Do you really get 2-3% a year? In my experience most pension funds only pay-out the mandatory 1% and keep the rest as “reserves”.
On that basis the tax advantage is quickly offset by the low returns after a few years only, and it’s not really worth it.
Another option, if you have a chance to change jobs in the future and you forget to transfer the pension assets, you can have them invested through Value pension/VIAC
I would stick to your strategy unless you have a concrete plan to withdraw the 2P in~5 years (eg buy property or leave Switzerland to a country with favourable tax treatment)
You can model both scenarios side by side with your marginal tax rate. In my case paying lower 2P contributions is likely to pay off within 3 years
You have to consider volatility but at your age you have a long investment horizon which means equity risk largely disappears
Consider also:
-age 30 your salary and marginal tax rate is likely to be higher in the future - so also better to make top ups later
-% contributions increase with age. I’m 15 years older than you and I’m surprised how my 2 pillar assets now really ramp up, I actually have too high % of our nw in 2 pillar vs what I would like, we are considering leaving CH and I have a problem how to get it out without paying high taxes in the destination country
-your next employer may not have such a nice scheme and you will be obliged to transfer your assets into it
You mean the opposite, primauté des cotisations? (Defined contribution)
Primauté prestations = defined benefit (quite rare)
Further things to consider:
That said if you’re mid career and already are in the highest tax bracket, no point waiting 
This is a related thread. It seems that it makes sense to contribute more to the pension fund if you plan to withdraw it within the next 5-10 years (either retirement or buying RE). After the the compound effect of stocks will start overcompensating your tax savings.
Yes! Sorry… This is the opposite.
Could’t you wait to do this until when you plan to change jobs - is there any need to do it now?
Not transferring to your new pension fund is illegal. Additionally, you will lose pension fund insurance coverage (disability, death, etc.)
I‘d wait to pay in until later in your career, where salary and progressive taxes will be higher. I‘ll probably only pay in a few years prior to hitting FIRE to increase Bond-Allocation (if it then makes sense to invest pension in Bonds)
Cortana,
My view is that we can’t predict what we will do, even though we wrote investment plan. Your Situation may change and you may decide to behave differently. (E.g buy or not buy a property, stay in Switzerland or leave, etc.)
It’s best to be balanced in my view. Contribute normally to your pension fund, don’t minimize your payments. This may come handy when you buy property. Or if you don’t, you may be happy you contribute fairly to your pension fund if markets stagnate for 20 years.
Key to success is simplicity rather than over optimization.
I recently started a new job and there was a reminder letter from the PK to transfer the previous funds otherwise the benefits incase of death/sickness might be reduced.
In this case max contributions might be better than buy-ins because the buyed in amounts are locked for 3 years. Due to tax avoidance reasons (well you can get them but you might be taxed at a higher rate).
It depends of the pension fund and its regulations. In my situation, the disability pension is calculated on my expected capital at 65.
That’s illegal. I won’t advertise it too much publicly…Some pension fund may not enforce the law (because they count on the good faith of their new employees ?), but it remains illegal.
Source ? Freizügigkeitsgesetz, FZG
Aren’t there actual cases where it’s ok. Per Art 13, there are cases where you might have money left over.
Does anyone knows what “vollen reglementarischen Leistungen/prestations réglementaires complètes” means exactly? Does that only cover the mandatory part?
Indeed. That’s one of the exception.
Let’s say you have 400K to transfer but your new pension fund calculated your capital to be 350K at this age with your expected salary.
The delta could be transferred in a vested benefits plan.
The type of foundation: Obligatory, sur-obligatory or enveloping could impact the "vollen reglementarischen Leistungen/prestations réglementaires complètes” calculations.
If the BVG minimum is 6% and me and my employer paid 15% into my pension fund in total, I only need to transfer 40% of my pension fund to the new employers pension fund.
Anyway, how will the new pension fund know how much they should expect? They don’t know how many years I worked, what my salary was and what the contributions were in that time.
It’s offtopic anyway as my main question still isn’t answered 
To recap:
Then, this, to me, would be purely a choice of asset allocation between pretty safe bond-like assets returning 2-3% + tax savings in good times (no certainty it will hold during a downturn) and other assets (stocks) in a taxable account. I’d take the asset allocation approach, so
This:
And this:
Tell me that you’re not interested in bond-like assets at the rates you’re getting and would rather have at least a part of it invested in stocks instead. As long as you hold this ValuePension account, I don’t see a point in otherwise increasing your contributions to your pension fund. That’s a big appetite for risk which, I hope, will hold during a downturn. I would probably like to have more safe assets myself.
The problem may arise when you start to plan to leave the workforce. 2nd Pillar buybacks may not be possible while having a vested benefits account on the side. You may also loose tax defered space by changing job if your contributions/your employer’s contributions don’t match your current options. That may need some planning.
Also:
Are you willing to delay that purchase if stocks plummet and make selling them to buy real estate a bad deal?
Edit: to make my thinking more clear, to me, your current policy makes sense given your stated desires for a very high stocks allocation. Stocks outperformance relies on the risk premium, though, and the risk, whether it materializes or not, is there and very real. I’d make double-sure that this is what I want while stocks are (still) high and changes in allocation can be done with little bad consequences.
My new employer already pays in 18%.
With that I see no point in contributing any more than the minimum of 0% (other 2 levels are 4.5 and 9).
At least in my current life situation and target asset allocation, given that the 2nd pillar now grows quite more intensively than with my former employer.
P.s. @Cortana - A house in CH or abroad?
Both, but CH is my focus. The house in Bosnia is 20x cheaper (I already bought the land this summer) and is meant to be my FIRE headquarter in 20+ years.
P.s. I decided to change to the highest pension fund contribution beginning in January 2022.
I’m curious how this is possible. Usually, Ausgleichskasse only allows a split up to 30% (employee) / 70% (employer). So you are not paying any contribution for you P2?
18% is a lot, especially if you are under 30 (if I remember correctly)
