VIAC or ValuePension (FinPension) for 2nd Pillar (vested benefits)

1

Hi all,

I just left a job with no other job lined up, and will be placing my 2nd Pillar assets into either VIAC, or FinPension, or both. I will be splitting the assets into two accounts. So either two accounts at FinPension (they allow that), or one account at FinPension and one at VIAC. For an Individual Strategy, it looks like these two accounts are very similar in terms of fund offerings and costs. Has anyone done a comparison of the two? The only difference I see:

  • FinPension charges a fee for withdrawal in the first year
  • FinPension allows to turn off rebalancing. I can’t find info on whether VIAC allows the same. Does anyone know?
  • VIAC only allows a 99% equity allocation for the extra-mandatory part, while FinPension allows it for all. But this might be circumvented if you only send the extra-mandatory to them? Not sure.
  • VIAC has local currency funds (eg. USD) which I like, while FinPension has exclusively CHF-hedged share classes. But I can’t fin any info if VIAC hedges the entire portolio.

Any information, opinion, experience super welcome :slight_smile:

2

I’d split to both to diversify against risk that something goes wrong with one or the other. You can also split into 2 each, not sure if that flexibility might be useful to you or not.

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3

Viac mandates 40% in CHF, so you need to use hedged funds.
Finpension doesn’t.

Not sure what you mean by your last point - I am quite certain Finpension has unhedged funds.
Some might be denominated in CHF, but not necessarily CHF-hedged.

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4
  1. Are you sure? I couldn’t find this fee.
    Aside - do u plan to withdraw within 1 year? Then going fully invested may be deemed a bit risky.
  2. No, one can’t turn off rebalancing @ Viac.
  3. Viac-mandatory allows max. 80% equity, but the remaining 19% can be RE, bonds, alternative etc., it doesn’t have to be 20% cash.
  4. other people have answered this, but yes, Finpension is certainly not “exclusively CHF-hedged”.

As an extra, I transferred pots to Viac and Finpension.

  • Viac automatically made 2 portfolios at one FreizĂĽgigkeitsstiftung (mandatory and over-mandatory - it has to do that because mandatory pots has some portfolio limitations)
  • At Finpension it comes into one portfolio per FreizĂĽgigkeitsstiftung

I went for Viac and Finpension as a way to mitigate risk IMO. I went for ex-CH stuff only at Finpension, and then the mainly CH-stuff at Viac, resulting in only a smallish home bias IMO overall. CH-stuff at Viac due to limitations at Viac (40% CHF), foreign currency funds for foreign equity (=FX losses).

5

With the differences in treatment with the mandatory portion, does that favour putting mandatory amounts in one vs another?

6

Sorry, maybe unclear.
example:
PK 500k
BVG Anteil 200k (mandatory part)
split into 2 (for example 50:50) (one can choose any ratio)
It will look like this:
Viac mandatory 100k
Viac over-mandatory 150k
Finpension I 250k (40% mandatory)

It was not possible (in my case, and I think this is generally the case) to put mandatory to one and non-mandatory to another Stiftung, in each of the two pots the mandatory % is the same. You can split the amount freely, but not define where mandatory should go.

AFAIK When starting a new job and transferring from Viac, both amounts will be summed up, the total will be transferred with extra info “BVG Anteil Xk / mandatory”.

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7

Just to add - on this I have the opposite opinion - local currency funds (US fund in USD) at Viac means you convert CHF’s when buying and convert back when selling = up to 1% FX loss, although they use netting to reduce this, it is not clear how much you are paying.
Finpension offers the unhedged CHF version of the US Fund, which is better, since the FX is done inside the fund, at much better rates.

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8

Maybe I got confused. I thought it was possible to split mandatory to one and non-mandatory to another.

9

This is very clear. Thank you. I was also wondering if someone could send the mandatory to one provider and the extra-mandatory to another, and you have clarified this perfectly.