A dead woman goes bankrupt
In the district of Winterthur, the number of estate bankruptcies has doubled within ten years. The case of Ms. G shows what happens to the inheritance when the relatives renounce it.
Four months after Ms G.’s death, Martin Schmuki and Dominique Kenel from the bankruptcy office visit the deceased’s apartment and look for valuables.
Photo: Madeleine Schoder
In January, Ms G. died in a hospital in Winterthur. “She had no children, but many heirs,” says notary Martin Schmuki on the drive to Gundetswil. The woman last lived there, in the small village on the border to the canton of Thurgau. Because her siblings and their children wanted nothing to do with the inheritance, Schmuki and his colleague Dominique Kenel from the bankruptcy office in Oberwinterthur-Winterthur are now deployed.
