Bearer shares held by family members give them voting control over the drug maker despite only owning about 9% of the firm. The family consistently emphasize their role as stewards of the company.

That common mission still exerts a pull even for those family members outside the pool. Maja Oeri, great-granddaughter of company founder Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche, transferred her shares out of the family voting bloc in 2011. But she hasn’t sold any of her 8 million shares since, according to filings.

Liquidity
The stability of the Hoffmann and Oeri shareholding is aided by the hefty dividends they receive, which totaled more than $700 million in 2020. It’s an annual windfall that helps forestall share sales, which would otherwise dilute the family’s holding.

They’re also helped by the relatively small number of family members that divide up the dividend. Their shareholder pool comprises 15 individuals, compared with the dozens, sometimes hundreds, of heirs at other clans.

Frugality
Most family members seem to have little time for extravagances. Lavish parties and superyachts are conspicuously absent.

Duschmale cycles to work and his biggest luxury is hiking shoes, according to the Bilanz profile. Uncle Andreas Oeri is an orthopedist who maintained his practice over the course of quarter of a century on Roche’s board. Aunt Beatrice Oeri — who sold her stake back to the shareholder pool in 2009 — manages a jazz club in Basel.

Taxes
Avoiding a hefty tax bill when assets are transferred between generations also helps.

Switzerland has no federal inheritance tax. The canton of Basel, where Roche and many of the family reside, doesn’t tax share holdings passed down within one’s immediate family.

Discretion
Keeping a low-profile has served the Swiss dynasty well, allowing them to avoid the public fallouts that have split other clans even while they number among the cultural world's mostinfluential figures, quietly building celebrated art collections and supporting environmental and education causes.

“They act very discreetly,” said Hoesly, the Swiss lawyer. “They’re seen as a down-to-earth family.”