We are well aware that our business is not an everyday one.

Assets are are classified as dormant if the financial institution is no longer able to establish contact with the client. They are deemed to be dormant once the period specified in the relevant guidelines has expired. Banks are subject, in particular, to the guidelines of the Swiss Bankers Association on the handling of untraceable and dormant assets. They are obliged to take appropriate steps to trace the owners and to re-establish contact with the entitled persons.

We have contacted you because we have been commissioned by a bank, insurance company or pension scheme. The aim is to re-establish contact with individuals who may be entitled to assets, benefits or relevant information.

Contact may be lost for various reasons, such as moving to a new address, moving abroad, a change of name, the closure of a business or the death of an account holder.

Financial institutions do not always have the specialist research capabilities required for complex or international searches for individuals, and are generally limited in their ability to carry out such searches. For this reason, they commission specialist companies such as FAST Search – which are bound by confidentiality – to carry out the research, make initial contact and undertake preliminary verification. This is a standard process in Switzerland, as required by regulation.

You can verify FAST Search AG via its official commercial register entry at www.zefix.ch. For any enquiries, please use only the contact details published on www.fastsearch.ch. We will be happy to explain our mandate to you on request. FAST Search does not require any advance payments and will never ask for passwords, PIN codes, e-banking login details, passports, identity cards or similar information. Our systems and processes comply with applicable data protection, compliance and due diligence obligations. FAST Search operates exclusively on behalf of regulated financial institutions, insurance companies and pension schemes, and is remunerated by our clients for our services. Unlike heir tracers, genealogists or similar professionals, FAST Search will never request any compensation from the entitled persons.

Our work is based on the information provided to us as part of the mandate. For our research, we use sources that are lawfully accessible and – where permitted and necessary – obtain information from the relevant authorities. Data processing is carried out for specific purposes and in accordance with the applicable data protection regulations.

No. FAST Search does not charge you for making contact, identification or verification. Whether the relevant institution charges any costs or fees at a later stage depends on its terms and conditions and is beyond FAST Search’s control. Please clarify any such queries directly with the institution. Unlike heir tracers, genealogists or similar professionals, FAST Search will never request any form of compensation from you as a potentially entitled person.

FAST Search only accepts search mandates that relate to assets or entitlements to benefits (not liabilities or debts). You will be informed of the nature and value of the asset directly by the relevant financial institution once your documents have been reviewed.

Once we have made contact, we will cross-check the necessary details against the information provided in the search mandate. This enables us to verify whether you are the person we are looking for or whether you may be entitled to a claim. In cases of inheritance in particular, official documents or further evidence may be required.

The purpose of verification is to establish whether you are the person who may be authorised to carry out the transaction and to rule out any possibility of confusion. Once verification has been successfully completed, FAST Search will forward the necessary contact details and supporting documents to the instructing institution. Due to banking secrecy, banks are only permitted to contact a verified, authorised person directly.

The protection of your personal data is our top priority. We process information solely for the specific purpose of fulfilling the search mandate. Processing is carried out in accordance with the applicable data protection regulations. Further information can be found in our privacy policy. Data and documents that are no longer required are deleted or anonymised in accordance with our data deletion and retention policy. This is subject to any statutory and contractual documentation and retention obligations.

Without your feedback, the case cannot usually be resolved conclusively. As a result, potential claims or benefits cannot be investigated further, and no link can be established to the assets or benefits.

If it transpires that you are not the person sought or the authorised person, your data will not be forwarded to the commissioning institution for the purposes of assessing your claim. Data and documents that are no longer required will be deleted or anonymised in accordance with our data deletion and retention policy. This is subject to any statutory and contractual obligations regarding documentation and retention.

This is not unusual. Bank accounts are often opened many years or even decades ago and are occasionally unknown to today’s beneficiaries. These may be assets that were originally held by parents, grandparents or other relatives. Furthermore, the original company may since have merged, been taken over or changed its name; client accounts or business divisions may also have been transferred to another institution.

