Hi I used Vincent Souchaud to sort out our mortgage, life assurance and 3rd pillar pension. He is very good and very helpful. I used to work as an independent financial advisor before so knew if he was giving us the right info!

email:[email protected]

Telephone:022 362 44 85

Mobile: 079 648 35 73

Thanks a lot for the info.  Where is he based?  I should have said that I am looking for someone close to Zurich.

ahh he is based in geneva but give him a call may be able to recommend someone or do it over the phone/email

Hi Fiona,

Did you ever get a good financial advisor ? I've just moved to Geneva and know absolutely nothing about their pensions system. What are pillars ? Is that your pension ?

Thanks, Richard

I think if you google, you can find a lot of materian in English about the Swiss pension system.

If you are employed full time, you will be part of (obligatory) Pillar I and Pillar II. Pillar III is optional.

https://www.axa-winterthur.ch/SiteCollectionDocuments/1-saeule-staatliche-vorsorge_en.pdf

https://www.axa-winterthur.ch/SiteCollectionDocuments/2-saeule-berufliche-vorsorge_en.pdf

https://www.axa-winterthur.ch/SiteCollectionDocuments/3-saeule_en.pdf

I doubt that you need a financial advisor to have an overview. Simply read and ask your employer /HR to give you the details.

Hi Reka,

Thanks for that but I'm privately employed here with a very good salary but unfortunately I have no HR department to fall back on for advice. My employer isn't of much assistance so I guess I'll have to do some research. I'm loving Switzerland and don't want to make mistakes. 

I'll keep looking,,,

Hi everyone,

Ive been here for almost 6 years now and I work for Swissotel here in Switzerland. Obviously I have access to a great H.R. department but I found it interesting to discuss everything with an outside finance guy and I've saved myself a lot of headaches with tax issues. A Swiss friend put me in touch with Swiss Global Consulting. The guys name was Chris Hawtin and I'd definitely recommend him. I'm working now so I don't have his contact details but I'll send them to you later.

Welcome to Switzerland Richard.

What do you mean by privately employed?

If you have a Swiss employer, Pillar I and II are obligations those are managed by your employer irrespective of your salary. See the attachments and info.  You cannot make a mistake in that regard....as you are automaticaly enrolled in Pillar I(AVS number) and Pillar II as well as you join the fund chosen by your employer.

Since you just arrived, you are probably with a Permit B. Thus all your contributions are managed by your employer.

You can have some additional payments into Pillar II that would be tax free every year. You also have the right to pay into Pillar I backwards since Swiss people start paying it at the age of 20 to have the full state pension. Thus, joining at the age of 50 without additional payment, would not give you the right to have a full Swiss state pension. Again see info.

Pillar III is where you may need an advice but you can walk into your bank where you have your salary account and discuss with them. They will be able to help and explain. Here I am not sure given you are 50 how much you would really benefit of it but it is always good to discuss.

Thanks for that Reka, I got to speak with my employer yesterday and he's explained a lot about the system so I have a better understanding now. I'm lucky enough to have a fully paid up state pension in Ireland (pillar 1) as well as a sizeable private pension (pillar 2).

The problem is that I have no faith in the Irish pension companies and so I will not continue to fund the second pillar going forward. I am trying to move this pension out of ireland so that it can be invested elsewhere but I also want to explore the option of maybe another second pillar here in Switzerland or maybe some sort of third pillar.

Thank you Paul, I managed to speak to Christopher at SGC this morning and I'm going to meet him next week. Feeling more relaxed now. Thanks guys.