Seeking advises about Pillar 3a and b

Banks, Insurances & Third Pillar
41

On my side, i am working on myself to absorb the shock. Some workout and activities helped to put everything in perspective after the last few days.

Next step: to reduce the contributions immediately and to deal with the situation.

Next next step: to bounce back

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42

These companies live off commissions. So not always working in your best interest. A fiduciary/Treuhand will bill for work done or time spent. Very different. They don’t usually sell insurance or investment schemes as it’s a muddling of responsibilities.
They might recommend you to seek further advice and offers but won’t offer or will give the name of a broker they work with.
Reputation and client satisfaction are very important. Hence, a fiduciary that’s been around for 10-15 years are your best bet.

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43

A lot of comments here are from people who clearly don’t understand how things work.

A pillar 3b must have insurance in to qualify as tax-free. The amount of insurance is another matter though.

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44

Thank you for this clarification.
So now, the question is to understand if the tax deduction would compensate the monthly premium.

45

My understanding is that out of Geneva (?) 3b is a totally loose term which basically means any sort of savings outside the 1-2-3a pillars, Edit and is not tax-deductible. I may be wrong on this part.

What I’m not wrong is that the last time you posted you supported insurance 3As and got called up by the members to disclose any conflict of interest, and you disappeared without giving any further info.

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46

The only canton allowing a partial deduction of the 3b premiums are Geneva and Fribourg.

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47

Specifically up to 750.- for a single person or 1500.- for a married couple in Fribourg and up to 2232.- for a single person, 3348.- for a married couple and up to 913.- additional per dependent child in Geneva, with a higher threshold for people who contribute to neither the 2nd pillar, nor the 3a.

It might be interesting if the goal is to buy specifically insurance coverage. I’d still be very wary if the goal is investing and capitalization. Especially since the deductability of new premiums would go away if I leave these cantons but the insurance policy would not.

No canton covers tens of thousand of deductible 3b premiums per year so that “tax advice” was very questionable (at the very least) no matter what.

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48

“Just enough truth to remain legal” is the name of the game :slight_smile:

49

Thanks again Everyone for the clarifications in the posts above.
I spent some time to understand the Tax deductions related to the Pillar 3b, if I understand well:

  • tax deductions are available for premiums premiums in some Cantons (at least Geneva), it seems not applicable to my Canton anyway
  • after 10 years, the dividends are not subject to taxes if premium is paid every months

Then I also try to understand if the tax deduction after 10 years worth the premium I am paying now. This is not very clear yet, but I have the impression that I am bleeding and it might not worth it if i am not interested by the insurance part of the contract.

So, right now I am in the process of disengaging from both Pillar 3a and 3b.
I acknowledged the huge loss of money and I accepted it.

From personal perspective:

  • denial => it was 2 months after I finally accessed my online management page and saw what was happening
  • anger => about 2 weeks ago
  • bargaining => I had hesitations about the path to mitigate the impact. Took one week to decide
  • depression => 1-2 days. And then intermittently during a few nights when bad ideas were turning into my mind, I was thinking about my efforts of the last year and the impact on my retirement plans. I was not able to sleep and started the next days exhausted - this lasted one full week.
  • acceptance => I am here now, preparing the next steps, having read extensively and become more financially educated in the past 2 weeks. I feel much better.

Pillar 3a: in process to open a new one somewhere else. I saw some good suggestions on this site. Still hesitating between 2-3 options.
Pillar 3b: I can only close it in a few months, but i am mitigating further impact by reducing the amount monthly contributed to the minimum. to mitigate the impact. Not sure yet if later I open a new Pillar 3b somewhere else (but not a life insurance product) of if I move to regular investment plans.

Thanks again everyone.

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