It’s known globally for its financial services—and home-grown LGT is the biggest family-owned bank in the world—but the tiny, spectacularly beautiful principality of Liechtenstein, currently celebrating its 300th anniversary, offers so much more
I’ve only been in Liechtenstein for a few days and I’ve already met two members of the royal family, exchanged pleasantries with the Prime Minister and rubbed shoulders with the Minister of Social Affairs. I knew it was a tiny country—the sixth smallest in the world, with 38,000 inhabitants nestled on 160 square kilometres of alpine terrain sandwiched between Austria and Switzerland—but I didn’t think it would feel like a gathering with a large extended family.
“It’s a very cosy community,” says H.S.H. Prince Philipp, who I meet in the capital, Vaduz, a picture-postcard town on the banks of the Rhine that’s home to a petite population of not quite 6,000. The prince has invited me for tea at Liechtenstein’s largest bank, LGT, which is owned by the royal family, known as the Princely Family, and is the largest family-owned private banking and asset management group in the world.
Prince Philipp, the younger brother of the reigning monarch, Prince Hans-Adam II, is the bank’s chairman, and under his leadership LGT has earned a global reputation for stability and personalised wealth services underpinned by the bank’s flat structure and the Princely Family’s traditional values.
LGT is one of myriad businesses that have found international success in this prosperous principality, which boasts low taxes and political harmony. In fact, Liechtenstein has more registered companies than people and ranks as one of the world’s richest countries, with a per capita income just below that of Qatar.
Despite his aristocratic bloodline, which dates back to the 11th century, Prince Philipp is delightfully humble. Before our meeting, his office informs me there’s no royal protocol to follow other than addressing him as Prince Philipp. When I confess to being a little nervous about this, my first audience with royalty, the prince smiles and says, “For Liechtensteiners, royal encounters are a fairly regular occurrence.”
Over a pot of Earl Grey and some delicious Swiss chocolates, Prince Philipp paints a picture of royal life in this mountainous domain. “We don’t have bodyguards. We stroll around freely like any other person, so you might see us having lunch in a restaurant or hiking in the hills. We drive ourselves—no chauffeurs. And no private plane either; we fly commercial.”