In order for a financial institution to confirm a banking relationship or an asset, the authorised person must first be verified beyond doubt – and that is precisely the purpose of our contact with you. Due to our search mandates and banking secrecy, we are unable to disclose the name of the financial institution to you. Once the file has been finalised and reviewed, the financial institution will contact you directly.

Our team is happy to assist you. Please contact our research specialists directly, or get in touch with us using the contact details published on our official website or via the contact form available there.

In the course of our investigations, a possible connection has emerged between you and the person we are seeking. We therefore believe that the information you provide could be very helpful to us in locating the rightful claimants and connecting them with their assets or claims. If you have received a letter, it may also be helpful to forward it to us or to let us know that it is not possible to contact them via you. It is entirely up to you to decide whether and how you would like to assist us.

In the course of our investigations, a possible connection has emerged between you and the person we are seeking. We therefore believe that the information you provide could be very helpful to us in locating the rightful claimants and connecting them with their assets or claims. If you have received a letter, it may also be helpful to forward it to us or to let us know that it is not possible to contact the relevant parties via you. It is entirely up to you to decide whether and how you would like to assist us. To do so, you can use any of the contact options listed on our website www.fastsearch.ch, or reply directly to the message from our research specialists.

It is not possible to give a definitive answer at this stage. Please let us know what your family relationship is to the person in question. We will check whether this indicates a possible link to the search mandate. The final assessment of entitlement as an heir or beneficiary will be carried out by the relevant financial institution.

The information you provide voluntarily will only be used to the extent necessary for the specific search brief. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.

You have been contacted because our investigation has revealed that you may be an heir or other legal successor. FAST Search carries out the investigation and initial verification on behalf of a financial institution; the final assessment of any claim is carried out by the relevant institution.

You can verify FAST Search AG via its official commercial register entry at www.zefix.ch. For any enquiries, please use only the contact details published at www.fastsearch.ch. We will be happy to explain our services to you on request. FAST Search does not require any advance payments and will never ask for passwords, PIN codes, e-banking login details, passports, identity cards or similar information.

Due to Swiss banking secrecy laws and other regulatory requirements, financial institutions may only contact authorised individuals once they have been verified beyond doubt. They therefore commission specialist companies such as FAST Search, which are bound by confidentiality obligations, to carry out research, establish contact and verify identities. Once verification has been successfully completed, FAST Search will pass on your contact details to the financial institution.

The establishment of the business relationship with the financial institution, as well as any loss of contact, may have occurred a long time before we are commissioned.

We will inform you, on a case-by-case basis, which documents are required for verification and verification purposes, such as a certificate of inheritance, a list of heirs or a similar official document. The documents will be processed solely for the specified purpose; further details can be found in our privacy policy.

As a first step, we will check the details and information you have provided and ensure that they are sufficient. We will then close the search case and forward your current contact details to the requesting institution. They will then contact you directly.

You can appoint a trusted person or a lawyer as your authorised representative. With a valid power of attorney, the authorised representative can handle communications on your behalf. We are happy to provide a power of attorney template on request.

If it transpires that you are not the person we are looking for or the authorised person, your data will not be passed on to the commissioning institution for the purposes of assessing your claim. Data that is no longer required will be deleted or anonymised in accordance with our data deletion and retention policy; this is subject to any statutory and contractual obligations.

The purpose of the verification process is to establish whether you are the person who may be entitled to the funds (account holder, heir, beneficiary). Only once this has been established can FAST Search finalise the search and forward your current contact details and any inheritance documents to the financial institution. On this basis, the financial institution will then be able to contact you directly.

Once your contact details have been verified and submitted, the process with FAST Search is usually complete. All further steps are carried out directly with the financial institution.

The processing time depends on the financial institution in question and the complexity of the case. As a rule, initial contact is made within a few weeks. In the case of inheritance claims, the process may take longer due to the detailed examination of the documents submitted by the relevant departments. FAST Search has no influence over the financial institution’s internal procedures.

