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If you die, your account will belong to your heirs. But there are some measures you can take to ensure a quick and efficient distribution.

The problem is that your Swiss banker will not know it unless you are a celebrity and your death is featured on CNN. All he will see is that you no longer call. After some time, he will wonder what happened to you and try to reach you. If he cannot join you, he will be faced with a problem. Either look actively for your, with a risk of compromising the secrecy of your account, or wait for your contact, with the risk that you might be dead and your heirs would not know about this account. This dilemna is not satisfactory.

The bank has a legal obligation to search for your wherabouts after a maximum of 10 years, after which the account is considered dormant . If they cannot find what happened to you, or if they learned that you died but cannot find your heirs, they will report the account to the Swiss banking ombudsman.

It is important to understand that for a quick and easy transfer of your Swiss bank account to your heirs, the latter must know about the account and where it is held by the time of your death. There is no inheritance tax in Switzerland for non residents. Your heirs are responsible for declaring the holdings to their country's tax authorities. 

You can take some measures to make sure your heirs will get their inheritance quickly: 

• If you change adress or phone, let your banker know where he can reach you.
• Give your banker the details of another person (e.g. your sister) that your banker can contact to ask about you in case he does not hear from you for a specified period of time. Some banks have special forms to that order, other ask for a power of attorney to be signed in favor of the other person. An alternative to the power of attorney is to open a joint account, but you need complete confidence in the account partner since he will have full access to your account before and after your death.
• Let one of your heirs (e.g. your oldest son) know about the account and where it is held
• You can also prepare an enveloppe to be opened only in case of your death that would ask one heir to get in touch with your banker so that the money can be distributed to your heirs.

Other pages of interest:

Dormant accounts in Swiss banks Swiss bank secrecy with respect to divorce Swiss bank secrecy with respect to bankruptcy