Swiss Civil Code

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.