# Making a will

From the age of 18, and provided you are capable of judgement, you can use a will to decide for yourself what happens to your property after your death. The simplest form is the holographic will: written, dated and signed by hand from beginning to end. There is also the will made by public deed, before a notary, and, only in an acute emergency, the oral will. You can name heirs, leave legacies, appoint an executor and attach conditions. The statutory entitlements of descendants and of a spouse or registered partner set limits on this. Without a will, an unmarried partner inherits nothing.

This guide covers: Making a will as a person capable of judgement who has reached the age of majority: the permitted forms (holographic, public deed, oral in an emergency), the main possible content (naming heirs, legacies, appointing an executor, conditions), the limit set by statutory entitlements, safekeeping, revoking and changing a will, and the grounds and time limits for an action to declare a will invalid. Also a short overview of intestate succession where there is no will.

Not covered: The contract of succession in detail, the calculation and abatement of statutory entitlements, dividing the estate after death, disclaiming an inheritance, cohabitation in general, and cross-border inheritance cases. These topics are or will be covered in their own guides.

## Your answers

- What is your current living situation? (Married or in a registered partnership / I have a partner, but we are not married / Single, divorced or widowed, with no steady partner / I don't know)
- Do you have children, including from an earlier relationship? (Yes / No / I don't know)
- What do you mainly want to achieve with your will? (Benefit my partner / Favour one child or another person more than the law provides / Leave something to a charitable organisation / Simply make sure everything is clearly settled / I don't know yet)

## Watch out

If there is doubt about capacity of judgement, for example because of early-stage dementia or a serious illness, the courts require less for a simple will than for a complicated one. Someone who makes only a few, clear provisions is more readily considered capable of judgement for this than someone with an intricate arrangement. If doubt remains even so, have your GP confirm your capacity of judgement in writing at the time of signing. For a will made as a public deed, it also helps if a doctor or a qualified nurse is present at the notarisation and records their impression of your capacity of judgement.

Sources: [ZGB · Art. 467](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_467), [BGer 5C.193/2004 vom 17. Januar 2005, E. 2.3.1](https://mcp.opencaselaw.ch/entscheid/bger_5C.193_2004#e-2-3-1), [BGer 5A_12/2009 vom 25. März 2009, E. 7.1](https://mcp.opencaselaw.ch/entscheid/bger_5A_12_2009#e-7-1)

If the date is missing or wrong, the holographic will is not automatically invalid because of this. It is only declared invalid if the necessary date cannot be established in any other way and is needed to decide an important question, for example whether you were capable of judgement at the time, or which of several wills is the later one. Even so, always write the full date correctly, to avoid disputes from the outset.

Sources: [ZGB · Art. 520a](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_520a)

You are not completely free: if you leave descendants, a spouse or a registered partner, the law gives them a statutory entitlement, that is, half of their statutory succession rights. You may not freely dispose of this part. Since the 2023 reform of the law of succession, parents no longer have a statutory entitlement. If you have none of the people protected by a statutory entitlement, you can freely dispose of your entire estate. How the statutory entitlement is calculated and enforced is explained in the separate guide on statutory entitlements.

Sources: [ZGB · Art. 470](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_470), [ZGB · Art. 471](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_471)

Without a will, an unmarried partner inherits nothing: the law provides for a right of inheritance only for relatives and for spouses and registered partners, however long and however close the relationship was. If you want to benefit your partner, you must have a will or a contract of succession, and only within the statutory entitlements of your other statutory heirs.

*Applies if: What is your current living situation? → I have a partner, but we are not married / I don't know*

Sources: [ZGB · Art. 457](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_457), [ZGB · Art. 462](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_462)

A will can be declared invalid by an action in court: if you made it without capacity of judgement, if your intention was defective, for example through deception or threats, if the content or a condition is immoral or unlawful, or if there is a defect of form. If the only defect of form is that a person named in the will, or their family, took part in making it, only that individual gift becomes invalid, not the whole will. Anyone who has an interest as an heir or a beneficiary can bring the action. The action becomes time-barred one year after the person bringing it learned of the will and of the ground of invalidity, and in any case ten years after the will was opened; against a person acting in bad faith, in cases of incapacity of judgement, unlawfulness or immorality, only after 30 years. These time limits are strict: a letter, debt enforcement proceedings or negotiations do not stop them running. You can only preserve them by filing a request for conciliation or bringing an action in time. If something is claimed on the basis of an invalid will, the invalidity can be raised as a defence at any time.

