On 12 June 2026, the Swiss Federal Council confirmed that the revised Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) and the new Act on the Transparency of Legal Persons, known in German as the TJPG, will enter into force on 1 October 2026. Both were passed by Parliament in September 2025, and the implementing ordinances are now settled. The period of legislative uncertainty is over. For trustees, fiduciaries and corporate service providers, the question is no longer what the rules will say, but how to be ready for them.
What changes for advisers
The development that matters most for our sector is the extension of AMLA to certain advisory activities that previously sat outside its scope. The regime is aimed at higher-risk structuring and transaction work rather than ordinary professional advice. The activities expected to fall within scope include:
Where these activities are carried out on a professional basis, the adviser becomes subject to anti-money laundering obligations for the first time.
The new obligations
Firms brought into scope will need to apply the core AMLA duties that financial intermediaries already know well:
The obligations carry weight. Intentional breaches of the reporting duties can attract fines of up to CHF 500,000.
The transparency register
Running in parallel is the new federal transparency register, which records the beneficial owners of Swiss legal entities. Most companies will need to identify and report their beneficial owners within set transition periods after the rules take effect. Advisers and financial intermediaries will be able to consult the register when carrying out their own due diligence, which over time should make verification more straightforward.
A short window to act
The timetable is tight. Advisers who are in scope when the rules take effect will have a short period, understood to be two months, to affiliate with an SRO or notify the relevant supervisory body. One point is worth noting for established trust companies. A firm already affiliated with an SRO as a financial intermediary is expected to remain under that same SRO for its advisory work, which avoids fragmented supervision and reduces the administrative burden.
From monitoring to implementation
Until now, much of the work for affected firms has been watching the legislative process. That phase has ended. The practical tasks are now clear:
For families and businesses that hold or use Swiss structures, the regime also adds a layer of compliance to how those structures are administered day to day.
How Alpadis can help
Alpadis Trust (Switzerland) operates as a FINMA-licensed trustee in Zurich and understands these obligations from the inside. As the new rules take effect, the entities and structures we administer will continue to be managed in line with the updated framework, and we can help clients whose arrangements are affected work through what the changes mean in practice, from scope analysis to the supporting compliance processes. As an independent firm with no ties to banks, law firms or investment managers, our focus is on sound governance and getting the structure right.
