Xavier Isaac
Xavier Isaac
CEO | Accuro
JURISDICTION
Switzerland, Jersey, England and Wales, Mauritius
TOP SPECIALISMS
Fiduciary
Trusts & Trusteeship
Office Location
Switzerland
Short Biography
Xavier is co-founder and CEO of Accuro Group. In 2017 he led the management buyout that galvanized Accuro as the independent, values-driven and award-winning business it is today. Xavier drives Accuro's international strategy, mission and vision and advises clients on estate planning, taxation, philanthropy, and trusts. He is the treasurer of the Swiss Philanthropy Foundation and sits on the board of the Fondation Pacifique, a Swiss charity. Xavier holds a master’s degree in Law from Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium), Magna Cum Laude. He is also a Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (TEP) and a former Vice-President of the Swiss Association of Trust Companies. He speaks French, English, Spanish and Dutch.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Balila, Lebanese restaurant in Geneva
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Always remain in control of your destiny
What was your first job?
International estate planner at ABN Amro Bank in Luxembourg
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Principles, Ray Dalio
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Digitalization of the trust industry for the benefit of our staff and clients
Werner Jahnel
Werner Jahnel
Attorney at law | LALIVE
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Contentious
Estates: Planning
Family and Matrimonial
Office Location
Zurich, Switzerland
Short Biography
Werner Jahnel is a Partner at Swiss law firm LALIVE. He specializes in private wealth, advising private clients, family offices, foundations and trust companies on complex international estate planning and inheritance law matters, succession planning, divorce and family issues. He is certified by the Swiss Bar Association as a Specialist in Inheritance law and is admitted to the bar in Switzerland, Austria and Spain. Having practiced international arbitration for two decades, he also acts as counsel and arbitrator in commercial and private client related arbitration proceedings.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Buech Herrliberg Switzerland
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Advice from my father: When you get up in the morning you should not have the impression to go to work
What was your first job?
Private secretary of my grandfather
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Any book written by our colleague Philippe Sands
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
I expect an increase in contentious estates given the amount of wealth accumulated in the baby boomer generation
Tina Wüstemann
Tina Wüstemann
Partner | Bär & Karrer
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Contentious
Estates: Planning
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
Switzerland
Short Biography
Tina heads Bär & Karrer's private client team. She has over 25 years of experience in private client matters and is regarded as a leading practitioner in this field. She serves as board member in several charitable organizations, as member of the advisory board of the Department of Economics, University of Zurich and as board member of the ETH Zurich Foundation. Tina is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), a member of STEP and the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law (TIAETL). The STEP Private Clients Awards recognized Tina Wüstemann 2022 as "Trusted Advisor of the Year" and she was awarded with the Europe Women in Business Law Award 2022 as 'Best in trusts & estates'.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Kronenhalle with the wonderful Miro and Chagall paintings on the wall and the best Zurich Veal in town!
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Be passionate, empathetic and authentic.
What was your first job?
Waitress and Skiteacher.
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
I love many and there is not a special one I could recommend.
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Increased complexity of the issues we deal with will require even more concerted efforts by teams staffed from various firms, disciplines and countries. This development is likely to also have an impact on how we collaborate and deliver our services to clients and the use of collaborative platforms might increase. I expect the trend we observe with regard to increasing litigious work to continue.
Thomas Fritz
Thomas Fritz
Executive Director | Bellecapital
JURISDICTION
Switzerland, United States
TOP SPECIALISMS
Alternative Investments
Asset Management
Private Banking
Office Location
Switzerland
Short Biography
Thomas is a trusted advisor with over 15 years of experience in catering to the complex financial needs of high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients. His proficiency extends to a comprehensive understanding of international, tax-compliant cross-border wealth management and intricate international wealth planning matters, cultivated through distinguished tenures at prominent Swiss financial institutions.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Restaurant Seerose in Zurich
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others
What was your first job?
Summer job as a production worker
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order. Why Nations Succeed or Fail. By Ray Dalio
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Thais Obrist
Thais Obrist
Senior Associate | MLL Legal
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Charitable Planning and Philanthropy
Immigration
Tax Advisory
Office Location
Switzerland
Short Biography
I am a Brazilian lawyer and Swiss tax adviser member of the Private Clients team at MLL Legal. My practice focuses on tax and wealth planning for Swiss and foreign private clients, in particular for clients from Latin America. Before joining MLL Legal, I worked for a leading law firm in São Paulo.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Hiltl - the world's oldest vegetarian restaurant
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
To set clear priorities and focus on them
What was your first job?
