On 29 August 2018, the Federal Council presented its dispatch on the modernisation of inheritance law. Based on the premise that Swiss inheritance law has remained virtually unchanged for more than a century, the Federal Council has submitted a draft bill to parliament that aims to adapt the law to the development of society. Today, many people live in patchwork families, de facto civil partnerships with joint children or in families with single parents. Swiss inheritance law is now to be revised and adapted to the new social forms of cohabitation. The revision focuses on a reduction of the compulsory portions for descendants, and the compulsory portion for parents is to be abolished altogether. In this way, the testator can dispose of his or her assets more freely. Under current inheritance law, civil partners who are not included in a testamentary disposition have no claim under inheritance law. This situation can cause serious financial hardship for the surviving partner. To solve this problem, the Federal Council proposes a support entitlement for unmarried partners, who are thus better protected against poverty. The new Art. 606a CC obliges the heirs to pay the surviving cohabiting partner a pension until the hundredth birthday at the latest. The total amount of the entitlement is limited to a maximum of one quarter of the inheritance. For this, the partners must have lived in a de facto cohabitation for at least five years and a hardship must exist. According to the Federal Council, an emergency situation exists if the minimum subsistence level under social welfare law is no longer covered.

In its decision of 2 May 2018, the Federal Supreme Court firmly established its rigorous practice on the liability of organs in the case of lost social security contributions. The complainant, as an executive body of a limited liability company, had failed to successfully appeal against an assessment ruling from 2012. The ruling had stated that a disputed contribution item originated in 2010, whereas the organs of the limited liability company claimed that the item related to 2009. The assessment ruling subsequently became legally binding. In the appeal proceedings, the complainant invoked the guarantee of legal recourse. However, the Federal Supreme Court was of the opinion that the legally binding contribution orders could not be reviewed in the compensation proceedings and dismissed the appeal.