Gessner Erbrecht, Zürich

The Problem#

• Swiss law (Pflichtteil) reserves a mandatory portion of the estate for protected heirs — surviving spouse and descendants
• Gifts made during the deceased’s lifetime (Schenkungen) can be clawed back (Herabsetzungsklage) if they infringe on the Pflichtteil — even gifts made decades earlier
• The 2023 Erbrechtsrevision reduced the Pflichtteil (parents are no longer protected heirs, children’s share reduced from 3/4 to 1/2 of intestate share) — but the reform date matters: gifts made before and after 1 January 2023 may have different clawback exposure
• Families who structured their wealth through lifetime gifts are often surprised to learn the surviving spouse can challenge those transfers
• Cantonal tax variation adds another layer — Zürich, Bern, and Schwyz all treat lifetime gifts differently for tax purposes

How They’d Use INHERIT#

• Every lifetime gift is a lifetime-transfer.json entry with transferDate, donorPersonId, doneePersonIds, value, and transferType — "gift", "potentially_exempt_transfer", "gift_with_reservation", "sale_at_undervalue", or "advancement"
• exemptionsClaimed[] records which exemptions were claimed: "annual_exemption", "spouse_exemption", "charity_exemption", etc.
• lookbackRelevant and lookbackYearsRemaining track whether the gift falls within the clawback window
• The switzerland extension models pflichtteil with reformApplies (whether the 2023 Erbrechtsrevision applies), protectedHeirs[] with heirClass and pflichtteilFraction, and the calculated available quota
• cantonalVariation captures cantonal tax treatment with linealHeirExemption tracking
• event.json with eventType: "deed_of_variation_executed" records any post-mortem restructuring agreed by the heirs
• The interaction between lifetime gifts and the Pflichtteil is calculated automatically — the system identifies which gifts are vulnerable to clawback

The Integration#

• Export-focused: Gessner Erbrecht creates INHERIT documents during estate planning, modelling the client’s lifetime gifts and their Pflichtteil exposure
• On death, the same document provides the executor with a structured analysis: total lifetime gifts, Pflichtteil calculation, clawback exposure, and cantonal tax liability
• The 2023 reform boundary is handled automatically based on gift dates

The Business Case#

• Average clawback value identified per disputed estate: CHF 680,000 — gifts the surviving spouse can challenge
• Early identification of clawback exposure during lifetime planning saves an average of CHF 120,000 in legal fees per family by enabling proactive restructuring
• The 2023 reform created a spike in enquiries — families who structured gifts before the reform need to understand the new Pflichtteil fractions
• Across 40 estate cases per year, Gessner identifies approximately CHF 4.8 million in total clawback exposure

Before / After#

Without INHERIT:

1. A Zürich businessman dies having gifted CHF 2 million to his children from his first marriage over 15 years
2. The second wife’s attorney calculates the Pflichtteil and discovers the gifts infringe her mandatory share
3. Identifying and valuing all historical gifts takes 4 months of forensic accounting
4. The clawback claim (Herabsetzungsklage) costs CHF 180,000 in legal fees and takes 18 months to resolve

With INHERIT:

1. Every lifetime gift was recorded as a lifetime-transfer.json entry at the time it was made
2. On death, the Pflichtteil is calculated automatically — the second wife’s share, the children’s shares, and the clawback exposure are all visible immediately
3. The 2023 reform boundary is applied correctly to gifts before and after 1 January 2023
4. The family agrees a deed of variation within 3 months, avoiding litigation