According to recent studies, a great deal of children grow up not knowing how money is earned or managed. In their daily adult life, a lack of financial skills can lead to unnecessary stress that is entirely preventable. Teaching money skills to your children is as important as learning to read and write or brushing their teeth. We talked to Dr Mara Catherine Harvey, CEO of VP Bank (Switzerland) Ltd and Head Region Europe, and founder of SmartWayToStart.com, about pocket money and embarking on your financial parenting journey. Happy Reading!
Civil union (PACS) and inheritance: how does it work?
Isn’t love wonderful! We fall in love and enter into a civil partnership but what happens if one of the partners dies? Here’s all you need to know!
Separation of property
The default regime that applies to civil union is the same separation of property regime that is applied in a marriage: the partners remain the owners of the movable and immovable property that they each owned before the civil partnership and of everything that they receive or buy after the civil partnership, as long as they can prove that the property belongs to them. If it is not clear who owns what property, it is regarded as jointly owned, i.e. each person owns half of the property. It is therefore essential to ensure you have proof of ownership (e.g. invoices, etc.).
Property settlement agreement
The partners can, nevertheless, conclude a property settlement agreement, which governs the type of property contributed by the partners in a civil partnership and property received during the partnership. By submitting for example to a joint ownership regime, the property shall be half owned by each person. The partners are free to exclude certain property from joint ownership, e.g.
In practical terms, on the death of one of the partners and without the existence of a will, the surviving partner will not inherit and can only continue to live in the family home free of charge for a maximum period of one year.
If there is joint ownership of property under a property settlement agreementt, the surviving partner shall be the joint owner with the legal heirs, e.g. any children or, if there are no children, the parents and/or brothers and sisters of the deceased. Should the deceased have legal heirs, the surviving partner will still have the option of remaining a joint owner, purchasing the share from the heirs or selling his/her jointly-owned share.
If there are no children, the partners are free to dispose of their assets as they chose and to leave all of their property to each other – including, where applicable, the shared home – by means of a will. If the civil partnership has been in force for longer than three years at the time of the death of one of the partners, all property that is given to the surviving partner shall be subject to the same regime as married couples vis-à-vis inheritance tax to be paid.