Any per­son who has the ca­pa­city of judge­ment and is at least 18 years old has the right to draw up a will dis­pos­ing of his or her prop­erty in ac­cord­ance with the lim­its and forms pre­scribed by law.

¹ Any per­son who is cap­able of judge­ment and has reached the age of 18 may con­clude a con­tract of suc­ces­sion as a test­at­or.

² Per­sons sub­ject to a deputy­ship that cov­ers the con­clu­sion of a con­tract of suc­ces­sion re­quire the con­sent of their leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive.

¹ Dis­pos­i­tions made in er­ror or un­der the in­flu­ence of ma­li­cious de­cep­tion, threats or co­er­cion are void.

² However, they be­come val­id if not re­voked by the test­at­or with­in one year of his or her dis­cov­er­ing the er­ror or de­cep­tion or of his or her re­lease from the threat or co­er­cion.

³ If a dis­pos­i­tion con­tains an ob­vi­ous er­ror with re­gard to per­sons or ob­jects and the test­at­or’s true in­ten­tion may be es­tab­lished with cer­tainty, the dis­pos­i­tion shall be rec­ti­fied ac­cord­ingly.

¹ A per­son who is sur­vived by is­sue, a spouse or a re­gistered part­ner may make a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion of that part of his or her prop­erty which ex­ceeds the stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment of the sur­viv­or or sur­viv­ors.⁴⁸⁴

² A per­son who is not sur­vived by any such heirs may dis­pose of his or her en­tire prop­erty by test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion.

The stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment is one-half of the stat­utory suc­ces­sion rights.

¹ If di­vorce pro­ceed­ings are pending on the death of the test­at­or, the sur­viv­ing spouse loses his or her right to claim the stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment if:

1.

the pro­ceed­ings were in­stig­ated by joint re­quest or con­tin­ued by joint re­quest in ac­cord­ance with the rules on di­vorce; or

2.

the spouses have lived apart for at least two years.

² In such a case, the stat­utory en­ti­tle­ments ap­ply as if the test­at­or had nev­er mar­ried.

³ Para­graphs 1 and 2 ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to pro­ceed­ings to dis­solve a re­gistered part­ner­ship.

¹ Ir­re­spect­ive of any in­struc­tion with re­gard to the dis­pos­able part, the test­at­or may by test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion grant the sur­viv­ing spouse or the sur­viv­ing re­gistered part­ner a usu­fruct over the en­tire part of the es­tate passing to their com­mon is­sue.

² This usu­fruct shall re­place the stat­utory suc­ces­sion right due to the spouse or the re­gistered part­ner where the com­mon is­sue are co-heirs with the spouse. In ad­di­tion to this usu­fruct, the dis­pos­able part is one-half of the es­tate.

³ If sur­viv­ing spouse re­mar­ries or if he or she enters in­to a re­gistered part­ner­ship, the usu­fruct ceases to ap­ply to that part of the es­tate which, on suc­ces­sion, could not have been en­cumbered by a usu­fruct un­der the pro­vi­sions or­din­ar­ily gov­ern­ing the stat­utory en­ti­tle­ments of the de­ceased’s is­sue. This pro­vi­sion ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis if the sur­viv­ing re­gistered part­ner enters in­to a new re­gistered part­ner­ship or mar­ries.

¹ The dis­pos­able part is cal­cu­lated on the basis of the value of the de­ceased’s as­sets at the time of his or her death.

² In cal­cu­lat­ing this value, the de­ceased’s debts, the fu­ner­al ex­penses, the costs of seal­ing and of draw­ing up the in­vent­ory and the main­ten­ance claims of mem­bers of the house­hold for one month are de­duc­ted from value of the es­tate.

Inter vivos gifts are ad­ded to the es­tate in­so­far as they are sub­ject to an ac­tion in abate­ment.

¹ Where a life as­sur­ance claim, in­clud­ing a claim arising from a re­stric­ted re­tire­ment sav­ings plan, matur­ing on the death of the de­ceased was es­tab­lished in fa­vour of a third party by an inter vivos or test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion or mor­tis causa or was trans­ferred by the de­ceased dur­ing his or her life­time to a third party without valu­able con­sid­er­a­tion, the re­demp­tion value of such in­sur­ance claim at the time of death is ad­ded to the es­tate.

² The test­at­or’s es­tate also in­cludes claims of be­ne­fi­ciar­ies arising from the test­at­or’s re­stric­ted re­tire­ment sav­ings plan with a bank found­a­tion.

The test­at­or has the power to de­prive an heir of his or her stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment by means of a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion:

1.⁴⁸⁹

if the heir has com­mit­ted a ser­i­ous crime against the test­at­or or a per­son close to him or her;

2.

if the heir has ser­i­ously breached his or her du­ties un­der fam­ily law to­wards the test­at­or or the lat­ter’s de­pend­ants.

¹ The dis­in­her­ited per­son may neither par­ti­cip­ate in the es­tate nor bring an ac­tion in abate­ment.

² Un­less dis­posed of oth­er­wise by the test­at­or, the dis­in­her­ited per­son’s por­tion passes to the test­at­or’s stat­utory heirs as if the dis­in­her­ited per­son had pre­de­ceased.

³ The dis­in­her­ited per­son’s is­sue re­tain their stat­utory en­ti­tle­ments as if he or she had pre­de­ceased.

¹ A dis­in­her­it­ance is val­id only if the test­at­or in­dic­ates the reas­on for the dis­in­her­it­ance in his or her test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion.

² If the dis­in­her­ited per­son chal­lenges the dis­in­her­it­ance on the grounds that the reas­on there­for is in­cor­rect, any heir or leg­atee wish­ing to be­ne­fit from the dis­in­her­it­ance must prove that the reas­on is cor­rect.

³ Where no such proof may be ad­duced or no reas­on for the dis­in­her­it­ance is in­dic­ated, the dis­pos­i­tion shall be up­held in­so­far as it does not de­prive the dis­in­her­ited per­son of his or her stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment un­less it was made by the test­at­or in ob­vi­ous er­ror re­gard­ing the reas­on for the dis­in­her­it­ance.

¹ If un­paid debt cer­ti­fic­ates ex­ist in re­spect of any of the is­sue of the test­at­or, the lat­ter may de­prive the said is­sue of one-half of his or her stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment provid­ing he or she leaves that half to the ex­ist­ing or sub­sequently born chil­dren of the said is­sue.

² At the dis­in­her­ited per­son’s re­quest, the dis­in­her­it­ance is void if, on com­mence­ment of the suc­ces­sion pro­cess, the un­paid debt cer­ti­fic­ates no longer ex­ist against him or her or if their total amount does not ex­ceed one-quarter of his or her share of the es­tate.

¹ With­in the lim­its of his or her right to dis­pose of his or her prop­erty, the test­at­or may dis­pose of it in part or in full by will or by con­tract of suc­ces­sion.

² Any prop­erty in re­spect of which no test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion has been made passes to the stat­utory heirs.

¹ The test­at­or may at­tach bur­dens or con­di­tions to the dis­pos­i­tion, the ful­fil­ment of which may be re­ques­ted by any in­ter­ested party once the dis­pos­i­tion be­comes ef­fect­ive.

² Im­mor­al or un­law­ful bur­dens or con­di­tions render the dis­pos­i­tion null and void.

³ Where they are merely oner­ous to third parties or mean­ing­less, they are deemed not to ex­ist.