Sources: [ZGB · Art. 519](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_519), [ZGB · Art. 520](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_520), [ZGB · Art. 521](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_521), [BGE 98 II 176, E. 10](https://mcp.opencaselaw.ch/entscheid/bge_BGE_98_II_176#e-10), [ZPO · Art. 62](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2010/262/de#art_62), [ZPO · Art. 64](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2010/262/de#art_64)

If you want to favour one child or another person more than the law provides, you may only do so within the statutory entitlements of your other protected heirs. If you infringe their statutory entitlement, they can demand abatement after your death. How large the statutory entitlements are and how abatement works is explained in the separate guide on statutory entitlements.

*Applies if: What do you mainly want to achieve with your will? → Favour one child or another person more than the law provides*

Sources: [ZGB · Art. 470](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_470), [ZGB · Art. 471](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_471)

## What to do

**1.** If you want to leave something to a charitable organisation, name it clearly with its full name and registered seat, and specify whether this is to be a fixed amount, a specific item, or a share of the estate. Ask the organisation beforehand whether and how it can accept your gift. An executor can make sure your wishes are actually carried out.

*Applies if: What do you mainly want to achieve with your will? → Leave something to a charitable organisation*

## The law

You may make a will if you are at least 18 years old and capable of judgement. Capable of judgement means: you can understand what is at stake and act accordingly. This applies to most adults, even with an illness or at an advanced age, as long as they can still understand and decide. A will made before your 18th birthday, or without capacity of judgement, can be challenged by an action in court.

Sources: [ZGB · Art. 467](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_467)

The holographic will is the simplest form: you write it out completely, from beginning to end, by hand, state the year, month and day it was made, and sign it. A printout, a typed text, or a text written by someone else does not satisfy this form, even if you sign underneath it. Even so, such a document is not automatically without effect: a will with a defect of form is in principle valid until a court declares it invalid on an action being brought. Only for particularly serious defects of form can a court treat it as void, that is, without effect from the outset. Anyone who does not want such a document to be valid should therefore not rely on it being void anyway, but should act within the time limits for an action to declare it invalid.

Sources: [ZGB · Art. 505](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_505), [ZGB · Art. 520](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_520), [ZGB · Art. 521](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_521), [BGE 113 II 270, E. 3a](https://mcp.opencaselaw.ch/entscheid/bge_BGE_113_II_270#e-3a), [BGer 5A_702/2016 vom 28. März 2017, E. 3](https://mcp.opencaselaw.ch/entscheid/bger_5A_702_2016#e-3)

For a will made as a public deed, you tell a notary or another official authorised to do this your wishes. This person draws up the deed, or has it drawn up, and gives it to you to read. You sign the deed, and the official also dates and signs it. You then declare, immediately afterwards and in the presence of two witnesses and the official, that you have read the deed and that it contains your last will. The witnesses confirm this declaration with their signature, and that in their impression you were capable of judgement; they do not need to know the content of the deed.

Sources: [ZGB · Art. 499](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_499), [ZGB · Art. 500](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_500), [ZGB · Art. 501](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_501)

An oral will is only valid in an acute emergency, for example imminent danger of death, a communication blockage, an epidemic or acts of war, where no other form is possible for you. You declare your last will to two witnesses and instruct them to arrange for it to be recorded formally. One of the two must immediately set the declaration down in writing and file the document with a court without delay, or both must give it to the court to be recorded. As soon as another form becomes possible for you again, the oral will loses its validity after 14 days.

