Private Client

“Impressive experience in advising on wills and related areas across international jurisdictions”

Our specialist private client team strives to protect the personal and financial interests of successful individuals on the full range of contentious and noncontentious issues faced by private clients, including estate planning and related disputes, succession of family businesses, relocation, philanthropy and art related legal advice.

Our clients include high net worth individuals (HNWIs) and families, owners, entrepreneurs and philanthropists, family offices, foundations, trust companies and fiduciary holding structures.

LALIVE’s team of highly skilled specialists and litigators is particularly well versed in complex disputes involving businesses, investments and other valuable assets spread across the world, involving family members in various jurisdictions. We assist to protect and defend your interests and that of your family in particular by ensuring smooth succession from one generation to the next, navigating family disputes and preserving key assets.

Given our international dimension, we are especially well placed to advise in complex cross-border matters and can coordinate multi-jurisdictional and multidisciplinary matters such as tax and corporate advisory, by drawing on the expertise of a wide, highly specialized network.

We offer particular expertise in the following:

• Succession planning and executorship: We assist successful people looking to preserve the integrity and longevity of their business or the family’s assets without disruption and seek to avoid future disputes among the heirs. We can provide personalised matrimonial agreements, registered partnership agreements, last wills and inheritance agreements, helping them to protect private wealth and business assets, always applying the highest discretion and sensitivity. Members of the firm are also regularly appointed as executors of last wills and provide philanthropy advice to foundations and international charities.
• Divorce proceedings: We advise HNWIs in relation to separation, divorce, registered partnership, particularly in complex and cross-border disputes involving international assets, complex trust structures and cross-jurisdictional litigation.
• Matrimonial Agreements: Private wealth requires careful examination and planning of the matrimonial regime, in particular in an international environment and in complex family situations. We advise on the legal options available and assist our clients to set up personalised matrimonial agreements, which not only become relevant in a divorce scenario but are an elementary tool for succession planning in Switzerland.
• Elderly Protection: The incapacity of a person can disrupt the functioning of a family and the family business. The incapacity of a director or shareholder in particular can have serious consequences for companies and their advisors. We advise on how to anticipate, prepare and put in place potential solutions to mitigate the adverse impact of incapacity in the corporate context.
• Media & reputation: We assist individuals and companies to navigate media crisis or to pro-actively manage and protect their reputation. Our focus is on providing practical and efficient solutions by persuasion, negotiation and litigation if needed.
• Litigation & arbitration: We advise private clients in all domestic and cross border litigation and arbitration proceedings relating to their personal interests and assets.
• Trust & estate litigation: We act for business owners, trustees, executors, settlors, or beneficiaries in helping to resolve or prevent disputes in relation to the ownership and structuring of privately held wealth.
• Art as an asset: We advise collectors, dealers, galleries, museums, charitable organisations and auction houses on an array of legal issues connected with the buying and selling of fine art, antiques and other collectibles at private auction and privately. In addition, we advise on the broad range of transactions involving art as an asset or as a collateral in loans to museums or loan against the value of an artwork.
• International assistance: We assist individuals in complex administrative assistance proceedings in tax matters in Switzerland initiated at the request of foreign tax authorities aiming to obtain evidence of financial transactions, bank records and other assets located in Switzerland.