From the masters abroad to the modern private client

Human capital as the first export

The economy described in this chapter rested on an asset that did not appear in any balance sheet: the skill, reputation and networks of the emigrant masters. Economists today call such an asset human capital, and they recognize that remittances from skilled emigrants can form a large part of the income of a region or country. In the early modern lake villages the return on human capital financed the purchase of grain, the payment of taxes to the Confederate bailiffs described in Chapter A.II, the construction of houses and churches and the dowries of daughters. The territory lived, in a literal sense, from the export of trained people and the import of their earnings, which helped to maintain the precarious balance between local resources and the food needs of the population.¹

This history matters for the modern financial centre in three ways. First, it produced a tradition of families whose members and assets were spread across several countries and whose wealth had to be managed across borders. Second, it developed legal and financial practices for dealing with absent owners, dispersed heirs and cross-border transfers, many of which have modern counterparts. Third, it shaped a culture of discretion and trust between the families and their intermediaries, the notary at home and the banker abroad, which anticipates the private-client relationship of Swiss banking. The following subsections trace these lines without claiming a direct institutional continuity that the sources do not support.

The place of origin and the Swiss abroad

The emigrant's lasting bond with his village has a precise modern legal counterpart. Swiss citizenship is based on the citizenship of a commune and a canton. Under Art. 37 para. 1 of the Federal Constitution of 18 April 1999 (SR 101), a person who holds the citizenship of a commune and of the canton to which it belongs is a Swiss citizen.² Every Swiss citizen therefore has a place of origin (luogo di attinenza, Heimatort), which is inherited and which is independent of residence. A Ticinese family that has lived in California or Argentina for generations may still hold citizenship of Cevio or Sonogno, just as the masters of Bissone in Rome remained members of their vicinanza.

The place of origin also has consequences in private international law. Under the Federal Act on Private International Law of 18 December 1987 (PILA, SR 291), Swiss authorities at the place of origin have subsidiary jurisdiction over the estate of a Swiss citizen who dies domiciled abroad, if the foreign authorities do not deal with the estate (Art. 87 para. 1 PILA).³ A Swiss citizen domiciled abroad may also submit his estate, or the part of it situated in Switzerland, to Swiss jurisdiction or Swiss law by will or inheritance contract (Art. 87 para. 2 and Art. 91 para. 2 PILA). The succession chapter of the PILA was revised with effect from 1 January 2025 in order to reduce conflicts of jurisdiction between Swiss and foreign authorities, and several of the new rules are aligned with the EU Succession Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 650/2012).⁴

The relationship between the Confederation and its citizens abroad is regulated by the Federal Act on Swiss Persons and Institutions Abroad of 26 September 2014 (Swiss Abroad Act, SR 195.1). It covers consular protection, social assistance, political rights and support for institutions of the Swiss abroad.⁵ The number of Swiss citizens living abroad has grown steadily and stood at about 836,000 at the end of 2025, almost half of them in a neighbouring country. The figures cited here do not show how many of them have a place of origin in Ticino.⁶ What can be said is that the Ticinese diaspora in the Americas, formed by the nineteenth-century emigration described earlier in this chapter, remains an important group among Swiss abroad in California, Argentina and Uruguay.

Notes

1. Chiesi and Ostinelli, "Tessin (Kanton)" (cited above). ↩
2. Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation of 18 April 1999, SR 101, Art. 37 para. 1, quoted in State Secretariat for Migration, Handbuch Bürgerrecht, Anhang I: Rechtsquellen, https://www.sem.admin.ch/dam/data/sem/rechtsgrundlagen/weisungen/buergerrecht/hb-bueg-anh1-d.pdf. ↩
3. Federal Act on Private International Law of 18 December 1987 (PILA), SR 291, Art. 87 and Art. 91 para. 2 in the version in force since 1 January 2025; Thomas M. Mayer, "Die neuen Bestimmungen des IPRG-Erbrechts", AJP 2024, pp. 682–699, https://ius.uzh.ch/dam/jcr:89836573-f25f-44fa-8f9d-bd99ce86086a/20.%20Mayer,%20Die%20neuen%20Bestimmungen%20des%20IPRG-Erbrechts,%20AJP%202024.pdf. ↩
4. Urs Bürgi and Marc Peyer, LAW.CH, "Das revidierte internationale Erbrecht: Ein Überblick über die am 01.01.2025 in Kraft tretenden Änderungen im IPRG", https://law.ch/lawnews/2024/09/das-revidierte-internationale-erbrecht-ein-ueberblick-ueber-die-am-01-01-2025-in-kraft-tretenden-aenderungen-im-iprg/ (5 September 2024). ↩
5. Federal Act on Swiss Persons and Institutions Abroad of 26 September 2014 (Swiss Abroad Act, SAA), SR 195.1, in force since 1 November 2015; text at https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/en-de/1/19/195.1-2-5.html; on the entry into force see Wikipedia, "Swiss Abroad Act (Switzerland)", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Abroad_Act_(Switzerland) (used as a last resort). ↩
6. SWI swissinfo.ch, "Zahl der Auslandschweizerinnen und -schweizer steigt langsamer", 31 March 2026, https://www.swissinfo.ch/ger/zahl-der-auslandschweizerinnen-und-schweizer-steigt-langsamer/91185806, reporting figures of the Federal Statistical Office. ↩

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 August 2025.