so 50+% was the cancellation fee, which they charged you due to this transfer?
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It’s not a cancellation fee, it’s the money that went to commissions and insurance premiums.
Whatever the “valeur de rachat”, this is money you will never get back. Even if you wait a few more years for the transfer.
Yes, in general 3a Life insurances are a big scam:
- the short-term costs are super high due to the various commissions taken by the middlemen and the reinsurance cost (life insurers insure themselves to reinsurers in case something happens to you)
- the long term costs are even higher, although this one is not obvious: if you do a simulation of the difference between what this product will return and what it could have returned if you were in a low fees passive index 3a type, over 35 years the difference is absolutely insane.
So exit it as soon as possible. Others have been burned (me included), and you can find various topics on the subject in the forum.
On a final note, this scam will continue for a long time: most financial “advisors” and insurance brokers have super high incentives to sell you life insurances because the commissions are incredible: usually the broker gets an upfront fee of the lifetime revenue your contract will generate, and it is not rare that this fee equals an amount of 1-2 years of what you will contribute to the contract.
Given these incentives, there is absolutely no surprise that most advisors and brokers will never recommend solutions like VIAC or Frankly when the 3a topic comes in the discussion.
This topic makes me so angry i almost want to create a website “www.3a-life-insurances-are-a-scam.ch”.
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Exactly, I would like to add that if you really need a financial advisor (some cases are complex). Always use a fee-based advisor and not a commission-based.
In most cases, I wouldn’t recommend a 3a with life insurance, but in a few cases, it can make sense. I won’t qualify these products as scams but they are not attractive. I follow this logic: if bank A offers a mortgage with a 1% fixed rate and bank B offers 5%. Is bank B a scammer?
Viac works with WIR which is a bank 
A broker paid in commission will always recommend an insurance product because the commission is higher due to the contract length.
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That’s kind of the way they trick you to go for life insurance. They say it’s either bank or insurance, and bank interest is 0.1%, so we are better.
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I think I had the same Zurich product, see my story here :
Just cancelled my contrat.
I will certainly take a pure risk life insurance because I have 1 (and soon :-)) 2 kids.
Here is the documentation of the product I had : https://www.zurich.ch/-/media/zurich-site/content/privatkunden/vorsorge-anlage/dokumente/zurich-vorsorge-premium/factsheet-vorsorge-premium-e.pdf
Hi, just curious what the rationale for taking life insurance in Switzerland is. There is already a life insurance component baked into the 2nd Pillar, no?
Edit: OK, I just looked at one of my 2nd pillar statements… it would only pay out 22% of salary for the partner + 8% per child…not sure how these numbers are calculated.
Risk premium only (aka. Life Insurance) is inexpensive. I pay ~350 CHF/y for 500k payout in case of death which is a fair price for some peace of mind for the family
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No i paid monthly the amount of CHF 564.- during 42 months = CHF 23’688.-
I had the possibility to buyback whenever i wanted but with some penaltys (like the part of the insurance seller, the cost of the insurance).
I’m really happy with my choice and convinced that i will make way more money with my 3a VIAC till my pension comes (i’m 26 btw). But it was a tough decision… losing 50%, regardless of the amount, is really hard! So be sure you can live with it!
You (or get someone with a higher chance of being published) should try to write an op-ed for NZZ or Tagesanzeiger or somewhere. I’m sure it could be a hit. 
I doubt those newspapers would touch a story like that. They are in cahoots with “the finance industry”.
Look at their articles on 3a, they still see nothing wrong with a 45% stocks fund with TER > 1.5%. It comes from a big fancy bank, so it must be good.
@glina: could you mention which one or a few from top of your mind? We just started family and its high time I get one.
Who? Me ? 
I’m with PAX, but you need to contact an advisor to get a quote. Swisslife has a calculator online, you can give it a go. The rates I got from both were quite similar, but your situation may be different.
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I was interested by the one from la mobiliere.
