Swiss Civil Code

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.