Estate and Legacy Planning
Leave an enduring legacy for the people, causes and organizations you love
From traditional estate planning to
values based estate planning
As Lynne Twist, author and founder of the Soul of Money Institute explained, money carries our intention. If we use it with integrity, then it carries integrity forward.
We believe that estate planning should go beyond the traditional considerations of tax minimization, inheritance, wealth transfer and asset protection. We use a value based estate planning approach that matches your why: the impact and meaning that you desire for your wealth, with the how: the strategies, tools and techniques that will help you achieve those goals.
Some of the tools we regularly use for estate planning, beyond the traditional estate documents, include Living Trusts, Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts, Spousal Lifetime Asset Trusts, Special Needs Trusts, Donor Advised Funds, Qualified Charitable Distributions, Gift Annuities, Retained Life Estates, Charitable Remainder Trusts and Charitable Lead Trusts.
Our retirement planning services include helping you:
- Define your family’s core values and communicate them in a meaningful form to your loved ones and estate planning team.
- Construct the framework of your estate plan around US and Swiss estate and inheritance laws, including Swiss forced heirship rules.
- Learn about the different American and Swiss documents in an estate plan: wills, trusts, health care directives, living wills and financial powers of attorney.
- Coordinate the work of your US and Swiss estate attorneys to make sure that your global wealth is considered, and that conflicts between US and Swiss laws are efficiently resolved.
- Understand the difference between estate taxes in the USA and inheritance taxes in Switzerland.
- Take advantage of US-Swiss estate tax treaty benefits when helping you put together your estate plan.
- Facilitate clear communication between all stakeholders.
- Meet advisors, trustees and institutional partners specialized in strategic and tactical estate plan implementation.
- Review and help you maintain beneficiary account designations that are consistent with your estate plan and formal estate documents.
- Incorporate philanthropic planning to match your charitable giving interests with your financial capacity and family legacy goals.
- Review your current charitable giving and recommend strategies to help you improve your giving impact in a tax efficient manner.
- Incorporate gifting strategies, including maximizing current and future gift exemptions to meet your legacy goals.
- Understand the difference between revocable and irrevocable commitments such designating beneficiaries by operation of law, making testamentary gifts or gifts in living trusts, and making split-interest gifts that benefit both your family and favorite charities.
- Evaluate different asset protection strategies and make recommendations based on your situation and needs.
- Understand the impact of different estate plans and asset titling options, particularly in the case of blended families and families with special needs.
- Track changes and proposed changes in estate laws in the USA and Switzerland to understand their impact on your plan and any changes that may be needed as a result of new legislation.
Are You Ready to get
the help you are looking for?
Work with a team of experienced and specialized advisors who truly understand your situation and needs.
Still Have More Questions?
No Problem. Read the FAQs.
Yes. In addition to traditional portfolio solutions, we offer sustainable investment portfolios that account for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors. ESG data on companies has become increasingly available over the last few years. This allows us to offer portfolios built with ETFs (exchange-traded funds) that exclude certain industries such as weapons manufacturers or tobacco companies. Industries included might focus on a particular theme, or aim to have a positive impact by promoting positive and limiting negative externalities. Investing in ESG portfolios involves risks, please refer to our ADV for more details.
Yes. We offer alternative investments such as private investments, hedge funds, and cryptocurrencies if you qualify as an accredited investor and when these investments are appropriate for your situation and are aligned with your financial plan. Some of these alternative investments may also be available to non-accredited investors. Investing in alternatives and cryptocurrencies involves risks, please refer to our ADV for more details.
Yes. We offer direct/personalized indexing when this investment strategy is appropriate for your situation. With direct/personalized indexing, you own the underlying securities in the portfolio, rather than shares of an investment fund. This approach provides additional opportunities to personalize your investments and potentially gain greater tax efficiency through daily tax-loss harvesting. Direct indexing involves risks, please refer to our ADV for more details.
We believe that every person deserves access to quality financial education that can empower them to make good financial decisions. For individuals and families who are unable to engage us for our professional services, our blog and educational videos provide free educational resources. Additionally, we regularly conduct educational workshops, covering topics like tax reporting, tax planning, saving for retirement, risk management, and legacy planning. To inquire about our next educational workshop, please email us at info@swissamericanwealth.com
To minimize conflicts of interest and seek better alignment with our clients, we do not accept sales commissions or referral fees from investment product providers or independent professionals. We only receive compensation in the form of financial advisory fees paid by our clients as detailed in their financial planning advisory agreements. Our clients pay us a transparent fee for our advice.
We work hard to make sure your money is safe. We are members of a fee-only Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) with over $3 billion in assets under management serving approximately 5,000 families. We work only with top financial institutions like Charles Schwab and Fidelity as our independent custodians, and we use leading industry technology for investment management and financial planning. We hold multiple professional credentials, and we are held to a fiduciary standard, which means that we are required to always provide advice that is in your best interest, even when it’s against our own.
We offer US insurance services through our sister firm, Swiss American Risk Advisors. We have teamed up with Ash Brokerage to offer independent insurance solutions when needed. Please refer to our disclosures at the bottom of this page.
