Are vested benefits accounts insured?

I am about to take a two-year sabbatical and plan to move my retirement savings from my employer’s pension fund to a vested benefits account and keep them there until I begin working again.

The big question I have is how my assets (more than 100,000 francs) are protected while in a vested benefits account. Is my pension guaranteed in the event that the bank or scheme goes bankrupt?

Good question. Unlike assets held in occupational pension funds, vested benefits are not insured by the LOB Guarantee Fund.

The majority of vested benefits solutions in Switzerland are offered by banks in the form of bank accounts, and these are protected to some extent by laws governing bank insolvencies. You can read more about this protection here:

http://www.moneyland.ch/en/bank-failure-swiss-money-protection

In order to minimize risk, it is advisable to hold your assets in several vested benefits accounts at different banks. You can use the vested benefits account comparison tool to find the best accounts for your needs.

Vested benefits solutions provided by insurance companies offer a more secure alternative because vested benefits held in these policies are fully insured. However, taking out vested benefits policies from insurers is far more costly than holding your assets in a vested benefits account.