Inheritance / Question 1
Who inherits by law, and what changed in 2023?
Without a will, the law decides. Descendants inherit first, and a surviving spouse or registered partner inherits beside them: half the estate where there are descendants. Since 1 January 2023, the descendants’ compulsory share is half of what they would inherit by law instead of three quarters, and parents no longer have one.
Antevo Wealth+ · Several households and entities, with beneficiaries and the estate structure mapped
01 / The order
The law’s default.
The nearest heirs are the descendants, and children inherit in equal parts. (ZGB Art. 457) Where there are none, the heirs of the parental line inherit. (ZGB Art. 458)
A surviving spouse or registered partner inherits half the estate beside descendants, three quarters beside the parental line, and the whole estate otherwise. (ZGB Art. 462)
See how Wealth+ maps an estate02 / Since 1 January 2023
Smaller compulsory shares.
A compulsory share is now half of the statutory share, for descendants as for a spouse or registered partner. For descendants it was three quarters until the end of 2022. (ZGB Art. 471; AS 2021 312)
Parents no longer have a compulsory share: only descendants, a spouse or a registered partner limit what a person can leave freely. (ZGB Art. 470) The aim, in the Federal Office of Justice’s words, was to let people dispose freely of a larger part of their estate. (FOJ, 19 May 2021)
See how Wealth+ maps an estate03 / During a divorce
When a marriage is ending.
If divorce proceedings are pending at the death, the surviving spouse loses the compulsory share where the proceedings were started or continued on a joint request, or where the spouses had lived apart for at least two years. (ZGB Art. 472)
What is not left by will or contract passes to the statutory heirs. (ZGB Art. 481) A notary or a lawyer confirms how the rules apply to a given family.
See how Wealth+ maps an estate04 / In Antevo
Map the household the law will read.
Antevo Wealth+ maps several households and entities, with the beneficiaries and the estate structure, beside portfolios, property and private holdings. It does not decide who inherits: the law, the will and your notary do.
See how Wealth+ maps an estateSources
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.