⁴ If an an­im­al re­ceives a be­quest by test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion, this dis­pos­i­tion is deemed to be a bur­den by which the an­im­al must be cared for ac­cord­ing to its needs.⁴⁹⁰

¹ The test­at­or may name one or more heirs to the en­tire es­tate or to a frac­tion there­of.

² Any dis­pos­i­tion by which a be­ne­fi­ciary should re­ceive all or a spe­cified frac­tion of the de­ceased’s es­tate is deemed to con­sti­tute the nam­ing of an heir.

¹ The test­at­or may be­queath a leg­acy to a be­ne­fi­ciary without nam­ing that per­son as an heir.

² He or she may be­queath a spe­cif­ic leg­acy or the usu­fruct of the whole or a part of the es­tate, or he or she may in­struct the heirs or oth­er leg­atees to make pay­ments to that per­son from the value of the es­tate or to re­lease that per­son from ob­lig­a­tions.

³ If the test­at­or be­queaths a spe­cif­ic leg­acy but the ob­ject is not part of the es­tate and no oth­er in­ten­tion is evid­ent from the dis­pos­i­tion, no ob­lig­a­tion is placed on the ob­lig­or of the leg­acy.

¹ The ob­ject must be de­livered to the be­ne­fi­ciary in the same con­di­tion that it was in at the com­mence­ment of the suc­ces­sion pro­cess, in­clud­ing dam­age and growth and with or without en­cum­brance.

² With re­gard to ex­pendit­ure on and de­teri­or­a­tion of the leg­acy since the com­mence­ment of the suc­ces­sion pro­cess, the ob­lig­or of the leg­acy has the same rights and du­ties as an agent without au­thor­ity.

¹ Where the legacies ex­ceed the value of the es­tate or of the be­quest to the ob­lig­or or of the dis­pos­able part, ap­plic­a­tion may be made to have them abated pro­por­tion­ately.

² If the ob­lig­ors do not sur­vive the test­at­or, are un­worthy to in­her­it or dis­claim their in­her­it­ance, the legacies re­main non­ethe­less ef­fect­ive.

³ If the test­at­or has be­queathed a leg­acy to a stat­utory or named heir, the lat­ter has the right to claim the leg­acy even if he or she dis­claims his or her in­her­it­ance.

In his or her dis­pos­i­tion, the test­at­or may des­ig­nate one or more per­sons to whom the es­tate or leg­acy shall pass in the event that the ini­tial heir or leg­atee is pre­de­ceased or dis­claims it.

¹ The test­at­or is en­titled in his or her dis­pos­i­tions to re­quire the named heir, as pro­vi­sion­al heir, to de­liv­er the es­tate to a third party, as re­main­der­man.

² No such ob­lig­a­tion may be im­posed on the re­main­der­man.

³ The same pro­vi­sions ap­ply to legacies.

¹ Ex­cept where the dis­pos­i­tion stip­u­lates oth­er­wise, the time of de­liv­ery is deemed to be the death of the pro­vi­sion­al heir.

² Where a dif­fer­ent time is spe­cified and that time has not yet oc­curred on the death of the pro­vi­sion­al heir, the in­her­it­ance passes to his or her heirs against se­cur­ity.

³ If for whatever reas­on that time may no longer oc­cur, the in­her­it­ance passes un­re­servedly to the heirs of the pro­vi­sion­al heir.

¹ In all cases in which re­main­der­men are des­ig­nated, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity must or­der an in­vent­ory to be drawn up.

² De­liv­ery of the in­her­it­ance to the pro­vi­sion­al heir is made only against se­cur­ity, ex­cept where the test­at­or has ex­pressly re­leased him or her from such an ob­lig­a­tion; in the case of im­mov­able prop­erty, se­cur­ity may be provided by en­ter­ing the de­liv­ery ob­lig­a­tion un­der pri­or­ity no­tice in the land re­gister.

³ If the pro­vi­sion­al heir is un­able to provide se­cur­ity or jeop­ard­ises the re­main­der­man’s ex­pect­ancy, the in­her­it­ance must be placed un­der pro­bate ad­min­is­tra­tion.

¹ A pro­vi­sion­al heir ac­quires the in­her­it­ance in the same man­ner as any named heir.

² He or she be­comes the own­er of the in­her­it­ance with an ob­lig­a­tion to de­liv­er it.

¹ The re­main­der­man ac­quires the test­at­or’s be­quest if he or she is alive at the stip­u­lated de­liv­ery time.

² If he or she dies be­fore then, the in­her­it­ance passes to the pro­vi­sion­al heir un­less the test­at­or has ordered oth­er­wise.

³ If the pro­vi­sion­al heir dies be­fore the test­at­or or is un­worthy of in­her­it­ance or dis­claims the in­her­it­ance, it passes to the re­main­der­man.

¹ If any is­sue per­man­ently lacks ca­pa­city of judge­ment and if he or she is not sur­vived by is­sue or a spouse, the test­at­or may des­ig­nate a re­main­der­man in re­spect of the residue.

² The des­ig­na­tion of the re­main­der­man ceases to ap­ply by law if the is­sue, con­trary to ex­pect­a­tion, be­comes cap­able of judge­ment.

¹ The test­at­or is en­titled to be­queath all or part of the dis­pos­able por­tion of his or her prop­erty to a found­a­tion for any pur­pose of his or her choos­ing.

² However, the found­a­tion is val­id only if it con­forms to the leg­al re­quire­ments.

¹ The test­at­or may, by con­tract of suc­ces­sion, un­der­take to an­oth­er per­son to be­queath his or her es­tate or a leg­acy to that per­son or a third party.

² He or she is free to dis­pose of his or her prop­erty as he or she sees fit.

³ Test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tions and inter vivos gifts, with the ex­cep­tion of cus­tom­ary oc­ca­sion­al gifts, are sub­ject to chal­lenge, in­so­far as:

1.

they are in­com­pat­ible with ob­lig­a­tions un­der the con­tract of suc­ces­sion, and in par­tic­u­lar where they re­duce be­ne­fits un­der the con­tract of suc­ces­sion; and

2.

no pro­vi­sion is made for them in the con­tract of suc­ces­sion.⁴⁹²

¹ The test­at­or may con­clude an in­her­it­ance re­nun­ci­ation con­tract with an heir with or without valu­able con­sid­er­a­tion.

² The re­noun­cing party is not deemed to be an heir on suc­ces­sion.

³ Un­less the con­tract provides oth­er­wise, the re­nun­ci­ation of an in­her­it­ance also ap­plies to the is­sue of the re­noun­cing party.

¹ Where cer­tain per­sons are named in the re­nun­ci­ation con­tact as heirs in lieu of the re­noun­cing party, the re­nun­ci­ation is void if such per­sons fail to ac­quire the in­her­it­ance for whatever reas­on.

² Where an in­her­it­ance is re­nounced in fa­vour of co-heirs, the re­nun­ci­ation is pre­sumed to be ef­fect­ive only in re­spect of the heirs of the line des­cend­ing from their nearest com­mon as­cend­ant and has no ef­fect with re­gard to more dis­tant heirs.

If the de­ceased was in­solv­ent on com­mence­ment of the suc­ces­sion pro­cess and his or her cred­it­ors are not sat­is­fied by the heirs, the re­noun­cing party and his or her heirs may be held li­able to the ex­tent that they re­ceived valu­able con­sid­er­a­tion for the re­nounced in­her­it­ance with­in the five years pri­or to the death of the de­ceased and were still en­riched by such con­sid­er­a­tion on suc­ces­sion.