The financial institution can only contact you directly once verification and eligibility checks have been completed. Our research specialists are generally unaware of which financial institution is involved or the value of the assets or claims. Once your case has been finalised, the financial institution will contact you directly.

As far as FAST Search is concerned, the case is generally considered closed once the verifications specified in the mandate have been carried out and the necessary contact details and documents have been forwarded to the commissioning institution. The final assessment of entitlement and further processing are carried out by the financial institution.

Your data will be processed solely for the purpose of fulfilling the specific search mandate and will be transferred to the recipients designated for this purpose. Once the mandate has been completed, your data will be retained only for as long as is necessary for the purpose of processing and to comply with statutory or contractual obligations; thereafter, it will be deleted or anonymised. Further details can be found in our privacy policy.

If the institution has not yet contacted you after a few weeks, please get in touch with us using the contact details published at www.fastsearch.ch. Where our mandate permits, we will forward your feedback to the relevant institution.

Once the financial institution has made contact, please address any queries regarding the content of the matter exclusively to that financial institution. Our mandate is completed once the data has been transmitted.

FAST Search AG is a company based in Switzerland that specialises in international tracing of individuals and heirs. We are commissioned by banks, insurance companies and pension funds, amongst others, to trace and contact potential entitled persons or legal successors. In the case of banking mandates, our work is based in particular on the NARILO guidelines of the Swiss Bankers Association.

In the banking sector, assets are regarded as ‘unclaimed’ when contact with the customer has been lost, and as ‘dormant’ once the relevant time limit has expired. Banks must take proportionate search measures in accordance with the applicable rules. For certain unclaimed bank assets, the law provides for publication once the relevant time limits have expired, followed by liquidation and transfer to the Swiss Confederation.

Financial institutions do not always have the specialist investigative resources required for complex or international searches for individuals, and are generally limited in their ability to carry out such searches. They therefore commission specialist firms, such as FAST Search, which are bound by confidentiality obligations, to carry out the investigation, make initial contact and undertake preliminary verification. A bank may only disclose information about a client relationship to those persons who are actually authorised to receive it (bank client confidentiality). Nor may they contact public authorities, etc., until the authorised person has been verified.

FAST Search can, upon request, provide suitable evidence confirming the legitimate interest in the search.

FAST Search uses the data solely in connection with the fulfilment of the specific search mandate and in compliance with all regulations. For further details regarding data protection, please refer to our privacy policy.

Without your response, FAST Search will have to rely on other investigative channels. This may mean that the process becomes more costly for the entitled parties, or that – due to our limited budget – the case will have to be closed without a successful outcome. As we are usually commissioned by financial institutions as a last resort to re-establish contact, an unsuccessful case generally means that the entitled persons will never be linked to the assets or benefits to which they are entitled.

In order to identify and verify potential entitled persons, it may be necessary to request information from registration authorities, probate courts, archives or other relevant bodies. In our experience, this is often the most efficient and secure way to successfully resolve a case.

If you are not permitted or do not wish to provide personal data to FAST Search, you may forward our letter directly to the person concerned. They can then decide for themselves whether to get in touch. Please do let us know if this is your preferred course of action.

Based on our investigations into this specific case, we have evidence to suggest that there is a connection between the person we are searching for and your organisation. As it is in our interest, as well as that of our clients and the relevant parties, to resolve these search cases efficiently, we have approached you with this enquiry.

You can also support us without breaching your duty of confidentiality by forwarding our enquiry – insofar as permitted by professional regulations – to the person concerned or their known representative. Please assess whether forwarding the enquiry is permissible in each individual case in accordance with the professional and ethical rules applicable to you.

FAST Search operates on the basis of a written mandate from the relevant institution. In the case of mandates from banks, our activities are guided by the Swiss Bankers Association’s guidelines on the handling of contactless and dormant assets, as well as by provisions of banking law. The processing of personal data is governed in particular by the Swiss Data Protection Act.