If you terminate the employment relationship, your participation in the Pension Fund also comes to an end. How the vested benefits are transferred depends on whether or not you join a new pension fund after your change of job.
As a rule, the Pension Fund will transfer your vested benefits to the pension plan of your new employer. It will continue to cover you for the risks of disability and death, but only up to one month after you leave the Pension Fund.
If you do not start a new job, we will transfer your vested benefits either to a blocked vested benefits account with a bank, according to your choice, or to a vested benefits policy with an insurance company. If you join a pension fund again at a later date, you will be obliged under the Vested Benefits Act to transfer all the assets held in vested benefits accounts or policies to the new pension fund.
Voluntary continuation of the insurance relationship
Please note that it is possible for you to continue your employee benefits insurance (death, disability, retirement provision) with the Auffangeinrichtung BVG (Substitute Occupational Benefit Institution) after termination of the employment relationship. Further information can be found at web.aies.ch.
If you receive daily benefits from unemployment insurance, you are obliged to have insurance against death and disability with the Auffangeinrichtung BVG (web.aies.ch). You should inquire with the Auffangeinrichtung BVG as to whether you can continue your retirement provision with them on a voluntary basis.
Insured aged 55 and above whose employment relationship has been terminated by the employer have the option to continue their insurance with the Pension Fund (Art. 18, Regulations). Please find the application under Documtents and publications.
Withdrawal of vested benefits
If you do not join a new pension fund during your period of gainful employment, your vested benefits accumulated to date can be withdrawn at the earliest five years before and at the latest five years after reaching the normal AHV retirement age (currently 64 for women and 65 for men).
Pension capital can be withdrawn in the following cases defined by law before reaching the AHV retirement Age:
- If you make an advance withdrawal for home ownership purposes
- If you repay a mortgage on owner-occupied residential property
- If you become self-employed
- If you are self-employed and you invest in your business
- Permanent departure from Switzerland
- If you draw a full disability pension from the Federal Disability Insurance (IV)
- Death
In only two cases, vested benefits may be paid out in cash:
- If you become self-employed
- Permanent departure from Switzerland
If you are emigrating to an EU/EFTA member state, the cash payment options are restricted.
You can withdraw the extra-mandatory part of your vested benefits in cash; the withdrawal of the mandatory portion is not possible if you are subject to the mandatory state insurance coverage for retirement, disability, and survivors' benefits in an EU/EFTA member state. Please contact the BVG Security Fund for clarification about your insurance obligations.
If you emigrate to a country outside the EU/EFTA, the withdrawal of the whole vested benefits is possible.
Departure process
If you end the employment relationship with the employer or with a subsidiary of Credit Suisse, the Pension Fund shall be informed automatically by the responsible HR department.
You will receive an e-mail one and a half months before you leave the Pension Fund with information on how to record your departure on MyPension.
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