That's IT!

The taxation laws if Switzerland would apply even if the will conditions were English. Depending on the canton this could be little or nothing. Canton Zurich has no IT between generations and only a low % otherwise...

I'd be more concerned about UK inheritance tax as it can apply even if you are not resident there.

Losing UK Domicile?

Here's a nifty chart detailing who gets how much under Swiss statutory inheritance:

https://www.credit-suisse.com:443/ch...afik_g2_en.pdf

Thanks, that's the sort of thing I was after! It's got some weird stuff in it though - for instance, if you have one parent and a sibling, the sibling has no entitlement and the parent has only 1/16, yet if you have one parent and no siblings the parent gets 1/8? And it's missing what happens if you have a spouse and siblings but no parents?

If you are childless, then your parents and siblings have a claim.

Without will: Spouse 3/4; siblings 1/4
With a will: Spouse minimum 3/8; siblings minimum 1/8; (remainder can be arbitrarily allocated)

Does that also apply if they are not Swiss and don't live here? I suppose technically it makes no difference. Where does the Ehevertrag come in? Are assets built up during the marriage deemed to be outside the scope of the Pflichtanteil?

I am assuming that you are a British Citizen. In that case, The Hague Convention 5 October 1961 on the Conflicts of Laws Relating to the Form of Testamentary Dispositions applies:
http://hcch.e-vision.nl/index_en.php....status&cid=40

Essentially, the Convention allows you to make a Will under your national law (i.e., England, Scotland, N.I., etc.) or that of Switzerland.

If you want to make a Swiss Will (which may be in addition to or instead of an English, etc., Will) you really need to have it drawn up by a Notary (a specialist family-law and real estate lawyer). Only a holographic (hand written) will, whether or not witnessed, or a notarial will is valid in Switzerland. And the chances of making a mistake in a holographic Will are too great to countenance.

On the other hand, an English Will is easy. You can use a printed form, and any two unrelated (and non-beneficiary) witnesses can sign. (But there, too, the opportunity for error is something to think about.)

For an English Will, or an English probate, you need to specify an executor. Don't use a bank or trust company or professional executor if you can avoid it -- they are expensive.

A Swiss Will can be probated in England (etc.) even if in French or German, but (as I just said) unlike Switzerland you need an executor or in the absence of same, an administrator.

If you have real estate, it's best to have the Will drafted under the law of that country. And if you have substantial assets I recommend a Swiss Will for your Swiss assets and an English Will for everything else.

As my Conflict of Laws professor said to our class in 1964, most lawyers are incompetent. ("Plumbers", he called them.) 46 years later I can tell you that he was absolutely right. Be careful.

Wills are cheap. Mistakes are expensive, although you won't be around to know that.

(To see how Swiss law deals with cross-border estates, see http://uniset.ca/misc/swissestates.pdf -- a document formerly handed out by the Swiss Embassy in Washington. It doesn't directly apply to you; on the other hand unlike the USA the UK is a signatory to the Convention, assuring validity of your Will whichever of the national forms you use.)

Not quite. With a will the mandatory minimum for the surviving spouse is 3/8. If there are no parents and no children, the rest can be arbitrarily allocated.

If you want to make a will under Swiss law and there are no children, the easiest way is to draw up a combo "Ehe- und Erbvertrag". This allows you to get around the mandatory portion for the parents.

If you do that you risk at worst invalidating your English Will, at best drafting a meaningless and confusing document. As I wrote in my earlier posting on this thread, Switzerland and the UK have both ratified The Hague Convention http://hcch.e-vision.nl/index_en.php....status&cid=40 which provides that the law of nationality or, optionally, of domicile governs the form of Will.

Wills are cheap. Mistakes are expensive. With respect to English Wills, the drafting is not the major issue justifying economy: rather the choice of executor. A professional executor can charge exorbitant fees.

It is normally the case that a dual national is treated as solely the national of the state in which s/he is domiciled if s/he possesses that state's nationality. There is some flexibility in the matter of Wills, at least if the Will was executed in the country whose law governs its form. But it is stupid, really, not to have a Will that makes sense in terms of the location of (especially) real property.

See http://uniset.ca/misc/swissestates.pdf for cross-border practice as between the US and Switzerland. The USA has not ratified The Hague Convention.

