Who inherits by law, and what changed in 2023?

Without a will, the descendants and a surviving spouse first. Since 2023 the descendants’ compulsory share is smaller, and parents no longer have one.

How much can I leave to whom I choose?

Where there is a spouse, a registered partner or there are children, at least half of the estate since 2023. With none of them, all of it.

Is there inheritance tax in Switzerland?

Not at federal level: the cantons tax inheritances, all of them but Schwyz and Obwalden. Spouses are generally exempt, and direct descendants in most cantons.

What happens to a company in an estate?

The shares pass to the heirs together, as a community of heirs, until the estate is divided. The company itself carries on, and its share rules cannot simply shut the heirs out.

Who owns the trademarks after a death?

The heirs, where the mark was held in the deceased’s own name. The register keeps showing the deceased until a change is recorded, free of charge, at the IPI.

How will my heirs find everything?

With a will that can be found, a list of what there is and where, and the papers the authority asks for. The deadlines after a death are short.

Antevo / Inheritance

What you leave, and to whom.

A published estimate puts what was inherited or given as gifts in Switzerland in 2022 at about CHF 88 billion. On the day of death, an estate passes to the heirs as a whole, and since 1 January 2023 anyone leaving a spouse, a registered partner or children can leave at least half of it to whom they choose. These pages answer the questions that come up, each with its sources and one place in Antevo to act on it.

Written by Antevo · 19 October 2026

See the questions ↓

The drawing: a family’s line runs in to the estate, which passes to the heirs as a whole on the day of death, and divides there. For a person survived by a spouse and children, the compulsory shares, a quarter each, run on to the heirs: half the estate. The other half, the disposable share, leaves the line for an open stop: whoever the will or the inheritance contract names. Until 2022 the disposable share was three-eighths.

Until 2022: three-eighths

Published estimate

88 bn

Swiss francs inherited or given as gifts in Switzerland in 2022, by a published estimate: almost twice what the AHV pays out in a year.

Published estimate, Caritas Sozialalmanach 2023 · January 2023Sources 1

01 / The questions

Six questions, answered.

From the Civil Code and the Code of Obligations on fedlex.admin.ch, the Federal Tax Administration’s overview of cantonal taxes, the Federal Chancellery and a published estimate of what is inherited each year, each with its source on the page.

02 / In Antevo

See the estate as your heirs will.

Antevo Wealth+ brings several households and entities into one private view, with the beneficiaries and the estate structure mapped, beside portfolios, property and private holdings. It shows what there is and for whom; what the law and the will decide stays with your notary or lawyer.

See how Wealth+ maps an estate

Antevo Wealth+ · Households, beneficiaries and the estate structure

Sources

Where this comes from.

The published estimate behind the figure and the primary sources for every legal point: the Civil Code and the Code of Obligations on fedlex.admin.ch, the Federal Office of Justice, the Federal Tax Administration, the Federal Chancellery, the Swiss Parliament and the IPI. Intelligence, not advice: nothing here is legal or tax advice. A notary or a lawyer confirms what a will, a contract or an estate requires.

Estimate by Marius Brülhart (University of Lausanne) in the chapter “Erbschaftssteuer: Effizient und trotzdem unbeliebt”, Caritas Sozialalmanach 2023 (Caritas-Verlag, Lucerne, January 2023): about CHF 88 billion inherited and given as gifts in Switzerland in 2022. The tax figure extrapolates the CHF 1.23 billion of inheritance and gift taxes paid to cantons and municipalities in 2019, from Federal Finance Administration data, to 2022. These are the author’s published estimates, not an Antevo count.

What you leave is a decision. See it whole first.

See how Wealth+ maps an estate

Antevo Wealth+ · Households, beneficiaries and the estate structure