Sources: [ZGB · Art. 506](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_506), [ZGB · Art. 507](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_507), [ZGB · Art. 508](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_508)

A contract of succession is different from a will: in it, you agree something about your estate jointly with another person, for example a renunciation of inheritance. A contract of succession is only ever valid in the form of a will made as a public deed, so never in holographic or oral form. You and the other party declare your intentions to the official at the same time, and sign the deed in front of the official and the two witnesses.

Sources: [ZGB · Art. 512](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_512)

Within the limits of statutory entitlements, you are free to decide in your will. You can name one or more people as heirs for the whole estate or for a fraction of it. You can also, without naming anyone as an heir, leave a legacy: a specific item, a sum of money, or a right of usufruct. You may attach conditions or directions to your provisions, and anyone with an interest in them can demand that they be fulfilled; an immoral or unlawful condition or direction makes the provision it is attached to invalid; if it is merely a nuisance or pointless for others, it is treated as not existing. Anything you do not expressly settle passes to your statutory heirs.

Sources: [ZGB · Art. 481](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_481), [ZGB · Art. 483](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_483), [ZGB · Art. 484](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_484), [ZGB · Art. 482](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_482)

You can appoint one or more people with capacity to act as executor in your will. The authority notifies this person automatically, and they must say within 14 days whether they accept; if they say nothing, this counts as acceptance. The executor is entitled to appropriate remuneration. The executor administers the estate, pays the debts, distributes the legacies, and carries out the division of the estate according to your instructions or according to the law.

Sources: [ZGB · Art. 517](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_517), [ZGB · Art. 518](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_518)

Without a will, intestate succession applies: your descendants inherit first, the children in equal shares; if a child has predeceased you, their own descendants take their place. If you have no descendants, your parents inherit and, if a parent has predeceased you, that parent's descendants. If none of these exist either, your grandparents and their descendants inherit. Intestate succession does not go further than this. A surviving spouse or registered partner receives, alongside this, half the estate together with descendants, three-quarters together with the parental line, and all of it if none of these heirs exist.

Sources: [ZGB · Art. 457](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_457), [ZGB · Art. 458](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_458), [ZGB · Art. 459](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_459), [ZGB · Art. 460](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_460), [ZGB · Art. 462](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_462)

If you have no children or grandchildren, descendants do not limit your freedom. If you are also neither married nor in a registered partnership, you can freely dispose of your entire estate. If you make no will, your parents inherit; a deceased parent's descendants take that parent's place, for example your siblings, nieces and nephews. Only once there is no one left in the parental line do the grandparents and their descendants take their turn. An unmarried partner or friends never inherit without a will.

*Applies if: Do you have children, including from an earlier relationship? → No*

Sources: [ZGB · Art. 470](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_470), [ZGB · Art. 458](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_458), [ZGB · Art. 459](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_459)

You may keep a holographic will at home, but it is safer to deposit it with a cantonal office, open or sealed; every canton must offer such an office. A will made as a public deed is kept by the official, in the original or as a copy, or is likewise handed to an office. This makes it more likely that your will will actually be found after your death.

Sources: [ZGB · Art. 505](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_505), [ZGB · Art. 504](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_504)

Anyone who finds a will after a death must hand it in to the competent authority without delay, even if it is thought to be invalid. This applies to the official with whom it was deposited or recorded, and to anyone who has kept it or found it among the deceased's belongings, as soon as they learn of the death; anyone who fails to do so is personally liable for this.

Sources: [ZGB · Art. 556](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_556)

You can revoke your will, wholly or in part, at any time, in any of the permitted forms, regardless of the form in which you originally made it. There is also a revocation if you destroy the document; if it is destroyed by accident or through the fault of another person, it likewise loses its validity, unless its content can be proved precisely and completely. If you make a new will without expressly revoking the earlier one, the new will takes its place to the extent that it contradicts it; a new provision about a specific item revokes an earlier, incompatible provision about the same item.

