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11:27 22.10.2025 •
"Let the rich pay their taxes!" is the slogan of the French protesting against the increased tax burden on citizens.
Photo: Euronews
French entrepreneurs and wealthy families nervous about political turmoil at home are investing record amounts in Luxembourg-based annuities and shifting other funds to perceived havens such as Switzerland, ‘Financial Times’ notes.
Wealth managers, bankers and lawyers said the flow of personal investments out of France had taken off since President Emmanuel Macron called snap parliamentary elections last June, splintering the National Assembly and leading to a succession of fragile governments as parties bicker over budget measures.
The moves have continued in 2025. Prime ministers have come and gone and the government now in place, under Macron ally Sébastien Lecornu, has turned to additional taxes on the highest earners in its struggle to plug a gaping budget deficit.
“The majority of assets we handle are no longer in France but going to life insurance contracts in Luxembourg, it’s really accelerating,” said Guillaume Lucchini, founder of Paris-based wealth manager Scala Patrimoine, which counts professional sportspeople and entrepreneurs among its clients.
The flows to Luxembourg had been “nonstop” during last year’s election and have carried on, said Olivier Roumélian, a tax lawyer working with insurers in the Grand Duchy, adding: “Brokers barely have to do any marketing work to get clients.”
Lucchini said a “crazy” amount of capital was also going to Switzerland, where his business has a branch.
“Last June, enquiries linked to Luxembourg doubled. Since then, with every new bout of instability, the enquiries pick up,” said Benjamin Le Maitre, co-founder of the Avant-Garde family office.
He said that most of the new money he was managing was going to Luxembourg, while Switzerland’s safe haven status was also a draw, with people investing in securities-holding accounts there.
Such investments are just one side effect of the political turmoil in France. Some wealthy families have even moved abroad, though numbers are not known, in a trend similar to the UK after the Labour government abolished favourable tax treatment for so-called “non-domiciled” residents.
The Italian business centre of Milan has been a big beneficiary thanks to the country’s welcoming tax regime, though Italy said this week it planned to increase the annual flat tax on the foreign income of wealthy individual who relocate there by 50 per cent to €300,000. Spain and Portugal have also been attracting rich foreigners.
“A lot of French moved to Switzerland between 1980 to 2010 or so. But you saw a real slowdown when Macron was elected [in 2017] and people hoped things would be better. Now that is picking back up,” said Philippe Kenel, a Swiss-based lawyer who specialises in tax, estate and wealth planning.
The pro-business, centrist Macron came to power eight years ago and quickly eliminated a wealth tax, replacing it with a less onerous one on property.
“I had one wealthy [French] couple in their eighties tell me 18 months ago they were worried the Socialists were coming to power and wanted to put more money in Switzerland to be safe — maybe about 20 per cent of their assets,” said one Swiss-based banker.
“They came to me recently and said they want to put more in Switzerland because they are worried about the far right.”
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