The revision of the inheritance law essentially goes back to the motion 10.3524 "For a contemporary inheritance law" submitted on 17.06.2010 by former Council of States member Felix Gutzwiller. Accordingly, on 04.03.2016, the Federal Council opened the consultation on the preliminary draft for an amendment to the Swiss Civil Code and the law of succession. In view of the extensive consultation responses and the complexity of the issues, the Federal Council decided on 10 May 2017 to reform the law of succession in several stages, as the two lawyers Urs Bürgi and Marc Peyer of Bürgi & Nägeli Attorneys at Law summarize in "LawMedia":
Revision will come into effect on January 1, 2023
The Federal Council issued the dispatch with the draft bill on 29.08.2018. The Council of States dealt with the bill in the fall session 2019, the National Council in the summer session 2020. The revision of differences took place in the winter session 2020, and the final vote of the Councils on 18.12.2020. Since no referendum was taken, the Federal Council was able to put the revision project into force on 01.01.2023 with the decision of 19.05.2021.
Inheritance law revision in the Swiss Civil Code (1st reform stage)
The revised inheritance law is more flexible than before; in the future, the deceased will be able to dispose freely of a larger proportion of their estate. Currently, children are entitled to a compulsory three quarters share of the statutory inheritance. In the future this will be reduced to only half. half.
With the revision of the inheritance law, the compulsory portion of the parents will be eliminated. The compulsory portion of the spouse and the registered partner, however, remains unchanged. Since deceased will be able to dispose of assets more freely in the future, it will also be possible to favor the de facto life partner to a greater extent.
Persons who intend to arrange their estate in accordance with their wishes by means of a will, are therefore less restricted by compulsory portions in the future.
Succession planning for family businesses to simplified
The Federal Council assumes that the reduction in mandatory shares will facilitate succession planning in family businesses. This should have a positive impact on the stability of companies and job security. In fact, many Swiss companies are facing generational changes in the coming years. This is the result of a study by Credit Suisse and the Center for Family Business at the University of St. Gallen, in which over 2,000 companies were surveyed. On average, a Swiss SME changes hands every 25 years.
To remove further stumbling blocks in the transfer of a business under inheritance law, the Federal Council intends to make business succession easier by introducing further measures under inheritance law. In April 2019, it submitted a separate bill to this effect for consultation, which means that it may be able to adopt the corresponding dispatch for the attention of parliament before the end of the year.