The test­at­or may make his or her will in the form of a pub­lic deed or in holo­graph­ic or or­al form.

A will by pub­lic deed is made in the pres­ence of two wit­nesses by a pub­lic of­fi­cial, not­ary pub­lic or oth­er per­son au­thor­ised un­der can­ton­al law to con­duct such busi­ness.

¹ The test­at­or must in­form the of­fi­cial of his or her wishes, whereupon the of­fi­cial draws up the deed or causes it to be drawn up and gives it to the test­at­or to read.

² The deed must be signed by the test­at­or.

³ The of­fi­cial must date and sign the deed.

¹ As soon as the pub­lic deed has been signed and dated, the test­at­or must de­clare to the two wit­nesses, in the pres­ence of the of­fi­cial, that he or she has read the doc­u­ment and that it con­tains his or her will.

² The wit­nesses must sign the deed and in so do­ing con­firm that the test­at­or made said de­clar­a­tion in their pres­ence and that, in their judg­ment, in so do­ing he or she was in full pos­ses­sion of test­a­ment­ary ca­pa­city.

³ It is not ne­ces­sary for the wit­nesses to be in­formed of the con­tent of the deed.

¹ If the test­at­or does not read and sign the deed, the of­fi­cial must read it out in the pres­ence of the two wit­nesses and the test­at­or, who must then de­clare that the deed con­tains his or her will.

² In this case the wit­nesses must not only at­test to the test­at­or’s de­clar­a­tion and their judg­ment con­cern­ing his or her test­a­ment­ary ca­pa­city but must also con­firm, by ap­pend­ing their sig­na­tures, that the deed was read out to the test­at­or by the of­fi­cial in their pres­ence.

¹ Per­sons who lack ca­pa­city to act, have been de­prived of their civil rights due to a crim­in­al con­vic­tion⁴⁹³ or are un­able to read or write, lin­eal re­l­at­ives⁴⁹⁴ or sib­lings of the test­at­or or their spouses and the test­at­or’s spouse are not per­mit­ted to act as au­then­tic­at­ing of­fi­cials or wit­nesses when mak­ing a will in the form of a pub­lic deed.

² No dis­pos­i­tion may be made in the will in fa­vour of any au­then­tic­at­ing of­ficer or wit­ness or his or her lin­eal re­l­at­ives, sib­lings or spouse.

The can­tons must en­sure that pub­lic of­fi­cials en­trus­ted with wills either keep the ori­gin­al or a copy of such deeds them­selves or else for­ward them to an au­thor­ity for safe­keep­ing.

¹ A holo­graph­ic will must be writ­ten in the test­at­or’s own hand from start to fin­ish, in­clude an in­dic­a­tion of the day, month and year on which it is drawn up, and be signed by the test­at­or.⁴⁹⁵

² The can­tons must en­sure that such wills can be for­war­ded, wheth­er open or sealed, to an au­thor­ity for safe­keep­ing.

¹ Where the test­at­or is pre­ven­ted from us­ing any oth­er form of will by ex­traordin­ary cir­cum­stances such as the im­min­ent risk of death, break­down in com­mu­nic­a­tions, epi­dem­ic or war, he or she is en­titled to make a will in or­al form.

² To do so, he or she must de­clare his or her will in the pres­ence of two wit­nesses and in­struct them to have it drawn up as re­quired in the form of a deed.

³ The wit­nesses are sub­ject to the same dis­qual­i­fic­a­tion pro­vi­sions as ap­ply to wills made in the form of pub­lic deeds.

¹ The or­al will, in­clud­ing the place, day, month and year, must be writ­ten down im­me­di­ately by one of the wit­nesses, then signed by both and lodged without delay with a ju­di­cial au­thor­ity to­geth­er with a de­clar­a­tion that the test­at­or was in full pos­ses­sion of his or her test­a­ment­ary ca­pa­city and that he or she in­formed them of his or her will in the spe­cial cir­cum­stances pre­vail­ing at that time.

² The two wit­nesses may in­stead have the will re­cor­ded by a ju­di­cial au­thor­ity along with the same de­clar­a­tion.

³ If the test­at­or makes his or her or­al will while on mil­it­ary ser­vice, an of­ficer with the rank of cap­tain or high­er may take the place of the ju­di­cial au­thor­ity.

If the test­at­or sub­sequently has the op­por­tun­ity to draw up his or her will in an­oth­er form, the or­al will ceases to be val­id 14 days after such op­por­tun­ity arises.

¹ The test­at­or may re­voke his or her will at any time in one of the forms en­vis­aged for draw­ing it up.

² Such re­voc­a­tion may ap­ply to all or part of the will.

¹ The test­at­or may re­voke his or her will by des­troy­ing the deed.

² If the deed is des­troyed by oth­ers wil­fully or by ac­ci­dent, the will like­wise be­comes void inas­much as its con­tent may no longer be as­cer­tained pre­cisely and com­pletely; claims for dam­ages are re­served.

¹ If the test­at­or makes a will without ex­pressly re­vok­ing a pre­vi­ous will, the later will su­per­sedes the earli­er un­less it is mani­festly no more than a co­di­cil thereto.

² Like­wise, a be­quest of a spe­cif­ic ob­ject is re­voked if the test­at­or sub­sequently makes a new dis­pos­i­tion of the same ob­ject that is in­com­pat­ible with the pre­vi­ous dis­pos­i­tion.

¹ In or­der to be val­id, a con­tract of suc­ces­sion must meet the same form­al re­quire­ments as a will ex­ecuted as a pub­lic deed.

² The con­tract­ing parties must sim­ul­tan­eously de­clare their in­ten­tions to the pub­lic of­fi­cial and sign the deed be­fore him or her and two wit­nesses.

¹ The con­tract of suc­ces­sion may be re­voked at any time by writ­ten agree­ment between the parties.

² The test­at­or may uni­lat­er­ally re­voke the nam­ing of an heir or a leg­acy provided the heir or leg­atee is guilty of con­duct con­sti­tut­ing grounds for dis­in­her­it­ance after the con­tract was con­cluded.

³ The uni­lat­er­al re­voc­a­tion must be done in one of the forms pre­scribed for draw­ing up wills.

A per­son en­titled to be­ne­fits inter vivos un­der a con­tract of suc­ces­sion may de­clare his or her with­draw­al from the con­tract in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions⁴⁹⁶ in the event of fail­ure to per­form such be­ne­fits or to fur­nish se­cur­ity for them.

¹ Where the heir or leg­atee does not sur­vive the test­at­or, the con­tract be­comes void.

² Where at the time of the heir’s death the test­at­or has been en­riched as a res­ult of the con­tract of suc­ces­sion, un­less oth­er­wise provided, the heirs of the de­ceased may de­mand resti­tu­tion of the amount in­volved.

If a test­at­or be­comes sub­ject to a re­stric­tion of test­a­ment­ary free­dom after he or she has made a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion, the dis­pos­i­tion is not an­nulled but is sub­ject to ac­tion in abate­ment.

¹ In the will, the test­at­or may ap­point one or more per­sons with ca­pa­city to act to ex­ecute the will.

² The pro­bate au­thor­ity shall no­ti­fy these per­sons of the ap­point­ment exof­fi­cio and they must state wheth­er they ac­cept it with­in 14 days of such no­ti­fic­a­tion, si­lence be­ing deemed ta­cit ac­cept­ance.

³ They are en­titled to ad­equate re­com­pense for their activ­it­ies.

