UVG for unmarried partners

Banks, Insurances & Third Pillar
1

With the latest KK increase I decidere to really , consequently understand all the various insurances I have and am paying.

I’m not married so I knew that my partner will not get a widow pension from 1st and 3rd pillar (but from my second yes, it has a konkubinat clause). So we did a death insurance (Todesfall Risiko Versicherung), 160.- each one of us for 250’000 chf.

I thought I had considered everything, but it must humbly admit that only now I read the uvg and realized that in case of death by accident, a spouse will receive 40% of the salary up to the uvg maximum (148k). A concubine nothing. Kids 15% each, the entire family max out at 70% salary.

Right now I’m making exactly the uvg maximum salary and have 3 kids, so in case of death my family will receive 15% x 3 = 45% , also ~ 67k. If I had been married, my family would get 25% more to reach the 70% maximum, so 36.5k more up to 103.5k per year.

I was looking for complementary insurances to cover this but it seems they don’t exist. Did anybody find something?

If not, 36k per year equal to 900k capital… I wonder if I should increase my Todesfall Versicherung to reach some sort of parity with a married family.

PS I don’t marry for ideological reason. In Switzerland is still too mixed up with religion.

2

You can tell your 3a company to give your money to your concubine-widow in case of death and thus avoid Erbschaftssteuer

3

What is the difference to declaring the partner as the sole heir in a testament?

4

Difference to which case?
Anyway, partner get taxed up to 55% inheritance depending on canton, so you don’t want to leave the money to your partner.
A todesfall risiko versicherung is taxed as income, so you may end up better off depending on canton.

Additionally you cannot make the partner the sole heir. Your kids will get automatically a part.

5

Difference between telling the 3a trust and declaring it in your testament.

6

I think @assemblyrequired is talking about a normal 3a with a bank and @Grog is talking about a 3a with an insurance company. With an insurance policy, the money does not really belong to you, so it is not inherited in the traditional way, but what is written in the contract happens.

7

Also with a 3a in a bank you can get around the inheritance tax. 3a can get paid to your partner directly without being considered inheritance

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8

I was talking about normal 3a in bank, not insurance. It will get taxed as income at advantageous rate.

I don’t know if the testament is enough to guarantee that concubine will receive.

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9

According to this article from AXA you have to notify your 3a foundation of your intended beneficiary:

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10

How can a marriage contract signed in the city hall be religious? The only thing a court will check for a divorce is the wellbeing of offspring. There again, no religious aspects.

As you rightly anticipate, a marriage would instantly give a better deal to your partner.

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11

This goes slightly Out of Topic and hopefully will not derail the thread.
Our civil marriage law has always been (for obvious reasons) heavily inspired by the Christian Tradition.
Marrying at city hall is not religious, but the entire body of law is still too linked with our western/Christian concept of religious family.
A great step forward has been the marriage for homosexuals two years ago. This step alone made the civil marriage for me more appealing.

But it took so long , and the body of law is still not completely liberal/progressive/multicultural (eg polygamy, which is up to three years jail if you marry a second time)

And the separation between civil and religious marriage is not clean. It’s illegal in Switzerland to have a religious marriage without civil marriage before that.
https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/de#art_97

In my eyes, it’s perfectly fine if two people want to marry under the eyes of their religious community and God, but in a truly secular society, their religious union should be indifferent from their current civil state.

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12

One thing I’ve been thinking about regarding optimizing inheritance taxes (I’m not married and don’t have children): Buying an investment property in a canton which doesn’t have inheritance taxes (real estate is taxed in the canton where it’s located).

There seem to be flexible mortages (called Rollover Hypothek), which would make it possible to pay down the debt on short notice, and thus make it possible to conveniently move liquid assets into a no-inheritance-tax canton on a somewhat short notice.

13

This, dear @Grog would most probably open the door to an significant increase of child marriages or marriages against the will of one of the two.

Religious rules often do not forseen a check if all involved parties there by their proper free will. And also divorce is in some religion not possibly.

By the law you mentioned it is possible to declare such a marriage (created against the proper wish of one) as invalid - no divorce needed.

Are you sure that your pension fund wont give your partner the same benefits as a spouse? It is pretty usual, especially when there are common kids.

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14

Yes my pension fund gives same benefits (2nd pillar).
W
I opened the topic about UVG (unfallversicherung, accident insurance).
In case of death by accident, uvg will pay the widow 40% of the salary until her/his death. This is not done for concubine.
I thought I knew everything, and was checking and checked that all was fine with the 2nd and 3rd pillar. But I had missed this with UVG.

15

Good topic and good discussion, thanks for bringing up the question @Grog !
I would love to know more as well.
Despite a better inheritance, what are the other pros and cons of marriage in the sense of finances and law?
Thanks!

16

There is a ton of stuff online for this topic, just Google “Schweiz konkubinat”

It usually boils down to:
Not-married have higher AHV pension (2x Ahv instead of 1.5), often lower taxes depending on cantons (revenue is not summed up together). Wealth is separated cleanly so easier/less problematic to separate. The lowest income is less protected compared to divorce (no ailments payment)

On the other hand married couple don’t need a certificate to receive health information from doctors, I think there are some exceptions regarding testifying and stuff with tribunals and are better insured and lower taxes on inheritance (again depending on cantons).

Just the top of my head.

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