Babysitter
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
I am curious to see the changes that will result from the integration of new technologies into our practice
Stella Mitchell-Voisin
Stella Mitchell-Voisin
CEO | Summit Trust International SA
JURISDICTION
Switzerland
TOP SPECIALISMS
Trusts & Trusteeship
Trusts: Contentious
Trusts: Planning
Office Location
Switzerland
Short Biography
Stella is the CEO and one of the original founders of Summit Trust International SA based in Geneva, Switzerland. She has significant experience in acting as trustee and indeed protector of various trusts holding diverse assets such as bloodstock, real estate, art & antiques, operating businesses, private equity and the like. Stella also sits on the board of various operating companies owned within structures that are administered by Summit. She is a well respected tutor for CLT International delivering the STEP Diploma Courses and is a regular speaker at international private client conferences. Stella speaks English and French.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Baccaro in Cayman when I am there! Otherwise Scotts in London.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
There is always a solution, even to the knottiest of problems, you just have to find it!
What was your first job?
Waitressing to pay my way through university at a Beefeater restaurant.
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
I'm a sucker after a fraught day for a mindlessly easy novel - currently reading the new Jilly Cooper!
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
I suspect that with the looming UK election we will see some last minute planning as the expectation of a Labour government and changes to the non-dom regime march ever closer.
Stefan Keller
Stefan Keller
Senior Legal Associate, Attorney at Law | MME Legal
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Dispute Resolution or Arbitration
Estates: Contentious
Estates: Planning
Office Location
Schweiz, Switzerland
Short Biography
Stefan Keller has been working in the Private Clients team since he joined MME in May 2019 and was promoted to Senior Legal Associate in 2021. Prior, Stefan Keller worked as a legal employee in a listed company, as a junior associate in a big business law firm and as a judicial clerk for a district court in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland. During this time, he handled several important inheritance law cases. This outstanding experience along with his practice as a lawyer account for Stefan Keller’s knowledge of litigation proceedings. Based on his experience, Stefan Keller is a knowledgeable and reliable private clients lawyer who is very customer focused and his responsiveness is highly regarded by clients, peers and partners. Stefan Keller is also a respected speaker at conferences in the field of inheritance law.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Restaurant Marcellino Pane e Vino, Zurich
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
What was your first job?
Legal employee
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Steve Jobs, biography
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Increase in the need for cross boarder planning
Serge Calame
Serge Calame
Partner | MLL Legal
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Contentious
Family Governance and Business
Relocation and Cross-Border Advisory
Office Location
Switzerland
Short Biography
Born and educated in Switzerland, I was very fortunate to be able to travel the world from a young age and to work abroad, in London, Hong Kong and Hamilton, Bermuda. I am with MLL Legal since 2001 and co-head the firm’s private clients practice group. My main areas of practice are international estate and tax planning, providing broad expert advice to sophisticated international private clients and family offices, with a special focus on corporate and contractual issues to family-owned businesses and entrepreneurial ventures. As of late, I have been advising very mobile families with their relocation and estate planning matters, which brings every day new surprises and excitement in a complex and challenging environment, especially for "modern families". Needless to say, Switzerland offers much appreciated stability in today's environment.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Le Coin du Bar
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Go for it!
What was your first job?
Junior sales assistant in a PR firm
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Le Discours by Fabcaro
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Cross-border sophistication
Sébastien Zulian
Sébastien Zulian
Attorney-at-law | LALIVE
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Corporate Law
Dispute Resolution or Arbitration
Guardianship and Mental Capacity
Office Location
Switzerland
Short Biography
Sébastien specialises in domestic and cross-border litigation involving private clients and commercial law disputes, with a focus on inheritance, trust and family business matters. He also has an extensive advisory and pre-contentious activity. Sébastien is based in Geneva and is admitted to practice throughout Switzerland. He holds an LL.M. from Columbia Law School and he studied at the Universities of Geneva, Zurich and Basel.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Impossible to pick one! I regularly update my list of carefully selected places and I like finding the perfect restaurant for each specific occasion.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
You must always sit on three pillars in life (e.g. work, family and your own interests), so whenever one might weaken, you can still stand.
What was your first job?
Tennis teacher
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Increase of estate and trusts disputes due to the wealth accumulated by older generations. Planning and family governance challenges relating to family-owned businesses management and transfers. Reinforced interest in mental capacity issues.
Sandrine Giroud
Sandrine Giroud
Partner | LALIVE
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Art and Cultural Property
Civil Fraud
Commercial Litigation
Office Location
Geneva, Switzerland
Short Biography
She regularly advises and represents companies and individuals in the recovery and protection of their assets. She also advises organisations on governance and represents collectors, art market professionals and museums on dispute resolution and transactional matters in art. She is particularly experienced in sensitive matters and crisis situations requiring the management of reputational and media issues.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Café Puccini
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
You need to remain independent from the client.
What was your first job?
Ski instructor
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
East West Street by Philippe Sands
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
AI