¹ Un­less oth­er­wise provided by the test­at­or, the ex­ecut­ors have the same rights and du­ties as an of­fi­cial es­tate ad­min­is­trat­or.

² The ex­ecut­ors’ func­tion is to rep­res­ent the test­at­or’s wishes and, in par­tic­u­lar, to ad­min­is­ter the es­tate, settle debts left by the test­at­or, dis­trib­ute legacies and di­vide the es­tate in ac­cord­ance with the test­at­or’s in­struc­tions or as re­quired by law.

³ Where more than one ex­ecut­or has been ap­poin­ted, these powers are ex­er­cised jointly, un­less the test­at­or has provided oth­er­wise.

¹ Where con­tested, a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion may be de­clared in­val­id:

1.

if it was made by the test­at­or at a time when he or she lacked test­a­ment­ary ca­pa­city;

2.

if it is the product of a lack of free will;

3.

if its con­tent or a con­di­tion at­tached to it is im­mor­al or un­law­ful.

² An ac­tion of de­clar­a­tion of in­valid­ity may be brought by any in­ter­ested heir or leg­atee.

¹ If the test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion is form­ally de­fect­ive, it is de­clared in­val­id on be­ing con­tested be­fore a court.

² If the form­al de­fect con­sists in the cer­tain per­sons be­ing party to the ex­e­cu­tion of the dis­pos­i­tion who or whose fam­ily mem­bers are be­ne­fi­ciar­ies un­der the test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion, only the clauses re­lat­ing to those be­ne­fi­ciar­ies shall be de­clared in­val­id.

³ The right of ac­tion is gov­erned by the same pro­vi­sions as ap­ply in the event of a lack of test­a­ment­ary ca­pa­city.

If the form­al de­fect in a holo­graph­ic will con­sists in the day, month or year not be­ing in­dic­ated cor­rectly or at all, the will may be de­clared in­val­id only if the pre­cise date can­not be as­cer­tained in some oth­er man­ner and is ne­ces­sary in or­der to de­term­ine the test­at­or’s test­a­ment­ary ca­pa­city, the chro­no­lo­gic­al or­der of mul­tiple wills or any oth­er is­sue af­fect­ing the valid­ity of the will.

¹ The right to bring an ac­tion of de­clar­a­tion of in­valid­ity pre­scribes one year after the con­test­ing party learned of the will and the ground for nullity and in any event a max­im­um of ten years after the com­mence­ment of pro­bate pro­ceed­ings.

² In all cases, the right to bring an ac­tion on grounds of lack of test­a­ment­ary ca­pa­city, im­mor­al­ity or un­law­ful­ness against a be­ne­fi­ciary act­ing in bad faith does not pre­scribe un­til 30 years have elapsed.

³ In­valid­ity may be in­voked as a de­fence at any time.

¹ The heirs who re­ceive less than the value of their stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment may re­quest the abate­ment of the fol­low­ing ac­quis­i­tions and gifts un­til their stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment be­comes avail­able:

1.

ac­quis­i­tions in ac­cord­ance with the law on in­test­ate suc­ces­sion;

2.

be­quests;

3.

inter vivos gifts.

² Clauses in a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion re­lat­ing to the en­ti­tle­ments of the stat­utory heirs are deemed merely to be in­struc­tions for di­vid­ing the es­tate un­less it is evid­ent from the dis­pos­i­tion that the test­at­or in­ten­ded oth­er­wise.

In the case of heirs with a stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment, ac­quis­i­tions in ac­cord­ance with the law on in­test­ate suc­ces­sion and be­quests shall be abated in pro­por­tion to the amounts by which they ex­ceed each co-heir’s stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment.

¹ Where the test­at­or has ex­ceeded his or her test­a­ment­ary free­dom to the det­ri­ment of an heir and the lat­ter fails to bring an ac­tion in abate­ment des­pite be­ing in­struc­ted to do so by the bank­ruptcy ad­min­is­trat­ors or by cred­it­ors hold­ing un­paid debt cer­ti­fic­ates on suc­ces­sion, the ad­min­is­trat­ors or cred­it­ors them­selves may bring an ac­tion in abate­ment for the amount ne­ces­sary to cov­er their claims with­in the same time lim­it that ap­plies to the heir.

² The same right ap­plies in the case of a dis­in­her­it­ance not con­tested by the per­son dis­in­her­ited.

¹ Abate­ment is ap­plied in equal pro­por­tion in re­spect of all named heirs and leg­atees un­less it is evid­ent from the dis­pos­i­tion that the test­at­or in­ten­ded oth­er­wise.

² Where the abate­ment ap­plies to a leg­acy whose be­ne­fi­ciary is also the ob­lig­or of oth­er legacies, sub­ject to the same pro­viso such be­ne­fi­ciary may re­quest that those oth­er legacies be abated pro­por­tion­ately.

Where a spe­cif­ic leg­acy that can­not be di­vided without loss of value is to be abated, the leg­atee may either claim it and pay the bal­ance or claim the dis­pos­able amount in lieu of the ob­ject.

The fol­low­ing are sub­ject to abate­ment in the same man­ner as test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tions:

1.

ad­vances against a per­son’s share of an in­her­it­ance made in the form of wed­ding gifts, set­tle­ments or as­sign­ments of as­sets, to the ex­tent these are not sub­ject to hotch­pot;

2.

com­pens­a­tion pay­ments in set­tle­ment of fu­ture rights of in­her­it­ance;

3.

gifts that were freely re­voc­able by the de­ceased or made in the five years pri­or to his or her death, with the ex­cep­tion of cus­tom­ary oc­ca­sion­al gifts;

4.

as­sets ali­en­ated by the de­ceased with the ob­vi­ous in­ten­tion of cir­cum­vent­ing the lim­it­a­tions on his or her test­a­ment­ary free­dom.

¹ A per­son act­ing in good faith has a duty of resti­tu­tion only to the ex­tent that he or she is still en­riched by such trans­ac­tions with the de­ceased at the time of suc­ces­sion.

² Where be­ne­fits con­ferred un­der a con­tract of suc­ces­sion are sub­ject to abate­ment, the be­ne­fi­ciary is en­titled to re­claim a pro­por­tion­ate amount of the counter-per­form­ance made to the test­at­or.

¹ Where a life as­sur­ance claim matur­ing on the death of the de­ceased, in­clud­ing a claim arising from a re­stric­ted re­tire­ment sav­ings plan, was es­tab­lished in fa­vour of a third party by a dis­pos­i­tion inter vivos or by a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion, or was trans­ferred by the de­ceased dur­ing his or her life­time to a third party without valu­able con­sid­er­a­tion, such claim is sub­ject to abate­ment at its re­demp­tion value.

² The claims of be­ne­fi­ciar­ies arising from the re­stric­ted re­tire­ment sav­ings plan of the test­at­or with a bank found­a­tion are also sub­ject to abate­ment.

If the test­at­or has en­cumbered the es­tate with rights of usu­fruct and an­nu­it­ies such that their cap­it­al­ised value over their prob­able dur­a­tion ex­ceeds the dis­pos­able part of the es­tate, the heirs are en­titled either to seek pro­por­tion­ate abate­ment of such rights or to re­deem them by sur­ren­der­ing the dis­pos­able part of the es­tate to the be­ne­fi­ciar­ies.

The nam­ing of a re­main­der­man in re­spect of an heir en­titled to a stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment is in­val­id as to that part of the es­tate; the pro­vi­sion on is­sue who are in­cap­able of judge­ment is re­served.

