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After the death of the mother, the surviving children wanted to close the account, but the bank was stubborn.
Inheritance can put a family bond to the test. However, this is not a story about a bad inheritance dispute, on the contrary: when the mother died, daughter and son agreed what should happen to the small estate. They closed the bank account at Postfinance, vacated their mother’s apartment and fired her. The problems only started when they wanted to close the rental deposit account with Credit Suisse using a form.
That’s just not common sense to me. All other things could be arranged without such a certificate of inheritance.
The bank had the administrator Privera AG inform them that the family needed a certificate of inheritance in order to close the account. This is an official certificate of all beneficiaries. In this case, the creation of the certificate of inheritance would cost several hundred francs. The daughter thinks it’s a disproportionate amount for an account with just 2,000 francs in it: “For me, that’s just not common sense. All other things could be arranged without such a certificate of inheritance.”
She submits all the documents again via Privera AG: the excerpt from the death register, the family booklet, copies of the heirs’ ID cards and a letter from the municipal notary’s office stating that the estate has been completed and the division is the responsibility of the heirs.
Bank and administrator block
She didn’t hear anything for several months and tried several times by phone to find out from Credit Suisse how an account closure is generally handled – without a certificate of inheritance: “But because of data protection reasons, they didn’t want to give me any information. I have to go through the administration.”
But even at Privera AG nobody wants to take care of the case. Until the SRF consumer magazine “Espresso” turns on. Crédit Suisse contacts the administration and asks for the documents again. Suddenly the heiress does not have to submit anything later, the existing documents are sufficient for the bank.
In addition, Privera AG apologizes for not responding to inquiries from the surviving daughter for so long. And she writes: “This does not correspond to our approach and we are checking internally why that was and will improve this situation in the future.”
There are other, much cheaper solutions
The former judge and law professor Peter Breitschmid understands that a bank wants to protect itself with a certificate of inheritance. Because it could always be that afterwards heirs would turn up and demand money.
Each certificate of inheritance has only a provisional effect. It can be valid forever – if nothing intervenes.
But even a certificate of inheritance does not give a bank 100 percent security: “Each certificate of inheritance only has a provisional effect. It can apply forever – if nothing intervenes.” Breitschmid calls a so-called debt acknowledgment letter from the heirs to the bank as a simple and, above all, cheaper solution compared to a certificate of inheritance.