Founder's rights (Liechtenstein)
Gründerrechte
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For a Liechtenstein Anstalt, the entirety of the rights to decide on the Anstalt – transferable and inheritable unless the articles provide otherwise.
The holder of the founder's rights is typically regarded as the beneficial owner; transfers should be documented without gaps.
In practice
Whoever holds the founder's rights is generally regarded as the beneficial owner of the Anstalt. The chain of founder's rights – original holder, assignments, successions – therefore belongs in the file without gaps. Transfers must observe the required form and the articles, and the register of beneficial owners as well as the Anstalt's banks must be informed. Without this documentation, identifying the beneficial owner quickly becomes a bottleneck with banks.
Distinctions and common mistakes
Founder's rights are not a beneficial interest: whoever holds them decides on the Anstalt but does not automatically receive its income. Foundations have no transferable founder's rights; there, reserved rights of the founder such as revocation or amendment fulfil a similar function. A typical mistake is not updating the founder's rights after a death, so that the bank and the register still list a deceased person as beneficial owner.
Relevant in: Liechtenstein
Related terms
- Anstalt (Liechtenstein establishment)
- A Liechtenstein legal form without members, whose rights lie with the holder of the founder's rights; depending on its articles, it resembles either a company or a foundation.
Mentioned in these guides
- KYC for foundations: which documents are neededWhich documents the KYC review of a foundation requires: deed, by-laws, register extract, founder, foundation board, beneficiaries and source evidence.