Safety in old life without kids but with wealth

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I will likely retire with a bigger stash, but I don’t have kids and no other family in Switzerland. So in old age, I will be “alone”.

Assuming money is not a constraint, what would be a good way to make sure that I can have a good life and won’t be screwed over in the final 5-10 years of my life? Like either somebody taking my money, and/or I am not taken proper care of in old age.

For example, assuming I am in a upscale retirement home but will get dementia, the institutions and my interests might not be aligned, but I won’t have kids come to visit and check on me.

Is there a way to have a safe “trust like” structure where I can have 3rd parties look after me, without them being able to screw me over? It needs to have built in checks and balances, and not count on me being able to react.

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My best guess would be friends of various ages that would truly appreciate you and thus care for you even if/when your mental health starts deteriorating.

Commercial third party structures will all have the same issue that the recourse against them is appealing to their regulatory authority or taking them to court, which nobody will do if nobody truly cares about you.

Edit: alternatively, small villages tend to care for the people living in them. It’s likely their social service would check on you once in a while and try to have you cared for in an acceptable way if you have lived there for some years and are known by some.

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Thanks! I love the village part (in fact I just moved to a smaller village).

The issue I see with a friend is that unless they are significantly younger, I can not fully rely on them to outlive/“outhealth” me.

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Marry a younger spouse? :wink:

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That´s a key move right there. Lots of benefits for both sides of the relationship :slight_smile:

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Hand over the management to VZ? I know that external asset management is not popular in this forum (and rightly so due to the costs). But at an advanced age, that seems sensible to me. SRF Kassensturz reports almost monthly on pensioners who have lost a lot of money in scams (grandchild fraud, telephone fraud, etc.).

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I think some responses here might underestimate the question, if I get it right.
It’s not even funny.

From 2nd-hand stories, I understand there is quite some legislation around incapacitated adults. There’s an agency (KESBN?) when it comes to unvoluntary cases, which you are not.

So, I’m assuming, especially if money isn’t a constraint that you can nominate someone upfront, just in case and define what you expect them to do.

My first contact would be the similar kind of lawyer you would talk to about inheritance or trust funds. I think it goes well beyond just financial topics.

I have no clue, myself, but there must be a professional and regulated service industry for that.

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I think you raised a good question.
Most solutions would need to be taken with grain of salt because other than family and friends, most people / institutions can take advantage.

But I think only person who can come to mind is a trusted lawyer . And to ensure you trust that person , it might not be bad idea to start building relationship already when you are in good health.

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KESP can also become active if you are married. If you want to define for yourself who should be responsible for you, you will need an vorsorgeauftrag (“advance care directive”?). If the KESP cannot find anyone in your family or you have not appointed anyone in the vorsorgeauftrag, the KESP will organise someone. This person will then have full control over your finances and will be in charge from then on (this is generally a good thing, but can also end badly). Kesp is also well known for selling all equities and ETFs and only managing cash assets.

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I am aware on the concept of Patientenverfügung und Vorsorgeauftrag that allows you to nomitate specific persons, ideally those you really trust, to perform relevant duties in case you are not able to (e.g. dementia, medical coma, …)

Obviously this requires you to build strong relationships with “worthy” people. Typically people nominate their respective spouses and then their children, but it can be anyone.

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good point with the lawyer. I wonder whether I can manage the trust issue if I go to a law firm, not just one specific lawyer.

The other option I was thinking was a trust that has a separate board where payments for example to a care home are managed (and checked). With that, there might be some checks and balances (fund admin + board)

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Actually I don’t mean to say that individual vs firm is more trustworthy

I mean that it might make sense to user services of a firm / person for various legal / tax things and observe their behaviour. If you believe they are trustworthy then might be a firm / person to work with for this special case too

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See, that’s where the problem fixes itself: once you have dementia, you won’t notice you’re getting screwed.

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Real answer in addition to the ones already given: consult with a Notar (instead of “just” a lawyer) and explore the best options, e.g. having a professional asset manager (or some other “smaller” – aka smaller than system relevant – bank) manage your assets with the notary supervising on top with Vorsorgevollmachten etc.

The notary really depends on their excellent reputation, so might be less likely to want to screw up than a lawyer or a law firm. The notary would in essence take over the role of the Vormund appointed by the KESB* – by the way: much better than its reputation – and despite probably most Vormunde wanting their best for you, their job is to do the best for the state/canton in the sense of trying to make sure the government doesn’t have to cover your living expenses.
So even the Vormund’s interests are somewhat aligned with yours, but the Notar will be a pro at looking out just for you.

* KESB: Kinder- und Erwachsenenschutzbehörde.

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In the end you are talking about putting your trust in somebody else. Usually this boils down to a loved one or family - and even in these cases you can get screwed over (talking to family lawyers, they’ve seen too many cases where a big pile of money changes everything).