Trust Register FAQ: Registers, Reporting and Data Held by a Swiss trustee

This trust register FAQ gathers the questions families and advisers ask most often about transparency: what is recorded, where, who can look, and what a trust reports to which authority. Answers are general information. The result for your own structure depends on where the settlor and beneficiaries are resident, what the trust owns and which seat administers it, so each point below ends where an individual analysis has to begin.

Public registers and who can see them

Is there a public trust register?

Not in the way many people imagine. A trust is not a legal entity, and most systems that record trusts do so in non-public registers or in the files of regulated service providers. Some countries keep a register of trusts with a tax or anti-money-laundering purpose; access is usually limited to authorities and, in some systems, to parties who can show a legitimate interest. Whether a given seat runs a register at all, and who may consult it, differs by country. The page on trust registers and privacy compares what is disclosed where.

Does Switzerland have a trust register?

The official material reviewed for this page does not describe a register dedicated to trusts. Switzerland's new transparency register for legal entities is a separate matter, covered in the next section. A trust administered in Switzerland is nevertheless visible to the authorities through the trustee's own regulatory and anti-money-laundering duties, and through automatic exchange.

Who sees a register, if one exists?

Typically three groups: the supervisory and tax authorities, other competent authorities such as prosecutors, and regulated professionals who must run due diligence. Public access, where it exists, tends to be narrow. Because the rules are set country by country, a settlor who has links to several states should check each one rather than assume the rules of the seat apply everywhere.

Does a private trust still keep its confidentiality?

A trust deed is not a public document, and beneficiaries are generally not published. Confidentiality is, however, not secrecy: the trustee, its bank and the competent authorities hold information about the settlor, the beneficiaries and the assets. See regulated versus lightly regulated seats for how this plays out across jurisdictions.

Switzerland's transparency register

What is the new Swiss transparency register?

The law on the transparency of legal entities came into force, and the register, kept by the Federal Office of Justice, started on 1 October 2026. A control authority within the Federal Department of Finance checks the data. The deadline for filing the required details runs from one month to two years depending on the type of entity.

Does the transparency register cover trusts?

The government announcement refers to legal entities and legal persons; it does not mention trusts. That does not settle every case. A company or foundation that sits in or beside a trust structure may have its own filing duty, so the way a structure is built matters. This is a point for individual analysis, and the overlap with other vehicles is discussed in trust, foundation or company.

Is the Swiss transparency register public?

The announcement used for this page does not say who may consult the register, so no answer is given here on public access. Check the current legislation and the register's access rules before relying on any assumption about who sees what.

What is the difference between this register and the files a trustee keeps?

The register is a state-held record for legal entities. A trustee's file is a private record built under anti-money-laundering law and is not published. The two can describe the same people but they are different instruments, kept by different holders and open to different readers.

Land, vessel and aircraft registers

Can a trust's name appear in the land register?

A trust has no legal personality, so the title is normally recorded in the trustee's name. Under Art. 149d of the Swiss Private International Law Act (PILA), when assets of a trust are registered in the name of a trustee in the land register, the ship register or the aircraft register, the link with the trust may be noted.

What happens if the link to the trust is not noted?

A link that has not been noted cannot be enforced against third parties acting in good faith. In practice the trustee and the settlor's advisers weigh the extra publicity of a note against the risk of leaving the trust relationship unopposable. The rules on real estate held through a trust set out how situs rules shape that choice.

Does a note in the land register reveal the beneficiaries?

The provision speaks of the link with the trust, not of the beneficiaries. What a given note shows in practice depends on the registry and the wording used, so this is a question for the notary or counsel handling the entry.

Know-your-client files and beneficial owner records

Is a Swiss trustee subject to anti-money-laundering law?

Yes. Under Art. 2 para. 2 let. abis of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA), asset managers and trustees within the scope of Art. 2 para. 1 let. a and b of the Financial Institutions Act (FinIA) are financial intermediaries. They are supervised for AMLA purposes, usually through a supervisory organization or by the FINMA, depending on their status.

What does the trustee have to verify about the client?

Art. 3 AMLA requires the financial intermediary to verify the identity of the contracting party when a business relationship is established, on the basis of a supporting document. For a trust, the practical question is who the contracting party is, which is why the trustee reads the trust deed and the settlor's papers before accepting the mandate.

Who is the beneficial owner of a trust?