¹ The fol­low­ing are sub­ject to abate­ment in the fol­low­ing or­der un­til the stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment be­comes avail­able:

1.

ac­quis­i­tions in ac­cord­ance with the law on in­test­ate suc­ces­sion;

2.

be­quests;

3.

inter vivos gifts.

² The inter vivos gifts shall be abated in the fol­low­ing or­der:

1.

gifts sub­ject to ad­di­tion un­der a mar­it­al agree­ment or prop­erty agree­ment;

2.

freely re­voc­able gifts and the be­ne­fits arising from the re­stric­ted re­tire­ment sav­ings plan, in the same pro­por­tion;

3.

oth­er gifts, the most re­cent be­fore those made earli­er.

¹ A claim in abate­ment pre­scribes one year after the date on which the heirs learned of the in­fringe­ment of their rights and in any event after ten years have elapsed since the suc­ces­sion, in the case of test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion, or since the test­at­or’s death, in the case of oth­er dis­pos­i­tions.

² If the de­clar­a­tion of the in­valid­ity of a later dis­pos­i­tion re­vives an earli­er one, the pre­script­ive peri­ods be­gin on the date on which in­valid­ity was de­clared.

³ The en­ti­tle­ment to abate­ment may be in­voked as a de­fence at any time.

¹ If the test­at­or trans­fers his or her prop­erty dur­ing his or her life­time to the con­trac­tu­al heir, the lat­ter may ar­range for a pub­lic in­vent­ory to be taken.

² Where the test­at­or has not trans­ferred all his or her prop­erty or has ac­quired prop­erty since the trans­fer, ex­cept where oth­er­wise provided the con­tract ap­plies only to the prop­erty trans­ferred.

³ Where such trans­fer takes place dur­ing the test­at­or’s life­time, ex­cept where oth­er­wise provided all rights and ob­lig­a­tions arising from the con­tract pass to the heirs of the named heir.

¹ If the test­at­or dur­ing his or her life­time con­ferred be­ne­fits on a re­noun­cing heir that ex­ceed that heir’s share of the es­tate, his or her co-heirs may re­quest abate­ment.

² However, such be­ne­fits are sub­ject to abate­ment only to the ex­tent they ex­ceed the stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment of the re­noun­cing heir.

³ Al­low­ance is made for them ac­cord­ing to the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing hotch­pot.

If as a res­ult of abate­ment a re­noun­cing heir is ob­liged to re­im­burse the es­tate, he or she has the choice of either tak­ing the re­im­burse­ment upon him­self or of pla­cing the en­tire be­ne­fit in­to hotch­pot and par­ti­cip­at­ing in the di­vi­sion as if he or she had nev­er re­nounced.

¹ Suc­ces­sion com­mences on the death of the de­ceased.

² In­so­far as dis­pos­i­tions and di­vi­sions made dur­ing de­ceased's life­time are rel­ev­ant un­der law of suc­ces­sion, they are taken in­to ac­count ac­cord­ing to the con­di­tion of the es­tate as at the time of his or her death.

¹ The suc­ces­sion pro­cess com­mences in re­spect of the en­tire es­tate at the de­ceased’s last dom­i­cile.

² ...⁵⁰⁵

¹ Every per­son is cap­able of be­ing an heir and ac­quir­ing prop­erty by test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion un­less by law he or she is deemed in­cap­able of in­her­it­ance.

² Be­quests with a des­ig­nated pur­pose to groups of per­sons not con­sti­tut­ing a leg­al en­tity are ac­quired by all such per­sons in­di­vidu­ally with an ob­lig­a­tion to use them as pre­scribed or, where this is not prac­tic­al, give rise to a trust.

¹ A per­son is un­worthy of in­her­it­ing or ac­quir­ing any­thing by a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion if:

1.

he or she wil­fully and un­law­fully caused or at­temp­ted to cause the death of the per­son now de­ceased;

2.

he or she wil­fully and un­law­fully rendered the per­son now de­ceased per­man­ently in­cap­able of mak­ing a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion;

3.

by malice, co­er­cion or threat he or she in­duced the per­son now de­ceased to make or re­voke a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion or pre­ven­ted him or her from do­ing so;

4.

he or she wil­fully and un­law­fully elim­in­ated or in­val­id­ated a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion in such a man­ner as to pre­vent the per­son now de­ceased from draw­ing up a new one.

² Un­wor­thi­ness to in­her­it does not ap­ply if the per­son now de­ceased has for­giv­en the per­son con­cerned.

¹ Un­wor­thi­ness to in­her­it ap­plies only to the per­son con­cerned.

² His or her is­sue in­her­it from the de­ceased as if the per­son un­worthy to in­her­it were pre­de­ceased.

¹ In or­der to in­her­it, an heir must be alive and cap­able of in­her­it­ing at the time of suc­ces­sion.

² If an heir dies after com­mence­ment of suc­ces­sion, his or her rights of in­her­it­ance in re­spect of the es­tate pass to his or her own heirs.

¹ A leg­atee sur­viv­ing the test­at­or and cap­able of in­her­it­ing ac­quires a claim to the leg­acy.

² If he or she dies be­fore the test­at­or, his or her leg­acy is ex­tin­guished in fa­vour of the per­son who would have been ob­liged to de­liv­er the leg­acy to him, un­less some oth­er in­ten­tion is evid­ent from the dis­pos­i­tion.

¹ A child is cap­able of in­her­it­ing from the mo­ment of con­cep­tion on­wards, provid­ing he or she is sub­sequently born alive.

^1bis If it is re­quired to pro­tect the child's in­terests, the child pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity shall es­tab­lish a deputy­ship.⁵⁰⁶

² If the child is still­born, it is dis­reg­arded for in­her­it­ance pur­poses.⁵⁰⁷

¹ The test­at­or may be­queath his or her es­tate or part there­of to a per­son not yet liv­ing when suc­ces­sion com­mences by des­ig­nat­ing such per­son a re­main­der­man.

² Where no pro­vi­sion­al heir is named, the stat­utory heirs are deemed to be the pro­vi­sion­al heirs.

¹ Where a per­son has been de­clared pre­sumed dead, be­fore his or her heirs or leg­atees suc­ceed to the es­tate, they must fur­nish se­cur­ity for the resti­tu­tion of the prop­erty to those with a pre­vail­ing claim or to the miss­ing per­son him­self.

² Such se­cur­ity shall be fur­nished for five years in the case of dis­ap­pear­ance in life-threat­en­ing cir­cum­stances and for 15 years in the case of ab­sence without sign of life, but nev­er bey­ond the date on which the miss­ing per­son would have be­come 100 years old.

³ The five-year peri­od runs from the date on which the es­tate is trans­ferred and the 15-year peri­od from the last sign of life.

¹ If the per­son who is pre­sumed dead re­turns or oth­er parties as­sert pre­vail­ing claims to the es­tate, those put in pos­ses­sion of the es­tate must re­turn it ac­cord­ing to the rules gov­ern­ing pos­ses­sion.

² Provided they ac­ted in good faith, they are li­able to parties with pre­vail­ing claims only dur­ing the peri­od in which ac­tion may be brought for re­clam­a­tion of the es­tate.

¹ If it is im­possible to de­term­ine wheth­er an heir is alive or dead when suc­ces­sion com­mences be­cause he or she has dis­ap­peared, his or her share of the in­her­it­ance is placed un­der of­fi­cial ad­min­is­tra­tion.