The guidance notes formerly handed out by the Swiss Embassy in Washington, archived as above, say this:

A. Jurisdiction and Applicable Law
If a person dies with last domicile in Switzerland, Switzerland, as a rule, claims jurisdiction for that person’s estate and Swiss law will apply. However, if the deceased owned real property located in the U.S., Swiss authorities will yield jurisdiction to the competent U.S. authorities claiming exclusive jurisdiction with respect to such real property.
If the deceased was a U.S. citizen, under Swiss law, he or she is entitled to subject the entire estate to the law of one of his or her countries of citizenship. For example, a U.S. citizen with last domicile in Switzerland may subject his or her entire estate to the laws of Maryland. If, on the date of death, he or she was no longer a U.S. citizen or if he or she had become a Swiss citizen, the choice of the applicable law becomes void.

Thus, a dual national with Swiss nationality, domiciled in Switzerland, should (and probably must) execute a Swiss Will relating to his or her property in Switzerland, except insofar as an earlier Will is valid as to form in the other country, and substantively accords with the relevant Swiss canton's law of succession. (Switzerland has a unified Private International ("Conflicts") Law.)

Have you any more information on this? We are concerned to be able to leave everything to the surviving spouse if at all possible (there are no children), because we both had practically nothing when we married, everything we have we have worked hard together to build up and find it unfair that Swiss law would appear to disinherit a surviving spouse of what they've worked to build up and should belong to them alone in favour of family members who may have done nothing to deserve it, or are much better off anyway

I believe what is meant is a "pacte successoral" by which pre-death, legal heirs may renounce inheritance rights and agree on the disposition of assets. http://www.ch.ch/private/00029/00037...x.html?lang=fr (French)
http://www.ch.ch/private/00029/00037...x.html?lang=de (German)

Heirs can always renounce their rights under a succession within the time fixed by law after a death. (Or, in appropriate cases, they can accept subject to an accounting.)

Now that Switzerland has ratified The Hague trusts convention it may be possible to avoid Swiss inheritance law, at least in respect of foreign assets. Stiftungen and Anstalten are used by wealthy (even moderately wealthy) persons too. But bear in mind that heirs can contest creative testamentary dispositions: Leslie Caron's father's succession was tied up in French courts for a decade because he had used an American trust to avoid French forced heirship: http://www.uniset.ca/other/css/caron-odell.html

Can anyone please recommend a lawyer in Zurich who has helped them write a will (cheaply)?

Thank you

MrP

First, note that the rules are uniform in all Switzerland - there is no difference from Canton to Canton. You may choose to go to a public notary to have him write your will, but you may also write it yourself.

If you decide to write it yourself, you should:

1) write it by hand, with your own hand;
2) date it (day, month, year);
3) sign it.

Second, there is a Hague convention on the conflicts of laws relating to the form of testamentary disposition (5 October 1961). It states that the will is valid, among others, if it is valid in the place where it was written, or in the country of citizenship of the testator, or in the country where the testator had its permanent residence. Among others, Switzerland, South Africa, the UK and Ireland ratified this convention, so e.g. if you are a Brit living in Switzerland, you may choose to write your will according to the Swiss or the British form. The US, Australia and many others did NOT ratify this convention.

Third, if you die in Switzerland, the Swiss authorities will deal with your will. BUT, if you are a foreigner AND if your write a will, you may specify in your will that you wish to be dealt with according to the laws and statutes of your country of citizenship (this rule is stated in art. 90 al. 2 of the Law on private international law, RS 291). This is EXTREMELY important especially if you come from a non-civil-law country, because those countries, for example English law, do not know yet any "forced heirship" (what Latin countries know as "reserves" or "porzione legittima" Germanic countries as "Pflichtteil" - that is a part of your assets which you have no choice but to give to your husband, wife, children). So if you are a Brit living in Switzerland and you do not wish to leave a penny to your son because you dislike his wife (this is only an example) you should mention in your will that you want to be submitted to British law, and that you give all your assets to your daughter. This is true even if you own land property in Switzerland.

Be careful, if you own land in France, the rules are different. France will always want to deal itself with the sharing of land property.

Pierre