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The Continuity Compact A four-principle framework for multi-generational wealth transfer comprising Govern (establish decision rights and family governance structures), Communicate (enable deliberate intergenerational dialogue), Prepare (develop rising-generation capability and readiness), and Endure (deploy stable stewardship relationships that outlast market cycles and generational transitions). The framework addresses the documented reality that successful family wealth transfer depends equally on sound legal and tax planning and on deliberate communication and alignment across generational cohorts. Banquier Privé / Private Banker A Swiss legal designation for a partner or managing director of a private banking partnership who carries unlimited personal liability for the firm’s obligations and personally manages client relationships. Under Swiss federal banking law, the presence of one or more partners with unlimited liability defines the legal status of private banker, signalling personal fiduciary commitment and institutional stability across generations. Société en Commandite par Actions (SCmA) A Swiss legal form governed by Articles 764 et seq. of the Swiss Code of Obligations in which one or more general partners carry unlimited personal liability for the firm’s debts while investor-shareholders have limited liability. This structure combines the accountability of a partnership with the capital-raising flexibility of a joint-stock company, and remains relatively rare in Switzerland. Bordier & Cie converted to SCmA on 30 June 2020 while preserving unlimited partner liability as a deliberate governance choice favouring continuity. Family Charter (or Family Constitution) A formal written statement of a family’s values, mission, governance principles, decision-making processes, and rules for wealth stewardship, succession, and conflict resolution. Family charters serve as a foundational document for multi-generational wealth transfer by establishing shared expectations before disputes arise. Research shows that families with constitutions rate their communication as twice as effective and their joint decision-making as 1.5 times more effective than families without them (UBS & Agreus, 2025). Family Council A deliberative body comprising family members across generations and branches that meets regularly to discuss shared governance, investment strategy, philanthropy, and succession planning. Research shows that regular family meetings and communication are considered the most effective wealth transfer planning strategy by high-net-worth advisory practices, with 89 per cent of firms surveyed identifying ongoing family communication cadence as essential to successful transfers (Cerulli, 2024). Rising Generation The younger cohort of family members who will inherit wealth, leadership roles, or decision-making authority. Intentional early financial education, gradual involvement in family business or investment decisions, and graduated responsibility are key mechanisms for preparing the rising generation to steward capital and family values across the long term. Only 23 per cent of next-generation members are fully or highly prepared to manage inherited wealth (UBS & Agreus, 2025). Family Office A private management structure that administers the investments, taxation, estate planning, philanthropy, and administrative affairs of a single family (single-family office) or multiple unrelated families (multi-family office). Family offices operate with a long-term, integrated approach to wealth and legacy, typically offering tax and estate planning, risk management, trusteeship, investment advice, and coordination of professional advisers. Family offices serve as anchors for long-horizon stewardship. Stewardship The responsible allocation, management and oversight of capital over a long-term horizon, prioritising the protection and enhancement of client and beneficiary interests across economic, social, and environmental dimensions, rather than short-term returns. Stewardship reflects a commitment to durable value creation and institutional continuity across market cycles. A steward is distinguished from an asset manager by their willingness to hold assets through downturns and to prioritise the family’s long-term objectives over quarterly performance. Patient Capital Capital committed to a multi-year or multi-decade investment horizon, with investors willing to forgo immediate returns in expectation of sustainable long-term appreciation. Prominent sources of patient capital include pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, university endowments, and private banking institutions that manage wealth across generational transitions. Patient capital enables advisers to resist the temptation to churn portfolios or chase short-term market moves (Ivashina & Lerner, 2019). Discretionary Mandate An investment management authority granted by a client to a banker or fiduciary, permitting the manager to make buying, selling, and allocation decisions on the client’s behalf within agreed parameters (risk tolerance, time horizon, objectives) without requiring prior approval for each transaction. Discretionary mandates enable responsive portfolio management and are common in private banking relationships built on trust and long-term stewardship. Holding Structure A legal entity (such as a holding company, partnership, or trust) that owns and manages a family’s assets, businesses, or investments. Holding structures provide administrative efficiency, tax optimisation, liability separation, and continuity of control across generational transitions, enabling assets to be managed as a cohesive whole. Succession Plan A documented framework identifying who will assume leadership, decision-making authority, or beneficial ownership of family wealth and assets, including timelines for transitions, development milestones for heirs, and governance mechanisms to ensure smooth handover. Succession plans integrate legal provisions, talent development, and family alignment to reduce conflict and preserve family values. Families with succession plans show 4 times higher next-generation preparedness (UBS & Agreus, 2025). Trust A legal arrangement in which a fiduciary (trustee) holds title to assets on behalf of one or more beneficiaries, enabling asset management and distribution according to the founder’s written instructions. Trusts provide privacy, flexibility, protection from complex probate proceedings, and the ability to impose enduring conditions on wealth and legacy across generations. Continuity Audit A systematic assessment of a family’s wealth infrastructure, including documentation of all assets, digital records, location of accounts and titles, succession protocols, emergency procedures, and designated trustees or fiduciaries. A Continuity Audit captures institutional memory and ensures that if a key family member becomes unavailable, the next generation can locate and manage all assets without delay or information loss. Wealth Transfer The process of conveying assets, decision rights, and family values from one generation to the next, encompassing legal, tax, financial, and relational dimensions. Successful wealth transfer depends equally on sound planning and deliberate communication: research shows that families with formal governance structures and regular communication experience measurably higher wealth retention and lower succession conflict. Estate Plan A comprehensive legal and financial