Private Banking and Succession Planning: Managing Wealth Across Generations

Accumulating significant wealth is one achievement. Ensuring that wealth endures across generations — intact, purposeful, and governed thoughtfully — is another matter entirely. Private banks have evolved far beyond custody and investment management; the most sophisticated institutions now offer genuine succession planning support, sitting alongside (and sometimes competing with) private client solicitors, family offices, and independent trustees.

This guide sets out what private banking institutions typically offer in the succession and estate planning space, what their limitations are, and how internationally mobile HNW clients should approach multi-generational wealth planning in 2026.

Why Succession Planning Is a Banking Issue

Most people think of estate planning as a legal and tax matter — wills, trusts, inheritance tax mitigation. The banking dimension is often overlooked until assets are frozen, accounts disputed, or probate stalls because the deceased's wealth was spread across six jurisdictions with no consolidated record.

Private banks are interested in succession planning for commercial reasons: they want the next generation to keep their wealth under management. But this commercial interest aligns usefully with client interest. A private bank that has documented your asset structure, maintained consolidated reporting across all accounts and custodied assets, and knows the family members you have introduced to the relationship is in a strong position to support a smooth transfer.

The alternative — assets in fragments, relationships undocumented, beneficiaries unknown to the institution — creates delay, cost, and sometimes irrecoverable loss.

What Private Banks Offer in This Space

Consolidated Reporting and Wealth Aggregation

Before succession planning can begin, you need a complete picture. Private banks typically offer consolidated reporting across all custodied assets: equities, bonds, alternative investments, cash, and in some cases external assets held elsewhere (property valuations, third-party accounts, pension assets).

This consolidated view serves succession planning directly. It becomes the starting schedule of assets that forms the basis of any will, letter of wishes, trust deed, or family governance document. Without it, executors or trustees spend months tracing assets.

HSBC Private Banking, Julius Baer, and UBS all offer consolidated reporting dashboards. Quality varies significantly — some are genuinely comprehensive, others are limited to assets held within that institution only.

Trust and Fiduciary Services

Many private banks operate or are affiliated with trust companies in key jurisdictions: Jersey, Guernsey, the Cayman Islands, Singapore, and Switzerland. These trust companies act as professional trustees, holding assets on behalf of beneficiaries under the terms of a trust deed.

A discretionary trust — the most common structure for HNW estate planning — allows a professional trustee to distribute capital and income among a defined class of beneficiaries at their discretion, based on a non-binding letter of wishes from the settlor. The flexibility this provides can be significant: circumstances change, tax law changes, family relationships change. A well-drafted discretionary trust can adapt.

Private banks typically introduce clients to their affiliated trust companies rather than providing trustee services directly through the banking entity. Understand the commercial relationship: the trust company may be part of the same corporate group and will generally keep assets custodied at the bank — this is not necessarily a conflict, but it should be understood.

Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

Charitable structures — donor-advised funds, charitable foundations, gifts to existing charities — form an increasing part of succession planning for wealthy families. Private banks have built dedicated philanthropic advisory teams, particularly at the top end of the market.

These teams can help clients establish charitable foundations in appropriate jurisdictions (UK charitable trusts, Liechtenstein foundations, Swiss foundations are common), advise on the mechanics of gift-aided giving, identify suitable causes aligned with the family's values, and in some cases provide governance support to the foundation board.

The UK gift aid regime is straightforward: donations by UK taxpayers to registered charities attract 25% uplift (basic rate tax reclaim), and higher-rate taxpayers can claim additional relief. Assets donated from an investment portfolio may also benefit from holdover relief on capital gains in certain circumstances — specialist advice is essential.

Next-Generation Services

Passing financial literacy alongside financial assets is increasingly recognised as essential. Private banks have developed programmes for the children and grandchildren of clients: investment education workshops, philanthropic projects with a real budget to allocate, mentoring by portfolio managers, and in some cases junior accounts or investment clubs.

These services are partly educational, partly relationship-building. The bank wants to be the institution the next generation chooses when they take control of their inheritance. Clients should evaluate them on genuine educational merit rather than simply accepting them as part of the relationship.

Family Governance Advisory

Families with significant wealth often benefit from formal governance structures that sit outside any one individual's control: family councils, investment committees, family constitutions. These are not legal instruments (unless embodied in a formal agreement) but rather frameworks for collective decision-making.

Larger private banks have family governance advisers — typically drawn from family office backgrounds — who can facilitate conversations about how family wealth should be managed, who makes decisions, what values should guide investment, and how disputes will be resolved. This is particularly valuable in second- or third-generation families where the founding wealth creator has died and siblings or cousins must reach consensus.

Key Structures for International Clients

The Jersey or Guernsey Discretionary Trust

For UK-domiciled and internationally mobile clients, a Jersey or Guernsey discretionary trust remains one of the most flexible structures for multi-generational wealth planning. Assets are transferred to a Jersey trustee company; the settlor writes a non-binding letter of wishes; beneficiaries have no fixed entitlement until the trustee distributes.

