French Billionaire Nicolas Puech is set on leaving all of his inheritance to his gardener. He is a member of the fifth generation of descendants of Hermes founder Thierry Hermes.
The 81-year-old Puech is currently single, has no sons or daughters, and still retains control over 5.7 percent of the company’s shares. His change of mind about who would inherit his fortune once he passes away has caused quite a stir.
In 2011, Puech stated he was going to donate his fortune to the Isocrates Foundation in Geneva. This foundation dedicates itself to protecting and promoting public debates by fighting misinformation.
The Isocrates Foundation is not pleased with Puech
After Puech controversially went back on his 2011 commitment to the Isocrates Foundation, the foundation’s general secretary had a few comments to make about Puech.
Nicolas Borsinger labeled Puech’s actions as a “sudden and unilateral annulment from a succession pact made through an act that should be considered null and void.”
The Isocrates Foundation also put out a press release stating that they are “sorry the sustainability of its public utility activities is threatened by circumstances that are completely out of their control.”
It was in 2023 that Puech had a sudden change of heart about who would be inheriting his fortune and ultimately settled on leaving it to his gardener rather than The Isocrates Foundation as had previously been planned on.
The French billionaire is doing everything he can to leave his inheritance to his gardener
Puech’s gardener is a Moroccan man married to a Spanish woman. The couple has two children. The gardener’s identity remains anonymous to this day. He has been Puech’s domestic employee and gardener for several years now and is the person to whom the French billionaire wants to give his inheritance.
However, achieving this goal will prove to be extremely challenging for Puech and his legal team due to Swiss laws of adoption.
The French magnate currently resides in his luxury estate of La Fouly in southern Switzerland, where it is not impossible but nonetheless rather unusual to adopt an adult. The issue is that for any adoption to be acknowledged by the law and government, the relationship between the adoptee and adopter needs to have begun when the former was underage.
Hence, we might assume that this was probably not the case here, and that the gardener and Puech entered into such a relationship resembling that between a parent and child once already in adulthood.
The case is now in the hands of Switzerland’s court system, which will have to evaluate each party’s record, shares, and properties valued at $5.9 million in Marrakech, Morroco, and Montreux.
