In a period of financial uncertainty, Luxembourg is continuing to solidify its position as a cornerstone of international wealth management, offering a blend of strong regulatory framework and cross-border flexibility.
The country has also developed a thriving international financial adviser community, with professionals from across Europe and beyond setting up practices in Luxembourg. They are drawn by the country’s ability to service clients across multiple countries seamlessly, thanks to EU rules that allow firms to operate across borders.
We spoke to financial advice giant Utmost Wealth Solutions about why it operates in Luxembourg and how being based in the country helps it serve its international clients.
Introduction
For globally active intermediaries, the choice of jurisdiction is central to designing robust, compliant wealth-planning structures for high-net-worth clients. With its long-standing reputation for stability, investor protection, and technical sophistication, Luxembourg is a key jurisdiction in the global wealth management landscape.
In this interview, Maria Cristina Boscolo Berto (pictured above), proposition leader and head of product and legal, Luxembourg, at Utmost Luxembourg, explains how Utmost Luxembourg’s framework combines regulatory precision with cross-border flexibility and how this complements Utmost’s wider international proposition.
From a technical standpoint, what aspects of Luxembourg’s regulatory framework appeal most to international clients?
Maria: The financial ecosystem that Luxembourg has built up over the years attracts players from outside and inside the European Union (EU). The jurisdiction supports complex cross-border planning through multilingual expertise, regulatory adaptability, and flexible, portable products. This expertise allows insurers to tailor products, making wealth management solutions suitable for globally mobile individuals and families.
The Freedom of Services regime further enables insurers to service clients across the EU from Luxembourg, supported by a stable and experienced regulatory environment. A prime example is the “Triangle of Security,” which ensures a clear segregation between policyholders’ assets, the insurer’s own funds, and the custodian bank. This three-party structure is monitored by the Commissariat aux Assurances (CAA) and provides an additional layer of protection for our clients.
Luxembourg has also consistently demonstrated its ability to transpose EU directives pragmatically and on time, ensuring that clients can operate within a stable, transparent, and EU-aligned framework. For clients structuring long-term cross-border solutions, that combination of regulatory robustness and operational flexibility is invaluable.
How do Utmost’s Luxembourg international solutions address the multi-jurisdictional complexity faced by high-net-worth clients?
Maria: Our clients’ lives are rarely confined to one country; they are globally mobile, with assets, family members, and interests spread across multiple jurisdictions. Luxembourg-domiciled unit-linked insurance is particularly well suited to this environment.
Through an open-architecture approach, we allow advisers and clients to consolidate diverse investment strategies within a single, compliant policy solution. This simplifies administration, improves transparency, and ensures continued alignment with local regulations as clients move or their wealth evolves.
From a planning perspective, the policy instrument can also facilitate succession planning, enabling a smooth transfer of wealth that respects different regulatory frameworks. This adaptability makes our Luxembourg offering a technically strong and internationally portable solution within Utmost’s broader toolkit.
EU directives such as AIFMD and UCITS continue to shape the financial landscape. How does Utmost ensure its Luxembourg products stay aligned with regulatory evolution?
Maria: Maintaining regulatory alignment is a core pillar of our product governance. Our legal and product teams continuously monitor evolving EU regulations, including IDD and PRIIPs frameworks, as well as the AIFMD and UCITS, ensuring that every product we offer remains compliant.
This proactive stance means advisers gain confidence in the integrity of the insurance contract combined with a sophisticated financial component linked to the variety of investments available through our contracts.
Ultimately, our goal is to allow advisers to focus on client outcomes rather than compliance complexity. By embedding regulatory excellence at the product-design level, Utmost ensures advisers deliver transparent, secure, and sustainable solutions to their clients.
How does Utmost Luxembourg fit within the broader Utmost Group, and what advantages does that integration bring to clients?
Maria: Being part of the Utmost Group gives us a distinctive advantage. We combine the financial strength and international scale of the Group with Luxembourg’s specialized cross-border expertise. This integration allows us to share best practices across jurisdictions while respecting the nuances of each local framework.
Clients benefit from both the group’s financial resilience and global reach, and the technical precision and regulatory protection associated with Luxembourg. Whether the client’s policy is domiciled in Luxembourg, Ireland, Guernsey, or the Isle of Man, our approach is harmonized by shared governance standards, operational consistency, and a commitment to investor protection.
In essence, our structure reflects Utmost’s philosophy: to offer jurisdictional diversity with unified excellence, empowering advisers and clients with confidence wherever their wealth journey takes them.