Sources: [ZGB · Art. 509](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_509), [ZGB · Art. 510](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_510), [ZGB · Art. 511](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_511)

## Costs

A holographic will costs you nothing except the time it takes to write it. For a will made as a public deed, the notary or other competent official charges a fee under the cantonal tariff; this tariff differs from canton to canton. A fee may also be charged for depositing it with a cantonal office. Ask about the costs beforehand.

Sources: [ZGB · Art. 499](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_499), [ZGB · Art. 504](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_504)

## Advice

Get personal advice from a notary or a lawyer if your estate is large or complicated, if it includes a business or real estate, if you have assets abroad or hold a foreign nationality (foreign succession rules can then apply), if you live in a blended family, or if you want to disinherit someone. In these cases, advice is worthwhile before you write down something wrong.

## Help

Free or low-cost help: many cantons offer free or low-cost legal information. Notaries' offices often give a free initial consultation or provide information on wills at open days. Pro Senectute advises older people on wills and estates. If there is doubt about capacity of judgement or a need for protection, the adult protection authority (KESB) can provide information.

## Sources

- [ZGB · Art. 467](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_467)
- [ZGB · Art. 505](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_505)
- [ZGB · Art. 520a](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_520a)
- [ZGB · Art. 499](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_499)
- [ZGB · Art. 500](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_500)
- [ZGB · Art. 501](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_501)
- [ZGB · Art. 506](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_506)
- [ZGB · Art. 507](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_507)
- [ZGB · Art. 508](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_508)
- [ZGB · Art. 512](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_512)
- [ZGB · Art. 481](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_481)
- [ZGB · Art. 483](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_483)
- [ZGB · Art. 484](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_484)
- [ZGB · Art. 482](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_482)
- [ZGB · Art. 517](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_517)
- [ZGB · Art. 518](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_518)
- [ZGB · Art. 470](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_470)
- [ZGB · Art. 471](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_471)
- [ZGB · Art. 457](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_457)
- [ZGB · Art. 458](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_458)
- [ZGB · Art. 459](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_459)
- [ZGB · Art. 460](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_460)
- [ZGB · Art. 462](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_462)
- [ZGB · Art. 504](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_504)
- [ZGB · Art. 556](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_556)
- [ZGB · Art. 509](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_509)
- [ZGB · Art. 510](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_510)
- [ZGB · Art. 511](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_511)
- [ZGB · Art. 519](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_519)
- [ZGB · Art. 520](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_520)
- [ZGB · Art. 521](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_521)
- [BGer 5C.193/2004 vom 17. Januar 2005, E. 2.3.1](https://mcp.opencaselaw.ch/entscheid/bger_5C.193_2004#e-2-3-1)
- [BGer 5A_12/2009 vom 25. März 2009, E. 7.1](https://mcp.opencaselaw.ch/entscheid/bger_5A_12_2009#e-7-1)
- [BGE 98 II 176, E. 10](https://mcp.opencaselaw.ch/entscheid/bge_BGE_98_II_176#e-10)
- [ZPO · Art. 62](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2010/262/de#art_62)
- [ZPO · Art. 64](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2010/262/de#art_64)
- [BGE 113 II 270, E. 3a](https://mcp.opencaselaw.ch/entscheid/bge_BGE_113_II_270#e-3a)
- [BGer 5A_702/2016 vom 28. März 2017, E. 3](https://mcp.opencaselaw.ch/entscheid/bger_5A_702_2016#e-3)

## Official information

- [ch.ch: Wills and contracts of succession](https://www.ch.ch/de/familie-und-partnerschaft/erbschaft/testament-und-erbvertrag/)
- [ch.ch: Who inherits how much](https://www.ch.ch/de/familie-und-partnerschaft/erbschaft/wer-wie-viel-erbt/)
- [Pro Senectute: Wills and inheritance](https://www.prosenectute.ch/de/ratgeber/persoenliche-vorsorge/testament-erbschaft.html)

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Statute texts checked on 28 September 2026. General legal information. It does not replace individual advice.

https://swisslaw.io/en/inheritance/will/ · swisslaw.io, inheritance.will, 2026-09-28 · CC BY 4.0