on arrangements that anti-abuse rules and transparency reporting now defeat, carrying real risk of reassessment, penalties and dispute. Efficient and defensible beats aggressive and fragile, and that genuine, durable position is the right target.
The client's stories
What clients say
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“Perfekter Service! Wir wollten eine AG in der Schweiz übernehmen und hatten kaum Zeit – innerhalb weniger Tage war alles organisiert, inklusive Notar, Handelsregister und Bank.”
“We consulted Goldblum and Partners for structuring our crypto project under Swiss law. Their team was clear about the threshold between non-custodial and financial-intermediary status.”
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“Professionisti veri. Conoscono bene la legge svizzera e si sono occupati di ogni aspetto del passaggio azionario.”
Building or restructuring a family office?
Tell us how the family is organised and what the office needs to do. A partner will map the entities, substance and reporting it takes — and reply within one business day.
