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Unclaimed vested benefits

Sometimes people forget that they have vested benefits; this is especially true when foreign workers leave Switzerland definitively. The brochure entitled “Vested benefits: don’t forget your retirement assets!” explains what vested benefits are and sets out the various situations where action needs to be taken. It also provides information on where help can be obtained if someone suspects that they have due to them vested benefits they had forgotten about.

When a person who is insured under an occupational benefit plan (2nd pillar) leaves his or her pension fund before an insured event occurs – after changing employer, for example, or as a result of being made unemployed – the pension fund issues a statement showing the amount owed to that person. This amount is referred to as the person’s vested benefits, or departure benefit.

The purpose of this money is to fund the retirement phase, which is why it is not freely available to the insured pension. If vested benefits cannot be transferred immediately to the pension fund of a new employer they must be deposited with a bank or a vested-benefits institution.