Writing a Will in Switzerland: Step-by-Step (2026)
How to write a will in Switzerland: mandatory shares, advance care directive, formal requirements – everything you need to know, explained clearly.
Imagine you become incapacitated tomorrow. A stroke, an accident, something that arrives without warning. Who would then make decisions about your bank accounts, your medical treatment, your flat? And when you die: who gets your savings, your property, your car – and what happens to everything else?
Without written instructions from you, Swiss law handles both automatically. That sounds reassuring at first – until you see what the legal default actually means. Then it quickly becomes clear that most people would have wanted something different.
A will and an advance care directive (Vorsorgeauftrag) are the two documents that prevent that. Both can be created in Switzerland without a lawyer and at little to no cost – provided you know how to do it and what needs to go in them. That's exactly what we'll cover here.
Without a will: how the law divides your estate
Anyone who dies without a will is subject to the statutory order of succession. The Swiss Civil Code (ZGB) sets out clearly who inherits, and in what order. The basic rule: relatives inherit in "branches", from closest to most distant.
The first branch is your descendants: children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren. They take priority over everyone else. If you have children, your parents and siblings inherit nothing – unless you arrange it differently.
The second branch is your parents and their descendants (your siblings, nieces, nephews). They inherit if you have no children.
The third branch is grandparents and their descendants (uncles, aunts, cousins). They inherit only if there are neither children nor parents.
Your spouse or registered partner inherits alongside these branches: next to children, they receive half the estate; next to parents, three-quarters. If you have no legal heirs and no will, everything goes to the canton – or the municipality.
What statutory succession cannot do: it takes no account of unmarried partners, close friends, a favourite charity, or any particular family circumstances. What you probably want and what the law does are often quite different.
Mandatory shares: how much you can't simply give away
You have the right to arrange your estate with a will – but not with complete freedom. Swiss inheritance law includes so-called mandatory shares (Pflichtteile): minimum entitlements that certain heirs always receive, regardless of what your will says.
Since 1 January 2023, Switzerland has had revised inheritance law – the biggest reform in over 100 years. The most important change: mandatory shares have been reduced, giving you more flexibility.
Here's how it looks today:
| Person | Statutory entitlement | Mandatory share (minimum) | Your discretion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spouse / registered partner | 50% (alongside children) | 25% of total estate | 25% |
| Children (combined) | 50% (alongside spouse) | 25% of total estate | 25% |
| Parents | – | No mandatory share | Full discretion |
A concrete example: you leave CHF 400'000, are married, and have two children. Under the statutory default, your spouse would receive CHF 200'000 and the children CHF 200'000 combined. Under the revised inheritance law, you can now favour your spouse – allocating up to 75% to them (CHF 300'000), as long as the children jointly receive at least 25% (CHF 100'000).
What you can do with the discretionary portion: provide for friends, support a charity, include stepchildren, or protect an unmarried partner. None of that is possible without a will.
What you can't do: eliminate mandatory shares entirely. Exception: Swiss law does provide specific grounds for disinheritance – for example if someone has committed a serious offence against you or a close family member. This is an absolute exception and must be stated with reasoning in the will.
The handwritten will: how it's done
In Switzerland there are two main forms of will. The simplest is the handwritten will (eigenhändiges Testament) – and you can write one at home today, with no lawyer, no notary, and no cost.
For it to be valid, the will must meet three requirements:
Written entirely by hand. Don't type it on a computer and then sign it – that's not valid. Every line, from first to last, must be handwritten. No combination of typed text and signature.
Fully dated. Day, month, and year must all be included. Location isn't mandatory but is a good idea: "Zurich, 31 May 2026".
Signed by hand. At the end, with your full name. No initials, no stamp.
That's it. Anything that meets these three conditions is a valid will in Switzerland.
What you should definitely include
A will doesn't need to use legal language. What matters is that your wishes are clear and unambiguous. A complete will typically includes:
Introduction with identification: your full name, date of birth, place of residence – so it's clear who wrote it. "I, [name], born on [date] in [place], residing at [address], hereby declare this to be my last will and testament."
Naming the heirs: who gets what? Be as specific as possible. If multiple people are to inherit, set out the shares. Example: "My sister [name] shall receive 30% of my estate."
Specific bequests (legacies): are there particular items or amounts that a specific person should receive, separate from the main inheritance? You can set those out individually. Example: "My bicycle goes to my friend [name]."
Executor (Willensvollstrecker): you can appoint someone to oversee the execution of your will. This is optional, but highly recommended for more complex estates.
Date and signature: as described above – without these, everything is void.
What to avoid: contradictions, vague phrasing ("I would like..." is legally weak – better to use "I direct that..."), and recipient descriptions without full names.
When does a notarised will make sense?
A public will (öffentliches Testament) is drawn up by a notary in the presence of two witnesses. It's more formally documented, harder to contest, and makes sense when your situation is complex: property, a business, international estate issues, or if you're unable to write. Costs vary by canton and complexity, but expect CHF 500–2'000 for a straightforward public will. For most private individuals, the handwritten will is perfectly adequate.