² Those who would suc­ceed to the miss­ing heir’s share if he or she were dead may re­quest the court to de­clare the heir pre­sumed dead one year after his or her dis­ap­pear­ance in life-threat­en­ing cir­cum­stances or five years after the last sign of life and, once such de­clar­a­tion has been made, may ap­ply for re­lease of their shares of his or her in­her­it­ance.

³ Such shares are re­leased ac­cord­ing to the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing re­lease to the heirs of per­sons pre­sumed dead.

¹ If the heirs of the per­son pre­sumed dead are already in pos­ses­sion of his or her prop­erty and an in­her­it­ance passes to him or her, his or her co-heirs may in­voke this fact and re­quest that such in­her­it­ance be re­leased to them without need for a second de­clar­a­tion of pre­sumed death.

² The heirs of the per­son pre­sumed dead may like­wise in­voke a de­clar­a­tion of pre­sumed death ob­tained by the co-heirs.

¹ Where the miss­ing per­son’s prop­erty or suc­ces­sion rights have been un­der of­fi­cial ad­min­is­tra­tion for ten years or more, or he or she would have reached the age of 100, at the re­quest of the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity the de­clar­a­tion of pre­sumed death is pro­nounced ex of­fi­cio.

² If no right­ful heirs come for­ward dur­ing the pub­lic no­tice peri­od, the prop­erty of the per­son pre­sumed dead passes to the state au­thor­ity with right to suc­ceed or, if he or she was nev­er res­id­ent in Switzer­land, to the can­ton of ori­gin.

³ The loc­al au­thor­ity or can­ton con­cerned has the same duty of resti­tu­tion as those put in pos­ses­sion of the es­tate to­wards the per­son pre­sumed dead and parties with pre­vail­ing claims.

¹ The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity must of its own ac­cord take all meas­ures ne­ces­sary to en­sure prop­er suc­ces­sion.⁵⁰⁸

² In the cases en­vis­aged by law, in par­tic­u­lar, such meas­ures in­clude seal­ing the es­tate, draw­ing up the in­vent­ory, ap­point­ing the es­tate ad­min­is­trat­ors and read­ing out the wills of the de­ceased.

³ ...⁵⁰⁹

The or­der to seal the es­tate is giv­en whenev­er provided for by can­ton­al law.

¹ The or­der to draw up an in­vent­ory is giv­en:

1.

where an heir is un­der guard­i­an­ship or is to be made a ward of court;

2.

where an heir is per­man­ently ab­sent and without rep­res­ent­a­tion;

3.

at the re­quest of one of the heirs;

4.

where an adult heir is or is to be made sub­ject to a gen­er­al deputy­ship.⁵¹⁰

² The in­vent­ory is drawn up in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of can­ton­al law and nor­mally must be com­pleted with­in two months of the death of the de­ceased.

³ Can­ton­al le­gis­la­tion may re­quire that an in­vent­ory be drawn up in oth­er cases.

¹ Es­tate ad­min­is­trat­ors are ap­poin­ted:

1.

where such an ap­point­ment is in the best in­terests of an heir who is per­man­ently ab­sent and without rep­res­ent­a­tion;

2.

where none of the claimants may ad­equately es­tab­lish his or her suc­ces­sion rights or the ex­ist­ence of an heir is un­cer­tain;

3.

where not all heirs are known;

4.

in spe­cial cases provided for by law.

² Where the de­ceased had named an ex­ecut­or, ad­min­is­tra­tion of the es­tate is en­trus­ted to him or her.

³ Where the de­ceased was sub­ject to a deputy­ship that cov­ers as­set man­age­ment, the deputy is re­spons­ible for ad­min­is­ter­ing the es­tate un­less oth­er in­struc­tions ap­ply.⁵¹¹

¹ If the au­thor­ity is un­cer­tain as to wheth­er the de­ceased is sur­vived by heirs or wheth­er it is aware of all the heirs, the au­thor­ity must by ap­pro­pri­ate pub­lic means call on all per­sons with suc­ces­sion rights to come for­ward and claim them with­in one year.

² If no such per­son comes for­ward dur­ing this time and if no heirs are known to the au­thor­ity, the es­tate passes to the state au­thor­ity with right to suc­ceed, sub­ject to any ac­tion for re­cov­ery of in­her­it­ance.

¹ If the de­ceased left a will, this must be sub­mit­ted to the au­thor­ity without delay even if it ap­pears to be in­val­id.

² The pub­lic of­fi­cial by whom the will was re­cor­ded or with whom it was de­pos­ited or any oth­er per­son who had cus­tody of the will or found it among the per­son­al ef­fects of the de­ceased is per­son­ally re­spons­ible on learn­ing of the test­at­or’s death for en­sur­ing that the will is sub­mit­ted to the au­thor­ity.

³ Once the will has been sub­mit­ted, the au­thor­ity must, where feas­ible after hear­ing all in­ter­ested parties, either re­lease the es­tate to the stat­utory heirs on a pro­vi­sion­al basis or ap­point es­tate ad­min­is­trat­ors.

¹ The test­at­or’s will must be opened and read out by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity with­in one month of its sub­mis­sion.

² All heirs known to the au­thor­ity are summoned to at­tend the read­ing.

³ If the test­at­or left more than one will, all are to be sub­mit­ted to the au­thor­ity and opened and read out by it.

¹ At the es­tate’s ex­pense, all in­ter­ested parties re­ceive a copy of the pro­vi­sions of the will as re­late to them.

² Leg­atees of un­known where­abouts are in­formed by ap­pro­pri­ate pub­lic no­tice.

¹ One month after no­ti­fic­a­tion of the in­ter­ested parties, at the re­quest of the named heirs the pro­bate au­thor­ity is­sues such per­sons with a cer­ti­fic­ate con­firm­ing them as heirs, sub­ject to ac­tion of de­clar­a­tion of in­valid­ity and for re­cov­ery of in­her­it­ance, provid­ing their en­ti­tle­ment has not ex­pressly been chal­lenged by the stat­utory heirs or the leg­atees of an earli­er will.

² At the same time the es­tate ad­min­is­trat­or will be in­struc­ted, where ap­plic­able, to re­lease the es­tate in­to their pos­ses­sion.

¹ On the death of the de­ceased, the es­tate in its en­tirety vests by op­er­a­tion of law in the heirs.

² Sub­ject to the stat­utory ex­cep­tions, the de­ceased’s claims, rights of own­er­ship, lim­ited rights in rem and rights of pos­ses­sion auto­mat­ic­ally pass to the heirs and the debts of the de­ceased be­come the per­son­al debts of the heirs.

³ Vest­ing in the named heirs takes ef­fect ret­ro­act­ively from the date on which the suc­ces­sion pro­cess com­menced and the stat­utory heirs must re­lin­quish the es­tate to them ac­cord­ing to the rules gov­ern­ing pos­ses­sion.

¹ The leg­atees have a per­son­al claim against the ob­lig­ors of their legacies or, where no-one is spe­cific­ally named as such, against the leg­al or named heirs.

² Un­less oth­er­wise provided by test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion, the claim be­comes due once the ob­lig­or has ac­cep­ted the in­her­it­ance or is no longer able to dis­claim it.

³ If the heirs fail to ful­fil their ob­lig­a­tion, they may be sued for re­lease of the be­queathed prop­erty or, where the leg­acy per­tains to per­form­ance of some ac­tion, for dam­ages.

