Trusts and foundations: does the deed allow it? Checking each distribution against the deed before the trustee resolves
A beneficiary asks for CHF 200,000 towards a house. The letter of wishes speaks of education and health. The deed gives the trustee discretion over capital, with the protector's consent above a threshold. Does the deed allow it, who must consent, and what must the resolution say? Your team answers such questions from deeds that run to fifty pages, with supplemental deeds, changes of trustee and letters of wishes from different decades. Which document did the last distribution actually rest on?
The short answer: a distribution is allowed if the deed gives the power, the recipient is within the beneficiaries, every consent the deed requires is given, and its limits and form are met. A letter of wishes usually guides how a power is used rather than creating one; the law the deed names decides. For a Swiss foundation, the deed sets the purpose, the organs and the administration, and, unless it is a family or church foundation, a supervisory authority sees that the assets serve that purpose. Professional trustees are financial institutions under the Financial Institutions Act, bound by its secrecy, and financial intermediaries under the anti-money-laundering act. A local AI, on servers in Switzerland, Meow's or your own, can summarise deeds and letters of wishes with the clause behind each point, check a proposed distribution against the deed and draft the trustee resolution, while the trustee decides.
Checked against the law on 30 September 2026
Does the deed allow it?
- 5 powers
The ones the new ordinance lists as control over a trust: selling or investing its assets, deciding, making or approving distributions, adding or removing beneficiaries, appointing or removing trustees, and dissolving or revoking it. Map who holds each (Transparency Ordinance, art. 5).
- CHF 250,000
The fine for revealing, through negligence, a secret entrusted to someone working for a financial institution, which professional trustees are. Doing it on purpose carries up to three years (FinIA, arts. 2 and 69).
- 5 years
How long a trustee outside the anti-money-laundering act, a family member acting as trustee for instance, keeps the file on the trust's beneficial owners after the role ends, accessible in Switzerland (Transparency Act, arts. 2 para. 2 and 16).
How to check a distribution against the deed
0 of 8 checked
The deed, every supplemental deed and deed of appointment, in date order; the law the deed names governs how they are read.
Trustee, protector, settlor or others: who can invest, distribute, add or remove beneficiaries, appoint or remove trustees, or end the trust (Transparency Ordinance, art. 5).
Named, or within a class the deed defines. Where none is named, the beneficiaries are the circle of persons, by category, who may benefit (Transparency Ordinance, art. 6).
Income or capital, discretionary or fixed, and any limit on amount, purpose or timing.
A protector's or settlor's consent, written notice, waiting periods: whatever the deed attaches to the power.
It usually guides the choice. Record where the request follows it or departs from it, and why.
The power, the recipient, the amount, the consents obtained and the reasons, each with its clause.
Professional trustees are financial intermediaries: the file must let an expert outsider judge it, and is kept at least ten years after the relationship ends (AMLA, arts. 2 and 7).
Ticked them all? The kit turns this into a routine for every trust: six requests answered, the eight lines every deed summary needs, the rules an AI follows to check a distribution against the deed and draft the resolution, and a plan to test it on your own deeds. Get the kit
Does the deed allow it? Six requests
The kit answers six common requests. Two of them:
- A discretionary trust with no beneficiary named
- Record the class: where no beneficiary is named, the beneficiaries are the circle of persons, by category, who may benefit (Transparency Ordinance, art. 6).
- A family member acts as trustee, not as a business
- The transparency act's trustee duties apply if they live in Switzerland or administer the trust here: identify and verify the beneficial owners, keep the file current, and keep it five years after the role ends (Transparency Act, arts. 2 para. 2 and 16).
- The protector can veto capital distributions
- In the kit
- A request for a house, where the letter of wishes names only education and health
- In the kit
- A Swiss foundation asked to fund something outside its purpose
- In the kit
- A company controlled by a Swiss foundation, for the transparency register
- In the kit
Foundations
A Swiss foundation is property dedicated to a particular purpose, set up by public deed or by will; its deed fixes its organs and how it is run. The public body it belongs to supervises it and sees that the assets are used for its purposes, except for family and church foundations, which have no supervisory authority (CC, arts. 80, 81, 83, 84 and 87). For a family foundation, the deed and the board are the only check.
Where a local AI helps
Deeds, letters of wishes and distribution requests hold a family's wealth and wishes, and a professional trustee's staff must keep secret what they learn in that role. A local model reads and checks them on servers in Switzerland, Meow's or your own, citing the clause behind every point, and the trustee decides.
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