strategy encompassing wills, trusts, tax-efficient structures, insurance, powers of attorney, and beneficiary designations. An estate plan is designed to minimise tax leakage, protect privacy, ensure assets are distributed and managed according to the owner’s intent, and provide clarity and legal certainty for heirs and fiduciaries. Only about one in four Americans held a will in 2025, down from one in three in 2022 (Caring.com, 2025). Family Investment Company A legal entity (typically a holding company or limited partnership) through which a family collectively owns and manages investments, operating businesses, or real assets. A family investment company centralises decision-making, enables graduated responsibility for the next generation (through co-management of specific holdings), and preserves capital within the family structure across multiple generational transitions. Dynasty Trust A trust structured to hold and transmit family wealth across multiple generations, often beyond the lifetimes of the founder’s children and grandchildren, where jurisdictional rules permit. By holding assets within the trust rather than distributing them outright, a dynasty trust can shelter wealth from successive rounds of transfer taxation and from the claims of creditors or divorcing spouses, while preserving the founder’s stewardship intentions over a long horizon. Generation-Skipping Trust A trust designed to transfer assets to grandchildren or later descendants, bypassing the intervening generation as direct recipients. The structure allows the middle generation to benefit from income or limited access during their lifetimes while the principal passes to younger beneficiaries. Families use generation-skipping arrangements to reduce the cumulative tax incurred when wealth is transferred and taxed at each successive generational transition. Family Foundation A charitable entity established and funded by a family to direct its philanthropic giving in a structured, enduring manner. A family foundation provides a vehicle for involving multiple generations in shared purpose, defining grant-making priorities, and transmitting values alongside capital. It can serve as a training ground for the rising generation, giving younger members governance responsibility and decision-making experience within a defined and lower-stakes setting. Outsourced Chief Investment Officer An arrangement in which a family or institution delegates the design, implementation, and ongoing oversight of its investment programme to an external professional or firm acting in a fiduciary capacity. The outsourced chief investment officer assumes responsibility for asset allocation, manager selection, and portfolio monitoring, allowing families without a large internal investment team to access institutional-grade discipline while retaining control over objectives and risk parameters. Investment Policy Statement A written document that records the objectives, risk tolerance, time horizon, liquidity needs, and allocation guidelines governing a portfolio. An investment policy statement establishes shared expectations between a family and its advisers, provides a reference point for decision-making during periods of market stress, and supports continuity by ensuring that investment intentions survive changes in personnel or generational handovers. Lombard Loan A form of credit secured against a portfolio of marketable securities, where the pledged assets serve as collateral while remaining invested. Families use Lombard facilities to access liquidity without selling holdings, thereby avoiding the realisation of capital gains, preserving long-term positions, and meeting short-term funding needs. The available credit fluctuates with the value of the pledged assets, and a fall in collateral value can require additional security. Open Architecture An investment approach in which an institution offers access to products and strategies from a wide range of external providers, rather than restricting clients to its own in-house funds. Open architecture is intended to align the adviser’s recommendations with the client’s interests by widening the available universe and reducing conflicts associated with proprietary distribution, supporting the selection of instruments on merit. Core Holdings The foundational positions within a portfolio intended to be held over a long horizon and to provide its central, durable exposure. Core holdings are typically diversified, lower-turnover positions selected for their alignment with the family’s objectives and risk tolerance, around which more tactical or specialised allocations may be arranged. Maintaining stable core holdings reflects the principles of patient capital and long-term stewardship. Spendthrift Trust A trust containing provisions that restrict a beneficiary’s ability to assign, pledge, or transfer their interest, and that limit the reach of the beneficiary’s creditors against trust assets. Spendthrift arrangements protect wealth from imprudent management, external claims, or undue influence, while allowing the trustee to make measured distributions. Families employ them to preserve capital for younger or less experienced beneficiaries while supporting their needs. Settlor The person who establishes a trust by transferring assets into it and setting out the terms under which those assets are to be held and administered. Also described as the grantor or founder, the settlor defines the beneficiaries, the trustee’s powers, and the conditions governing distributions. Once assets are settled, control passes to the trustee, who must administer them in accordance with the settlor’s recorded intentions and the governing law. Trustee The fiduciary who holds legal title to trust assets and administers them for the benefit of the beneficiaries in accordance with the trust instrument and applicable law. A trustee owes duties of loyalty, prudence, and impartiality, and must act in the beneficiaries’ interests rather than their own. The selection of a capable and independent trustee is central to continuity, as the office can endure across generational transitions. Beneficiary A person or entity entitled to receive benefit from a trust, estate, foundation, or insurance arrangement, whether in the form of income, capital, or use of assets. Beneficiaries may hold present or future interests, and their entitlements may be fixed or subject to the trustee’s discretion. Clear identification of beneficiaries and their respective interests reduces ambiguity, limits dispute, and supports an orderly transfer of wealth. Power of Attorney A legal instrument by which one person authorises another to act on their behalf in financial, legal, or administrative matters, either generally or within defined limits. A durable power of attorney remains effective if the grantor loses mental capacity, enabling a trusted representative to manage affairs without court intervention. Within a continuity framework, powers of attorney ensure that decisions can be taken without interruption during illness or incapacity. Domicile The jurisdiction that a person treats as their permanent home and to which they intend to return, distinct from residence or nationality. Domicile carries significant consequences for the taxation of income, capital, and inheritance, and for the law that governs succession to a person’s estate. Because cross-border families may hold assets and members across several jurisdictions, the determination of domicile is a central consideration in succession and estate planning.