The legal owner of the assets is the trustee, but that person is not the one who benefits. Under Art. 4 AMLA, the financial intermediary must identify the beneficial owner with the care the circumstances require and verify the person's identity. It must obtain a written declaration, or another form that allows proof by text, when the contracting party is not the beneficial owner or when there is doubt. In a discretionary trust the analysis of who counts can be demanding, so the file often records the settlor, the protector, the classes of beneficiaries and any person who exercises real control.

Does the protector appear in the records?

Often, yes. A protector holds powers that may influence who benefits or who serves as trustee, so banks and trustees usually note the role. How the role is described in the file depends on the powers written into the deed. See protector and reserved powers law for the legal side.

How does the bank see the trust?

The bank runs its own due diligence on top of the trustee's. It asks for the trust deed, evidence of the origin of assets and the identity of the controlling persons. The topic is explored further under banking and custody for trust assets.

Automatic exchange: CRS and FATCA

What is the CRS and how does it touch a trust?

The Common Reporting Standard (CRS), known in Switzerland as the automatic exchange of information (AEOI), obliges financial institutions to collect account holder data and report it to their tax authority, which passes it to the authority of the account holder's country of residence. The State Secretariat for International Finance states that more than 100 states, including all major financial centers, have adopted the global standard, and its partner list is current as of 08.10.2026. Its latest reciprocal additions are Curaçao on 08.10.2026, Romania on 21.09.2026 and Trinidad and Tobago on 25.08.2026. The exact number of partner states is not given in plain text on the page.

What is CRS classification?

Each trust is classified for CRS purposes, and the label drives who reports. In broad terms, a trust is either a financial institution itself, for example when it is managed by a professional trustee that is a financial institution and its income is mainly financial, or a non-financial entity that is reported on by the bank holding its accounts. The classification depends on the trust's facts and on who manages it, so it is settled case by case.

If the trustee is the account holder, who is reported?

Where the trust is reported, the reporting normally looks through to the controlling persons, which for a trust include the settlor, the trustee, the protector, the beneficiaries and anyone else exercising ultimate control. The detail of the definition is set by the standard and by national implementation, and the exact list is checked in each case.

What is FATCA and which regime applies to Switzerland?

FATCA is the United States information-reporting regime for accounts held by US persons. According to the Federal Tax Administration (FTA), the current regime rests on the agreement of 14 February 2013, with aggregated reports and group requests, referred to by the FTA as "FATCA IGA 2".

Will FATCA change in Switzerland?

A FATCA agreement based on Model 1, providing for automatic and reciprocal exchange, was signed on 27 June 2024. The FTA expects entry into force "at the earliest" on 1 January 2029, and implementation is under way. Until then, the existing regime remains the reference. A settlor who is a US person faces additional constraints that affect the choice of seat, discussed in US person settlor and seat choice.

Reporting to the settlor's country

Does a trust report to the settlor's country?

Frequently, though not through one single channel. Information can reach the settlor's tax authority through automatic exchange, through requests for administrative assistance, through the settlor's own tax return, and through the reporting duties of the settlor or beneficiaries under domestic law. Some countries require residents to declare foreign trusts they created or benefit from. The answer for a particular family depends on its country of residence and citizenship.

Does the trustee file a return in the settlor's country?

Usually not. The duty to file typically falls on the taxpayer, who is the settlor or the beneficiary, while the trustee supplies the information needed. Some systems treat the trustee as a taxpayer or require it to register. This is one of the points compared in reporting regimes compared.

What if the settlor moves to another country?

A move can create new declaration duties and change how the trust is classified by the new country of residence, even when the trust deed and the governing law stay the same. The page on trust seat and governing law when the settlor relocates covers the mechanics.

Data, privacy and practicalities

What data does a Swiss trustee keep?

Identity documents and proof of address for the settlor and, where relevant, other controlling persons; the declaration on the beneficial owner; the trust deed and amendments; the letter of wishes if one exists; records of the origin of assets; accounts and trustee decisions; and the correspondence needed to show that the due diligence was carried out. Retention periods are set by law and are not stated here.

Who may access that data?

The trustee, its supervisory body and auditors, competent authorities acting under their legal powers, and counsel where lawful. It is not shared with the public. The settlor and the beneficiaries have the rights that the trust deed and the applicable law give them.

Can data be corrected or deleted?

Data protection law gives individuals rights over their personal data, but anti-money-laundering retention duties limit deletion for as long as the law requires the records to be kept. Requests are handled by the trustee against the specific legal basis.

How often must the information be refreshed?

Due diligence is not a one-off. A trustee updates its files when circumstances change and as part of periodic reviews, and the tax reporting runs on its own cycle. The yearly rhythm is laid out in the annual compliance calendar by seat.