Succession planning, forced heirship and the reforms of 2023 and 2025

The reform of inheritance law in force since 1 January 2023

Swiss succession law protects close relatives with compulsory portions. Until the end of 2022 the compulsory portion of descendants was three quarters of their statutory share and that of parents one half. The revision of the Civil Code in force since 1 January 2023 reduced the compulsory portion of descendants to one half of their statutory share and abolished the compulsory portion of parents altogether. The compulsory portion of the surviving spouse or registered partner remains one half of the statutory share. For a married testator with children, the children’s compulsory portion is now a quarter of the estate, and for an unmarried testator it is half of the estate.¹ The disposable portion has grown correspondingly. A testator with a spouse and children can now dispose freely of half of the estate, compared with three eighths before the reform.

The reform also clarified several questions of importance for planning. When one spouse dies during divorce proceedings, the survivor loses the compulsory portion under certain conditions, although the statutory right of inheritance continues. Gifts made after the conclusion of an inheritance contract may be challenged if they are incompatible with the obligations under the contract and were not reserved in it. Claims from the pillar 3a of private pension saving do not fall into the estate, but are taken into account in calculating the compulsory portions.² For family offices and their advisers, the reduced compulsory portions increased the scope for placing assets in foundations or trusts, for favouring a child who is to take over the family business, or for leaving substantial amounts to charitable foundations.

A second project, aimed at facilitating the succession of family businesses, failed. The Federal Council adopted a message and draft on 10 June 2022, proposing among other things that a single heir could take over a business in the partition and that the other heirs could be paid out over time. The Legal Affairs Committee of the Council of States concluded on 28 April 2023 that no satisfactory solutions had been found for key questions, and the Council of States decided on 15 June 2023, by 27 votes to 12, not to enter into the bill.³ The succession of family businesses therefore remains a matter for private planning, using inheritance contracts, shareholder agreements, foundations and trusts.

The revision of international succession law in force since 1 January 2025

For international families, the conflict of laws rules on succession are as important as the substantive rules. The Federal Assembly adopted a revision of Chapter 6 of the PILA on 22 December 2023, and the Federal Council brought it into force on 1 January 2025.⁴ According to the Federal Office of Justice, the revision reduces in particular the risk of conflicts of jurisdiction between Swiss and foreign authorities, thereby increasing legal certainty. It largely aligns Swiss rules with the European Succession Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 650/2012), which has applied in the EU member states other than Denmark and Ireland since 17 August 2015.⁵

The key change for practice concerns choice of law and jurisdiction. Foreign nationals domiciled in Switzerland could already choose the law of their nationality for their succession. The revision now also allows Swiss dual nationals with their last domicile in Switzerland to choose the law of their foreign nationality. In that case, however, the Swiss rules on compulsory portions remain mandatorily applicable and cannot be excluded by the choice of law. Swiss nationals living abroad enjoy broader freedom, since they can opt out of Swiss law and jurisdiction entirely through a reservation in their will. Foreign nationals domiciled in Switzerland may also submit their succession to the jurisdiction of the courts of their home state, which reduces the risk of parallel proceedings.⁶

The interplay with the EU Succession Regulation

For families with links to the European Union, the interplay between Swiss law and the EU Succession Regulation is decisive. Under the Regulation, the general connecting factor is the last habitual residence of the deceased, and a person may choose the law of his nationality. A German entrepreneur who moves to Zurich will therefore, from the perspective of German courts, have his succession governed by Swiss law, unless he chooses German law. Swiss law, in turn, will apply Swiss law unless he chooses German law as a foreign national. The revision of 2025 reduces the scope for contradictory results and for the “ping-pong” of references between the two systems. Planning nevertheless requires a careful analysis of the location of assets, particularly real estate, and of the nationality of all persons concerned.

The Walder Wyss newsletter cited above pointed to a further element of alignment, namely the recognition of foreign decisions and measures under revised Article 96 PILA, which facilitates the recognition of European certificates of succession and foreign court orders in Switzerland.⁷ For trusts and foundations, the practical consequence is that a transfer of assets to a structure during the settlor’s lifetime may be challenged by heirs under the law that governs the succession, even if the trust or foundation itself is governed by another law. The Hague Trust Convention expressly preserves such claims in Article 15. Practitioners therefore coordinate the choice of succession law, the choice of trust law and the timing of transfers in a single plan.

Notes

1. OBT, “Änderungen im Erbrecht – revidiertes Erbrecht tritt per 1. Januar 2023 in Kraft”, https://www.obt.ch/de/infoboard/aenderungen-im-erbrecht-revidiertes-erbrecht-tritt-per-1-januar-2023-in-kraft. ↩
2. OBT, “Änderungen im Erbrecht”, URL as above. ↩
3. Verein Successio, “Aktuelles”, URL as above, recording the Federal Council’s message of 10 June 2022, the committee’s conclusion of 28 April 2023 and the Council of States’ refusal to enter into the bill on 15 June 2023 (12:27). ↩
4. Walder Wyss, Kinga M. Weiss and Ramona Fischer, “Revision des schweizerischen internationalen Erbrechts”, newsletter no. 199, January 2024, https://www.walderwyss.com/assets/content/publications/240104_-Newsletter-199_DE.pdf; Federal Office of Justice, “Internationales Erbrecht: Neue Regeln gelten ab dem 1. Januar 2025”, press release of 26 June 2024, https://www.bj.admin.ch/de/nsb?id=101602. ↩
5. Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 of 4 July 2012 on matters of succession, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2012/650/oj/eng, applicable from 17 August 2015. Denmark and Ireland do not participate. ↩
6. LAW.CH, “Das revidierte internationale Erbrecht: Ein Überblick über die am 01.01.2025 in Kraft tretenden Änderungen im IPRG”, LAWNEWS, September 2024, https://law.ch/lawnews/2024/09/das-revidierte-internationale-erbrecht-ein-ueberblick-ueber-die-am-01-01-2025-in-kraft-tretenden-aenderungen-im-iprg/, stating that for Swiss dual nationals “das schweizerische Pflichtteilsrecht nicht wegbedingen, sondern dieses bleibt zwingend anwendbar”. ↩
7. Walder Wyss, newsletter no. 199, January 2024, URL as above. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of September 2025.