Advance care directive: who decides when you no longer can?
A will deals with what happens after your death. But what if you don't die – what if you become incapacitated? An accident, dementia, serious illness – situations where someone else has to make decisions for you.
Without an advance care directive (Vorsorgeauftrag), the KESB (Child and Adult Protection Authority, Kindes- und Erwachsenenschutzbehörde) automatically takes over. The KESB appoints a guardian – this could be a stranger, and you have no say in who it is.
With an advance care directive, you decide who steps in: your partner, a sibling, a close friend. And you can specify what areas this person is responsible for.
The advance care directive covers three areas:
Personal care: residence, medical treatment, day-to-day decisions – who looks after you as a person?
Financial care: who manages your accounts, pays your bills, oversees your investments?
Legal representation: who can sign contracts, deal with authorities, represent you in dealings with third parties?
You can appoint the same person for all three areas or different people for different ones. It's also worth naming a substitute in case the first person is unable or unwilling to take on the role.
How to write a valid advance care directive
The formal requirements are identical to the handwritten will: written entirely by hand, dated, signed. Alternatively, you can have it notarised – more involved, but also possible, and then no longer required to be handwritten.
An important note: the advance care directive doesn't take effect the moment you write it. It must first be validated by the KESB when it's needed. The KESB then assesses whether you are in fact incapacitated, and only then does your designated person receive official confirmation.
Your directive should therefore be worded clearly enough to leave no room for misunderstanding. Don't just write "my partner should handle everything" – specify precisely what they are and aren't authorised to do, and in which areas.
The patient directive: your wishes in medical care
Alongside the will and advance care directive, there's a third document worth knowing about: the patient directive (Patientenverfügung). It deals specifically with medical decisions – what should happen when you can no longer consent yourself?
Concretely: do you want life-sustaining measures if there's no prospect of recovery? How do you feel about resuscitation, ventilation, pain management? The patient directive gives doctors and your family clear instructions.
There are no formal requirements for a patient directive like those for a will – it doesn't have to be handwritten. What matters is that it's dated, signed, and that you were mentally capable when you wrote it. Free templates are available from the Swiss Cancer League (Krebsliga), Pro Senectute, or via ch.ch.
Where to keep your will and advance care directive
A will is no use if nobody can find it, or if it's found too late. Storage matters as much as the content.
At home: many people keep their will at home – in a safe, or in a sealed envelope with "Will of [name]" written on the outside. Key requirement: at least one trusted person must know where it is.
At the municipal registry or cantonal register: in most cantons you can deposit your will with the relevant authority for a small fee. This ensures it's found after your death, because municipalities automatically check whether a will has been registered when a death occurs.
With the notary: anyone with a public will will have it stored there automatically.
For the advance care directive: write on the first page where the original is kept, and make sure at least one person knows how to access it in an emergency. Many people keep the will and advance care directive together.
A practical tip: keep both documents together with a brief summary sheet listing where other important information can be found – bank accounts, insurance policies, passwords for digital accounts. This is sometimes called a "Vorsorgeordner" (personal affairs folder) and makes things enormously easier for the people you leave behind.
The most common mistakes when writing a will
In practice, wills often fail for the same reasons. Here are the most frequent:
Not handwritten: a will typed on a computer is invalid in Switzerland. No exceptions, no grey area.
No date or incomplete date: "Spring 2026" is not enough. Day, month, year – in full.
Multiple wills without a clear order: if you've written several wills over the years without destroying the old one or marking the new one as the latest, this can lead to ambiguity. Destroy older versions, or explicitly state in the new will: "I revoke all prior wills."
Contradictory wording: "Everything goes to my wife, except the holiday home, which belongs to my children" – followed by no provision for what happens to the holiday home while the wife is still alive. Such gaps cause disputes.
Ignoring mandatory shares: trying to leave children nothing won't work legally – the mandatory share always applies. A lawyer can help in contested cases.
Practical tip: how to actually get started
You don't need a law degree to write a will and an advance care directive. Here's a simple approach that works well:
First: get a blank sheet of A4 paper and a pen. Write the handwritten will in one sitting – date, location, your full name, your intended shares, your signature. Clear and simple. If you're uncertain afterwards, have a lawyer review it – a one-off consultation often costs CHF 150–300 and gives you peace of mind.
Second: create the advance care directive at the same time. Free templates are available on ch.ch and from the Swiss Cancer League as a starting point – use them to understand the structure, then write your own version by hand.
Third: put both documents in an envelope, label the outside, and tell at least one person where it is. Done.
Review everything when your life situation changes significantly: marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, buying property, the death of an appointed heir.
Your next step
A will and an advance care directive are among the things almost everyone puts off – and never regrets having done. Together, you may never need them. But when you do need them, it's usually urgent and there's no time to create them from scratch.
Set aside 30 minutes today: sketch out your wishes in bullet points. Who should get what? Who should make decisions for you if you can't? From those notes, the actual document follows as a second step.
For further guidance on the required documents, visit ch.ch, Pro Senectute, or a local Swiss notary.