Bank, insurer, trustee, mortgage advisor: each one takes good care of their own part. But who plans the whole?
Good private wealth planning doesn't start with a product. It starts with the question of whether all the parts fit together. That is the role smzh takes on: independent, with no in-house products, and with one plan for all of your wealth.
From our advisory practice, we know that the typical affluent household in Switzerland works with five to six financial service providers at the same time. Each one optimizes their own area. Nobody optimizes the whole.
This isn't a failing of the specialists. It's how their job is defined. What's missing isn't another specialist. It's someone who leads the whole.
Robust wealth planning rests on four forces that have to work together, not just alongside one another. Plan them separately and you manage fragments, not wealth.
How much capital needs to be accessible, and when?
Too much liquidity costs return opportunities; too little creates constraints. We define the reserve you need and the money that can work for you.
How should your capital work?
Risk-appropriate, cost-conscious and tax-coordinated. Investment decisions follow your goals, not a single product.
What happens if something happens?
Loss of income, disability, divorce, death: insurance, matrimonial property regime and powers of attorney have to fit together. Protection only becomes visible when it's missing.
Who should own what, and when?
Transferred tax-efficiently and with as little conflict as possible. The inheritance law in force since 1 January 2023 gives more freedom in dividing an estate.
Wealth is rarely won or lost in one big moment. It is shaped over the phases of life. These moments are the best time to put the whole in order again.
Your own income, your own financial responsibility. Laying the foundations now pays off the longest.
Two paths become one. Two financial systems stay separate until someone brings them together.
Responsibility grows. Your protection has to grow with it.
The dream comes true. Afterwards, mortgage, retirement savings and liquidity have to fit together again.
Your center of life shifts, and with it the tax and legal rules.
Assets are transferred, but not always preserved. Planning early prevents disputes and unnecessary costs.
Why wealth today doesn't need another advisor, but an architect. 32 pages, ten chapters, with figures from the UBS Global Wealth Report 2025 and the inheritance studies of the University of Lausanne.
What you'll learn in the white paper:
Fill out the form and you'll be taken straight to the PDF.
Four typical situations from our advisory practice. The examples are anonymized and represent common patterns, not individual client cases.
An employee has been investing for years, broadly diversified and at low cost. But nobody asked what this wealth was actually supposed to achieve. Without a goal and a plan, opportunity costs build up that never show on any statement.
A self-employed person took out several risk insurance policies through different advisors. When something happens, it turns out three policies cover the same risk, while a significant gap stays open.
A family from the Swiss Mittelland: four pension funds, three life insurance policies, two mortgages with different banks, a securities portfolio. Nobody had ever put the pieces together into one picture.
An entrepreneur dies unexpectedly, with no will. His wife and two children jointly inherit the majority of shares in the company. Six years of disputes follow, and a sale price that would have been significantly higher with succession planning.
A lawyer represents their client's interests. A family doctor decides in the patient's best interest. It should be the same with your wealth.
More than 200 employees, 13 locations in German-speaking Switzerland, more than 18'000 clients served.
In 60 minutes, we build a first picture of the whole together. Free of charge, confidential and open-ended.
We gather your accounts, portfolios, policies, pension assets, mortgages and contracts. Only then does it become clear what fits together and what doesn't.
Liquidity, investment, protection and succession are aligned with each other. You receive one strategy and one set of documentation.
We bring in the specialists you need, for example for tax, law or financing, and align their work.
When your life changes, we adjust the plan.
Wealth planning organizes all of your wealth around your goals. It sets out how much liquidity you need, how your capital is invested, how you and your family are protected, and how wealth will later be passed on. What matters is that these four areas are planned together and not separately with different providers.
Financial planning looks mainly at income, expenses and financial goals. In wealth management, someone manages your portfolio according to an agreed strategy. Wealth planning sits above both: it defines the role that investments, retirement savings, real estate, insurance and succession play in the overall picture.
Not only people above a certain level of wealth. As soon as you have several accounts, pension assets, policies or a mortgage, an overall picture is worth having. It matters most around marriage, buying a home, retirement, an inheritance or a business succession.
The architecture conversation is free of charge. After that, we work with transparent flat or hourly fees, with no hidden commissions. The amount depends on the scope and complexity of your situation.
Your goals and time horizon, income and expenses, accounts and portfolios, pension fund and pillar 3a statements, insurance policies, mortgage contracts and real estate, as well as any marriage or inheritance contracts and a will. Bring what you have. In the architecture conversation, we'll work out what's still missing.
For business owners, private and business wealth are closely linked: salary or dividends, retirement savings, company liquidity and succession. We plan both together and bring in tax and legal specialists where needed.
smzh doesn't sell any in-house products. We work exclusively on behalf of our clients, not on behalf of product providers.
We'll answer it personally in the architecture conversation.
The next step isn't a big decision. It's a conversation. Book your architecture conversation: 60 minutes, free of charge, confidential and open-ended.