Will get you posted. I will make some research this month.
Generali : 20 year, CHF 243.70/ year
Capital : CHF 200’000
Any better offer from your side ?
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I haven’t been able to look it up yet. The baby is 1 week old and corona made sure that family could not fly in to help 
I’ll write back here as soon I as I have some more info.
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I also had a quote from Mobiliar. More expensive than PAX and Swisslife, but they had some interesting perks (for example, doubled payout if 2 persons insured die at the same time, how unlikely this may be).
The quote will vary significantly depending on your age, duration of insurance, risk group etc. I also went for decreasing sum, as I accumulate wealth independently anyway. My policy is 500k for 30y. Decreasing ~16k/year which suits me perfectly.
Hello @belouga13
I have exactly the same contract that I concluded in 2018 in Geneva, but in 3b because it is tax deductible up to CHF 2’200. I have been living in the Canton of Vaud since 2019, so I changed this insurance to 3a in April 2020.
It is by falling on this forum and various other blogs on the FIRE movement that I noticed the strangeness of this type of insurance. After calling my advisor at Swiss Life Select last week, he recommended that I keep this insurance and mix it with a bank 3a (I told him about VIAC, and he told me it was a good product, but nothing more).
As of today, I have only paid 2x 2’200 CHF (4’400 CHF) and I have to pay my contribution for this year, which I haven’t done yet, because I decided to cancel everything and transfer it to VIAC with a long term (35 years); cash surrender value at CHF 1’298.- (so I will lose CHF 3’000.- with the transfer, but I prefer that than to lose more next year).
Moreover, this is a shit product, I earned CHF 14 last year with the excess part, wow!
@Julianek: I thank you for this complete post which only confirmed what I thought for a few weeks about this type of insurance. My adviser even suggested me to keep this insurance to become a homeowner. I don’t know if I’m going to become one one day, so I prefer not to keep it and have to re-contract it, but surely with a 3a bank if necessary than a 3a life insurance… Thanks again!
Swiss Life Select are among the worst. They sold me a Life Insurance 3a in 2016 and fortunately i realized that it was a money-losing machine early enough so i did not lose more than 4’000 CHF.
First advice: Those 4’400 CHF you paid are sunk costs, don’t expect to recover them and exit as soon as possible.
Second advice: I will assume Swiss Life Select used the same sales techniques with you as they did with me. If you want to understand how badly you were manipulated, I advise you to read Influence, by Robert Cialdini. In particular, you will learn about the following principles:
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Social Proof Principle : Swiss Life Select usually contacts you because they asked one of your acquaintance who could benefit from their services and you were mentioned at some point. They make sure you are aware of this. When people have no clue about one product, the fact that their friends and acquaintances use it can only be a good sign, right?
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Commitment/Consistency principle: Swiss Life Select will ask to send their advisor directly at your home to have a first session with you. There is a bias in all of our brains that makes us want to look consistent in our actions: surely if I have let those people come into my house, i am interested in their products, right? You will find it very difficult to reject them afterward.
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Authority Principle : this one is more classic, but the “advisor” was likely to wear a suit, look like he knows what he is talking about, and maybe using quite a lot of jargon, so a hierarchy of knowledge is created between you two: he is the one knowing what you should do, and you should listen to it. (At least, that’s how your brain works).
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Liking principle: like any good sales person, your advisor was likely to be friendly, even complimented you at some point by a) trying to find a common point between you two (in my case, it was musical taste) or b) praising how good of a decision maker you are and how other people are idiots. We are easy preys for flattery.
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Scarcity: i don’t remember but it is likely that his guy made you a time-limited offer, triggering a fear of missing out.
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Reciprocation: if this guy made you any insignificant favor, it is likely you want to reciprocate.
And other techniques i may have forgotten.
Any single one of these factors are powerful in themselves, but combined together they are really deadly. No wonder so many people fall in this trap!
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