Five surprised Brits have received a share of a reclusive Swiss tailor’s £1million fortune after they discovered they were his long-lost relatives.
Jürg Jakob Defatz died alone in 2021 having spent his life living in Zurich. The 87-year-old was unmarried and had no children with his neighbours describing him as a ‘sad and lonely man’.
Over the course of his life, Mr Defatz had accumulated assets worth £1million which he stored in different accounts and investments across Europe.
However, he had left no will so a public notice to trace his heirs was put out in 2022 which caught the attention of Finders International – stars of BBC‘s Heir Hunters – who launched an investigation.
Now, Mr Defatz’s living relatives have been tracked down with half of his fortune being split amongst five Brits – with each of the relatives receiving an estimated £100,000 each.
One of the heirs is Vicki from London, who admits she thought it was a scam when she was first contacted.
Vicki said: ‘My brothers were extremely sceptical. They were convinced it was a scam. Most of my friends said the same.’
But when one of Vicki’s cousins got in touch to say they had also been contacted, the family started to wonder if it was real.
She continued: ‘Once we started talking about it, we realised it might actually be genuine. The surname of the deceased was certainly familiar, as it was my mother’s maiden name, but beyond that I didn’t know much.’
It turned out that Vicki’s grandfather, Max Defatz, who emigrated to Britain around 1912, was Jürg’s paternal uncle.
Max and Mr Defatz’s father were brothers and Vicki’s mother, Christine, was Mr Defatz’s cousin.
Max moved to Suffolk and met Vicki’s grandmother, Jessie, at her parents’ pub, the Steamboat Tavern in Ipswich before he later became a food scientist.
The pair went on to have two children and five grandchildren and it is this family that has been identified as distant heirs to the fortune.
Vicki, who plans to use the money to renovate the family’s old farmhouse in France, admitted she was shocked that she had any family left in Switzerland.
The lucky heir said: ‘My grandfather always gave me the impression that the family had been decimated by illness and I was unaware of any contact with relatives in Switzerland.’
In total five UK relatives inherited half of Jürg’s estate, while additional heirs located in Switzerland received the other half.
Vicki has described the discovery as ‘quite unbelievable’.
She said: ‘The whole process has been extraordinary. Finders has been incredibly tenacious, firstly finding us, and then overcoming all the hurdles and bureaucracies across different countries to gather everything together. We definitely could not have done it ourselves.
‘It still feels quite unbelievable.’
Katelyn Bennett from Finders International, who worked on the case, said: ‘This case was a ton of work. It was extremely complex. Tracing the money became one of the most complicated parts of the case.
‘A lot of the assets were still held in the name of the deceased’s father in Switzerland, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands.
‘We had to track down bank accounts and financial holdings while navigating different inheritance laws in each country
‘We had to submit inheritance claims in multiple jurisdictions, eventually securing certificates of inheritance in Switzerland and Germany, as well as a successful claim with the Dutch government.’
