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
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.
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.
Thank you for this clarification.
So now, the question is to understand if the tax deduction would compensate the monthly premium.
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.
The only canton allowing a partial deduction of the 3b premiums are Geneva and Fribourg.
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.
“Just enough truth to remain legal” is the name of the game 
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:
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:
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.
Hello everyone and happy new year!
I am back one year after the events discussed above.
To summarize:
In early 2024, I worked with a financial advisor on my tax declaration and on retirement‑planning investments because I am late in my planning, and I was willing to contribute more each month toward this goal.
I was very ignorant in financial products, I just followed this advisor:
My wife did the same, both pillar 3a and 3b, but she contributed CHF 2500/months instead.
December 2024: I realized that despite the markets growing, I was losing money. I invested 24k into my Pillar 3b account but the balance was around 20-21k only.
January 2025 I opened this thread for advises. I educated myself with basics and took the following actions:
One year later:
Total: In 2025 I invested roughly CHF 54 k, this contribution builds on my existing portfolio (20k). The total has already generated about CHF 8.5 k in gains.
Now I need to deepen my understanding of market mechanics and the various types of investments. I’m also vigilant about the risk of bubbles. I’ve observed that many members of this forum achieve considerably higher returns, but it is a start 
Why not also get out of it? (is it sunk cost fallacy, or is there really some amount of time where the initial investment will be unlocked)
Yes, I can now close the policy, and I’m seriously weighing this option. However, I’m hesitant because I contributed CHF 24 k in 2024, the current account value is CHF 22 k, and the surrender value is only CHF 15 k. Closing now would mean an immediate loss of about CHF 7 k.
I need to verify the details, but I understand that the percentage deducted from the surrender value decreases after five years - I will check this.
Close it. Imagine having the money in crappy ETFs invested with bad performance and high TER.
Would you keep it? No, you would sell it with loss and buy solid ETFs.
Obivously, this is just an analogy. The investment behind are mostly pretty good - but since it has an insurance component, there are more costs.
I went through the exact same mental/emotional process. I took the loss out of sheer anger, but anger is not a good counselor.
Map it out, model the potential growth within and out of the insurance product and see the difference between taking the loss and minimizing contributions. The cold hard reality is that you’ll probably never see your full contributions again, let alone any meaningful gains, and it’s feeding a predatory system.
Did you see any gains in the 3b? Apologies if I missed it, my experience was:
Close it. Investing is a long game, imagine how this crap is going to underperform in 20 years.
Besides, do you really want to keep a business relationship with people who scammed you?