Finding and retreiving dormant funds in Switzerland

After the damages of WW II, many safes and bank accounts became "owner-less" (the owners where killed in battle or murdered during the Holocaust), and these assets were kept in Swiss banks for many years.

In order to handle the problem, the Association of Swiss Bankers issued in January 2015 an order to concentrate dormant assets in a central database where it would be possible to conduct a search by successors. In addition, dormant assets for a time period exceeding 50 years shall be published in the internet as of December 2015, so the beneficiary (the successor) entitled to them can find these assets and claim them. In case the beneficiary will not do so, after a certain period of time the assets shall be declared upon as property of the state.

Option 1: Dormant Assets and the Central Database
Assets are considered dormant when the bank hasn't been able to contact the client, his successors or their representatives. After the asset is considered dormant, the asset's information as well as the client's information is submitted to a central database, in which beneficiaries can conduct a search for lost assets of the family.

Fifty Eight Swiss banks are committed to reports the details of every dormant bank account containing above 500 CHF, and details of all the safes the content of which is unknown or is evaluated to be worth above 500 CHF.

This database is not publicly available, and the search in the database can be conducted only by submitting a formal request, backed with relevant documents, in which point the Swiss Banks Public Commissioner  will perform the search.

Option 2: Public Advertisement of a List of Assets Which has been Dormant for More than 50 Years.
Nowadays Swiss banks must publish over the internet assets worth more than 500 CHF which have been dormant for more than 50 years. I.E, after absence of contact with the client for 10 years, the assets become "dormant", and afterwards additional 50 years should pass so these assets be published over the internet - 60 years in total after the connection with the client has lost.

First name, last name, birth date and nationality will be published, as well as last known residency.

On December 16th 2015 a list of assets has been published over the internet, with a number of bank accounts exceeding 2,600, as well as about 80 safes. These assets are estimated in about 44 milion CHF.

If no beneficiary has files a justified request withing a year of the day of publish, these assets shall be emptied/sold and the monies shall become the property of the Swiss federal government.

If you believe that you are entitled to these assets, you are welcome to contact us and we will formulate a request on your behalf as to re-obtain this assets anew, and a request shall be transmitted to the relevant Swiss bank. The process and evaluation of your request may take several weeks or even months, and therefore it is advised that you will contact us as soon as possible.