The tax position changed materially from 6 April 2025, when the UK moved from a domicile-based to a residence-based regime for inheritance tax (the non-dom regime was abolished). Excluded-property status for non-UK assets held in trust is no longer fixed at the date of settlement by reference to the settlor's domicile; instead it now depends on whether the settlor is a "long-term UK resident" (broadly, UK resident in at least 10 of the previous 20 tax years) at the date of the relevant charge. A settlor who is not a long-term UK resident may still place foreign-situs assets outside the scope of UK IHT, but a long-term UK resident generally cannot. For settlors who have died before 6 April 2025, the former domicile-based rules continue to determine the position. In all cases, UK-situs assets remain within the scope of UK IHT, and transfers into trust by a long-term UK resident do not remove assets from the IHT estate unless the settlor survives seven years.

UK HMRC anti-avoidance legislation in this area is extensive. The transfer of assets abroad provisions, the settlement provisions, the trust register (under the 5MLD regime), and the periodic IHT charge on relevant property trusts all require specialist consideration.

Singapore and Cayman Island Structures

For ultra-HNW clients with multi-jurisdictional assets and no strong UK connection, Singapore and the Cayman Islands offer well-established trust infrastructure. Singapore has developed significantly as a trust jurisdiction since 2004 — it offers sound regulation under the Monetary Authority of Singapore, a sophisticated legal system based on English common law, and no capital gains tax or estate duty.

Cayman structures are used primarily for fund administration and holding company purposes rather than personal banking relationships.

Family Investment Companies

A UK family investment company (FIC) is an alternative to trusts that has grown in popularity since the 2006 trust tax changes. The structure involves a limited company owned by different classes of shares — typically preference shares held by the founding generation (to retain economic value) and ordinary shares held by children or a discretionary trust (to capture future growth).

FICs are taxed under corporation tax rather than income tax, and growth in the ordinary shares accumulates outside the founding generation's estate. They can be used to hold investment portfolios, property, and in some cases operating company shares.

FICs are not without complexity: company accounts must be filed (and are therefore public), corporation tax is due on income and gains, and extraction of funds is taxed again. A full cost-benefit analysis against a discretionary trust is advisable.

Limitations of Private Bank Succession Services

Commercial Conflict

The private bank's interest is to keep assets under management. This can result in advice that favours custodied investment products over simpler solutions (directly held gilts, index funds, direct property), and structures that keep assets within the banking relationship rather than distributed to beneficiaries or donated to charity.

Not Independent Legal or Tax Advice

Private bank advisers are not independent financial advisers and (unless separately qualified) are not providing regulated legal advice. For complex estate planning, UK-qualified solicitors specialising in private client work, tax advisers, and independent trustees should be involved. The private bank can facilitate introductions and provide administrative support, but the legal and tax analysis should sit with independent professionals.

Cross-Border Complexity

Internationally mobile clients — with assets in multiple jurisdictions, potential residence or domicile changes, and family members in different countries — present challenges that exceed what most private bank succession teams can fully address. Forced heirship rules in France, Spain, Greece, and many civil law countries; US estate tax exposure for US persons or those with US-situs assets; inheritance tax treaties (limited in number and scope) — these require specialist cross-border advice.

The Letter of Wishes Is Not Binding

A letter of wishes is guidance to a trustee, not an instruction. A trustee who ignores it entirely has not necessarily breached the trust deed. In practice, good professional trustees follow letters of wishes closely — but clients should understand that the structure is not a mechanism for control.

Practical Steps for Clients

Document everything now. Produce a schedule of assets, accounts, structures, property, and any letters of wishes or trust documentation. Give a trusted family member or adviser access to this document.

Review beneficiary designations separately. Life insurance policies, some pension arrangements, and named-beneficiary accounts pass outside the will entirely. Review these independently.

Introduce family members to the banking relationship. A private bank that knows your adult children will handle a transfer of relationship far more smoothly than one meeting them for the first time during probate.

Review structures after every major life event. Divorce, remarriage, births, deaths, and significant changes in tax residence can all affect the suitability of existing arrangements.

Seek independent legal advice for the trust deed. The private bank can introduce you to its affiliated trust company, but an independent solicitor should review the trust deed before you sign.

As with all areas of financial and estate planning, rules change. Inheritance tax thresholds, domicile rules, trust taxation, and reporting requirements are all subject to legislative change. Guidance on this page reflects the position as understood in 2026 and does not constitute legal or tax advice. You should seek professional guidance specific to your circumstances.

How Global Investments Can Help

Global Investments works with internationally mobile high-net-worth individuals who need more than a standard banking relationship. Our advisers can help you assess whether your existing banking and custody arrangements support your succession objectives, identify jurisdictions and structures appropriate to your residence and domicile profile, and introduce you to trusted private banking, legal, and trust specialists across the Channel Islands, Switzerland, Singapore, and the UK.

Whether you are at the stage of first structuring your estate or reviewing arrangements established years ago, we bring a cross-border perspective grounded in practical experience. Contact us to begin a conversation about how your banking relationships align with your long-term wealth transfer goals.