¹ Where the be­quest to the leg­atee is a usu­fruct or an­nu­ity or oth­er re­cur­ring be­ne­fit, un­less oth­er­wise stip­u­lated, his or her claim is de­term­ined ac­cord­ing to the pro­vi­sions of prop­erty law and the Code of Ob­lig­a­tions.

² If the leg­acy is a life as­sur­ance claim matur­ing on the death of the test­at­or, the leg­atee is en­titled to as­sert that claim dir­ectly.

¹ The claims of the test­at­or’s cred­it­ors pre­cede those of leg­atees.

² The claims of the heir’s cred­it­ors rank equally with those of the test­at­or’s cred­it­ors, provided the heir ac­quired the in­her­it­ance without re­ser­va­tion.

¹ If, after the legacies have been dis­trib­uted, the heirs pay debts of the es­tate that were pre­vi­ously un­known to them, they are en­titled to re­im­burse­ment from the leg­atees of an amount cor­res­pond­ing to the pro­por­tion­ate abate­ment of such legacies that the heirs could have claimed.

² However, the leg­atees may be held li­able only in the amount by which they are en­riched at the time such re­im­burse­ment is de­man­ded.

¹ The leg­al and named heirs are en­titled to dis­claim the in­her­it­ance passing to them.

² There is a pre­sump­tion of a dis­claim­er if at the time of his or her death the de­ceased had been of­fi­cially de­clared in­solv­ent or was mani­festly in­solv­ent.

¹ The time lim­it for a dis­claim­er is three months.

² For stat­utory heirs, this lim­it be­gins on the date on which they learned of the death, un­less they can show that they did not learn of their suc­ces­sion rights un­til later, and for named heirs it be­gins on the date on which they re­ceived of­fi­cial no­ti­fic­a­tion of the test­at­or’s dis­pos­i­tion.

If an in­vent­ory has been drawn up as a pre­cau­tion­ary meas­ure, the dis­claim­er time lim­it for all heirs be­gins on the date on which the au­thor­ity no­ti­fied them that the in­vent­ory was com­plete.

¹ If an heir dies be­fore dis­claim­ing or ac­cept­ing an in­her­it­ance, the right to dis­claim passes to his or her heirs.

² For such heirs, the dis­claim­er time lim­it be­gins on the date on which they learned that the in­her­it­ance passed to the de­ceased heir and ends no soon­er than the date on which the time lim­it for dis­claim­ing the in­her­it­ance from the de­ceased heir ex­pires.

³ Where such heirs dis­claim the in­her­it­ance and it passes to oth­er heirs who pre­vi­ously had no suc­ces­sion rights, the dis­claim­er time lim­it for the lat­ter be­gins on the date on which they learned of the dis­claim­er.

¹ An heir must de­clare his or her dis­claim­er or­ally or in writ­ing to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity.

² It must be un­con­di­tion­al and without re­ser­va­tion.

³ The au­thor­ity keeps an of­fi­cial re­cord of dis­claim­ers.

¹ If the heir fails to de­clare that he or she dis­claims the in­her­it­ance with­in the rel­ev­ant time lim­it, he or she ac­quires it without re­ser­va­tion.

² Where an heir has in­terfered in the af­fairs of the es­tate be­fore ex­piry of the dis­claim­er time lim­it or has ac­ted in a man­ner not con­du­cive to ad­min­is­ter­ing the es­tate or main­tain­ing the de­ceased’s busi­ness activ­it­ies, or where he or she has ap­pro­pri­ated or con­cealed ob­jects be­long­ing to the es­tate, he or she is no longer en­titled to dis­claim the in­her­it­ance.

¹ Where the de­ceased has not made a test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion and one of two or more heirs dis­claims the in­her­it­ance, his or her share of the es­tate passes to the oth­er heirs as if he or she had pre­de­ceased.

² Where the de­ceased has made test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion, any share of the es­tate dis­claimed by a named heir passes to the test­at­or’s nearest stat­utory heirs, un­less oth­er in­ten­tions on the part of the test­at­or are evid­ent from the dis­pos­i­tion.

¹ Where the in­her­it­ance is dis­claimed by all the nearest heirs, the es­tate is li­quid­ated by the bank­ruptcy of­fice.

² If li­quid­a­tion pro­duces a sur­plus after pay­ment of debts, this passes to those en­titled to in­her­it as if they had not dis­claimed it.

If the de­ceased’s is­sue have dis­claimed the in­her­it­ance, the au­thor­ity no­ti­fies the dis­claim­er to the sur­viv­ing spouse, who is en­titled to de­clare ac­cept­ance with­in one month.

¹ When dis­claim­ing the in­her­it­ance, the heirs may re­quest that it be offered to their sub­sequent heirs be­fore the es­tate is li­quid­ated.

² In this event, the au­thor­ity in­forms the sub­sequent heirs that the pre­ced­ing heirs have dis­claimed, and if the former fail to de­clare their ac­cept­ance of the in­her­it­ance with­in one month, they are like­wise deemed to have dis­claimed it.

Where there is good cause, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may grant the leg­al and named heirs an ex­ten­sion of the time lim­it or set a new one.

Where a leg­atee dis­claims a leg­acy, it be­comes void in fa­vour of the ob­lig­or, un­less oth­er in­ten­tions on the part of the test­at­or are evid­ent from his or her dis­pos­i­tion.

¹ Where an over­indebted heir has dis­claimed an in­her­it­ance in or­der to with­hold it from his or her cred­it­ors, the lat­ter or the bank­ruptcy ad­min­is­trat­ors may chal­lenge the dis­claim­er with­in six months un­less their claims are se­cured.

² If their chal­lenge is up­held, the in­her­it­ance is placed in of­fi­cial li­quid­a­tion.

³ Any sur­plus serves first to sat­is­fy the chal­len­ging cred­it­ors and any bal­ance re­main­ing after re­demp­tion of the oth­er debts passes to the heirs in whose fa­vour the dis­claim­er was made.

¹ Where the de­ceased was in­solv­ent and his or her heirs dis­claim the in­her­it­ance, they re­main li­able to his or her cred­it­ors to the ex­tent that in the five years pri­or to his or her death they re­ceived prop­erty or as­sets from him or her which on di­vi­sion of the es­tate would have been sub­ject to hotch­pot.

² The en­dow­ment of newly-weds ac­cord­ing to loc­al cus­tom and the costs of rais­ing and edu­cat­ing chil­dren are not af­fected by such li­ab­il­ity.

³ Heirs act­ing in good faith are li­able only to the ex­tent they are still en­riched.

¹ Any heir en­titled to dis­claim his or her in­her­it­ance has the right to re­quest a pub­lic in­vent­ory.

² The re­quest must be made to the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity with­in one month in the same form as the dis­claim­er.

³ A re­quest made by one heir is also val­id for the oth­ers.

¹ The pub­lic in­vent­ory is drawn up by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of can­ton­al law and con­sists of a list of all the as­sets and debts of the es­tate, to­geth­er with an ap­prais­al of the value of each item in the in­vent­ory.

² Any per­son able to provide in­form­a­tion on the fin­an­cial cir­cum­stances of the de­ceased is per­son­ally ob­liged to give the au­thor­ity all the in­form­a­tion it re­quires.

³ In par­tic­u­lar, the heirs must in­form the au­thor­ity of any debts of the de­ceased that are known to them.

¹ In the course of draw­ing up the in­vent­ory, the au­thor­ity shall make a form­al call to ac­count whereby ap­pro­pri­ate pub­lic no­tices are is­sued call­ing on all cred­it­ors and debt­ors of the de­ceased, in­clud­ing cred­it­ors un­der a surety, to come for­ward and re­gister their claims and debts with­in a spe­cified time lim­it.

