The vast majority of richest Swiss inherited their fortunes

Only a small minority of the wealthiest Swiss citizens are self-made, according to a study.

A study by Swiss Institute for Economic Research (KOF) claims that only 8% of the 300 richest Swiss citizens earned their wealth themselves. The results of the study reported in the SonntagsZeitung newpaper on Sunday also reveals that eight out of ten rich people acquired their wealth through inheritance. An overwhelming 90% of the super-rich are men, with the proportion of women tending to decrease rather than increase.

Another study, quoted by the NZZ am Sonntag, shows a wide gap in the social distribution of inheritances in general in Switzerland. Three quarters of heirs receive no more than CHF100,000 (about $112,470) per inheritance, according to a study by Marius Brülhart, a professor at the University of Lausanne’s Faculty of Business Administration (HEC). Only 1.5% of inheritances exceed one million francs.