We are pleased to announce that, earlier this year, FinMA approved Lighthouse Swiss Trust AG as a fully-licensed trust company in Switzerland. Lighthouse Trust is now one of only a handful of licensed trust companies in Switzerland.
Our Swiss office was first establish in 2008 at a time when trust companies were subject to indirect regulation through so-called self-regulating organizations (“SROs”). Lighthouse Trust was pleased to be a member of SRO PolyReg, which was itself subject to supervision by the Swiss government.
In 2022, Switzerland announced a change to its approach regulating the trust and wealth management industry. SROs were to be eliminated, and FinMA would require trust and wealth management firms to become directly licensed by FinMA in order to continue serving clients in Switzerland.
In addition to a grant of license to Lighthouse Swiss Trust AG, FinMA has also conferred a license on our wealth management firm, Lighthouse Swiss Wealth Advisors AG. LSWA is registered with the United States Securities & Exchange Commission to provide wealth management services to US clients and their trust and business entity structures. Also, LSWA is a founding member of the Swiss Registered Investment Advisors Association.