The cross-border estate
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Jurisdiction and applicable law
A deceased domiciled in Switzerland is subject to Swiss succession law and Swiss jurisdiction for the whole estate, including assets abroad, under Arts 86 and 90 PILA, unless the deceased, being a foreign national, elected the law of a nationality by will.1 Singapore applies the common-law rules: succession to movables is governed by the law of the deceased's domicile at death, succession to immovables by the lex situs, and digital assets are treated as movables.2 A Swiss-domiciled deceased with tokens at a Singapore custodian therefore has an estate governed by Swiss law in both countries. The Singapore executor obtains a resealed or fresh grant on the strength of the Swiss certificate of inheritance. A Singapore-domiciled deceased with tokens at a Zug custodian has an estate governed by Singapore law. The Swiss custodian releases on the Singapore grant with an apostille and a Swiss legal opinion on the executor's authority.
The problem case is the deceased with ties to both. A founder who lived in Zug for three years and in Singapore for two, with a spouse in one and a company in the other, has a domicile that each jurisdiction may claim. Switzerland asks where the centre of life was. Singapore asks where the deceased intended to reside permanently. The answers can differ, with the result that both legal systems claim to govern the whole movable estate and the forced-heirship rules of Switzerland collide with the testamentary freedom of Singapore. The plan should fix the domicile by fact and by document: a declaration of domicile in the will, consistent tax residence, a home in one place and a consistent account of intentions.
Assets on exchanges in both places
The hardest practical case is an estate with balances on exchanges in several jurisdictions. Each exchange applies its own terms of service. These typically provide that the account is personal and non-transferable, that the exchange will deal with a personal representative on production of specified documents and that the exchange may close the account and remit the balance in fiat. A Swiss executor dealing with a Singapore-licensed exchange will usually be asked for a Singapore grant, which requires a resealing or fresh application in the Family Justice Courts, with the Swiss certificate of inheritance and the will as evidence of entitlement. A Singapore executor dealing with a Swiss-based exchange will be asked for a certificate of inheritance or an executor's certificate from the Swiss authority at the deceased's last domicile. In the case of a Singapore domicile no such authority exists, so the executor relies on the Singapore grant with an apostille and the exchange's goodwill. The delays run to six to eighteen months in my experience. The planning answer, repeated because it is the single most useful piece of advice in this chapter, is to move balances off exchanges during life.
Example
A Swiss national, domiciled in Zug, dies leaving a spouse and two adult children. The estate includes CHF 3 million in securities at a Zürich bank and CHF 4 million in bitcoin held in a multisignature wallet with a Zug provider as co-signer. It also includes S$ 2 million in ether on a Singapore-licensed exchange and a 20 per cent token allocation in a protocol foundation, vesting over two more years and valued at CHF 6 million. The will appoints a Zürich lawyer as executor, elects no foreign law and allocates the bitcoin to the children as a legacy in kind valued at the date of death, with the residue to the spouse. The executor obtains the certificate from the Zug authority, instructs the co-signer under the will's cooperation clause, moves the bitcoin to a custodian in the estate's name and distributes it to the children against receipts. For the Singapore exchange balance the executor applies for a grant in Singapore with the Swiss certificate and will, a process that takes seven months, after which the exchange remits the ether to a custodian wallet. The vesting allocation is the hardest. The foundation's vesting contract continues to release tokens to the deceased's address, so the executor must obtain the key to that address or persuade the foundation to redirect the vesting to an estate address. The foundation's board will do that only on the executor's certificate and a legal opinion on the heirs' entitlement. The compulsory portions are calculated on the value at death. Because bitcoin rose 30 per cent between death and distribution, the children have received more than the spouse in economic terms, which the will's valuation clause anticipated.
Notes
- PILA, SR 291, Art. 86 (jurisdiction of the Swiss authorities at the last domicile), Art. 90 para. 1 (Swiss law applies to the estate of a person last domiciled in Switzerland) and Art. 90 para. 2 (a foreign national may elect the law of one of their nationalities). Part D, Chapter IX. ↩
- Dicey, Morris & Collins, The Conflict of Laws, 16th ed., rule on succession to movables; applied in Singapore under the Application of English Law Act 1993. Part J, Chapter VIII. ↩
For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of October 2026.