² Such no­tices must alert the cred­it­ors to the con­sequences of any fail­ure to re­gister.

³ The time lim­it for re­gis­ter­ing must not be earli­er than one month from the date of the first pub­lic no­tice.

¹ Claims and debts evid­ent from the pub­lic re­gisters or from the pa­pers of the de­ceased are in­cluded ex offi­cio.

² The debt­ors and cred­it­ors must be no­ti­fied of any such in­clu­sion.

¹ On ex­piry of the pub­lished time lim­it, the in­vent­ory is closed and made avail­able for per­us­al by all in­ter­ested parties for at least one month.

² The costs are borne by the es­tate and, where this is in­suf­fi­cient, by the heirs who re­ques­ted the in­vent­ory.

¹ While the in­vent­ory is be­ing drawn up, only the ne­ces­sary ad­min­is­trat­ive ac­tions may be taken.

² Where the au­thor­ity au­thor­ises an heir to con­tin­ue the de­ceased’s busi­ness activ­it­ies, the co-heirs may re­quest that se­cur­ity be fur­nished.

¹ While the in­vent­ory is be­ing drawn up, no ac­tion may be taken to en­force the debts of the de­ceased.

² ...⁵¹³

³ Ex­cept in ur­gent mat­ters, court pro­ceed­ings may neither be com­menced nor con­tin­ued.

¹ Once the in­vent­ory is closed, all the heirs are re­ques­ted to de­clare with­in one month their in­ten­tions with re­gard to ac­quir­ing the in­her­it­ance due to them.

² Where jus­ti­fied in the cir­cum­stances, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may set a fur­ther time lim­it for ob­tain­ing ap­prais­als, set­tling dis­puted claims and the like.

¹ Dur­ing the set time lim­it, an heir may dis­claim his or her in­her­it­ance or re­quest of­fi­cial li­quid­a­tion or ac­cept the in­her­it­ance either sub­ject to pub­lic in­vent­ory or without re­ser­va­tion.

² Where an heir makes no de­clar­a­tion, he or she is deemed to have ac­cep­ted the in­her­it­ance sub­ject to pub­lic in­vent­ory.

¹ Where an heir ac­cepts the in­her­it­ance sub­ject to pub­lic in­vent­ory, the debts of the de­ceased lis­ted in the in­vent­ory and the as­sets pass to him or her.

² The ac­quis­i­tion of the in­her­it­ance with all at­tend­ant rights and ob­lig­a­tions takes ef­fect ret­ro­act­ively from the date on which the suc­ces­sion pro­cess com­menced.

³ The heir is li­able for debts lis­ted in the in­vent­ory both with the in­her­it­ance and with his or her own as­sets.

¹ The heirs are not li­able either per­son­ally or with the in­her­it­ance to­wards cred­it­ors of the es­tate whose claims were not in­cluded in the in­vent­ory be­cause the cred­it­ors failed to re­gister them in time.

² Where such fail­ure to re­gister claims in the in­vent­ory was through no fault of the cred­it­or or his or her claims were not in­cluded in the in­vent­ory des­pite hav­ing been re­gistered, the heir is li­able to the ex­tent he or she is en­riched by the in­her­it­ance.

³ In all cases, cred­it­ors may as­sert claims to the ex­tent these are se­cured by a li­en on the es­tate as­sets.

Any debts un­der a surety giv­en by the de­ceased are lis­ted sep­ar­ately in the in­vent­ory and may be as­ser­ted against an heir, even where he or she ac­cepts the in­her­it­ance, only in the amount that would be al­loc­ated to the surety debt if all debts of the es­tate were to be re­deemed un­der the rules gov­ern­ing bank­ruptcy.

Where an es­tate passes to a state au­thor­ity, a form­al call to ac­count is made ex of­fi­cio and the state au­thor­ity is li­able for the debts of the es­tate only in the amount of the as­sets it has in­her­ited from the es­tate.

¹ Rather than dis­claim the in­her­it­ance or ac­cept it sub­ject to pub­lic in­vent­ory, each heir is en­titled to re­quest of­fi­cial li­quid­a­tion.

² However, such re­quest may not be gran­ted if at least one co-heir ac­cepts the in­her­it­ance.

³ In the event of of­fi­cial li­quid­a­tion, the heirs are not li­able for the debts of the es­tate.

¹ Where the de­ceased’s cred­it­ors have good cause to fear that their claims will not be met and such claims are not sat­is­fied or se­cured at their re­quest, with­in three months of the death of the de­ceased or the read­ing of the will they may de­mand the of­fi­cial li­quid­a­tion of the es­tate.

² Sub­ject to the same con­di­tions, leg­atees may re­quest pro­vi­sion­al meas­ures by way of se­cur­ity.

¹ The of­fi­cial li­quid­a­tion is car­ried out by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity or by one or more es­tate ad­min­is­trat­ors act­ing at the au­thor­ity’s be­hest.

² It be­gins with the tak­ing of an in­vent­ory and the at­tend­ant form­al call to ac­count.

³ The es­tate ad­min­is­trat­or is un­der the au­thor­ity’s su­per­vi­sion and the heirs may ap­peal to the au­thor­ity against any meas­ures taken or planned by the ad­min­is­trat­or.

¹ For the pur­pose of li­quid­a­tion, any busi­ness activ­it­ies of the de­ceased still in op­er­a­tion are brought to a close, his or her ob­lig­a­tions are per­formed, his or her claims are called in, his or her legacies are dis­trib­uted where pos­sible, his or her rights and du­ties are de­term­ined at law, where ne­ces­sary, and his or her as­sets are con­ver­ted in­to cash.

² Land formerly be­long­ing to the de­ceased is sold at pub­lic auc­tion; it may be dis­posed of by private sale only with the con­sent of all the heirs.

³ The heirs are en­titled even dur­ing the li­quid­a­tion pro­cess to re­quest that some or all of the ob­jects and mon­ies that are not re­quired for the li­quid­a­tion be re­leased in­to their pos­ses­sion.

If the es­tate is over­indebted, its li­quid­a­tion is car­ried out by the bank­ruptcy of­fice in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing bank­ruptcy.

¹ A per­son who be­lieves that, as a leg­al or named heir, he or she has a bet­ter claim than the cur­rent pos­sessor to an es­tate or a part there­of may as­sert his or her claim by bring­ing an ac­tion for re­cov­ery of in­her­it­ance.

² ...⁵¹⁴

¹ If the claim is up­held, the pos­sessor must re­lin­quish the es­tate or the part there­of to the claimant in ac­cord­ance with the rules gov­ern­ing pos­ses­sion.

² The de­fend­ant can­not in­voke ad­verse pos­ses­sion in re­spect of prop­erty be­long­ing to the es­tate.

¹ The right to bring an ac­tion for re­cov­ery of in­her­it­ance against a de­fend­ant act­ing in good faith pre­scribes one year after the date on which the claimant learned that the prop­erty was pos­sessed by the de­fend­ant and that he or she has a bet­ter claim to it, but in all cases ten years after the death of the de­ceased or the date on which the will was read.

² The pre­script­ive peri­od for the right to bring an ac­tion against a de­fend­ant act­ing in bad faith is al­ways 30 years.

The right of a leg­atee to bring an ac­tion pre­scribes ten years after no­ti­fic­a­tion of the test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tion or from the sub­sequent date on which the leg­acy be­came due.