Vested benefits: the complete guide to leaving nothing asleep.
Everything you need to know about vested benefits foundations: what they are for, how they work, what to do with them.
Vested benefits is the waiting room of your 2nd pillar. When your assets do not know where to go — between two jobs, after leaving Switzerland, during a long break — they land there. Legal, safe. But often forgotten.
When vested benefits kicks in
Four common situations — the fourth creates the most lost assets:
- You leave an employer without having a new one immediately.
- Your new employer has no pension fund (rare but possible for very small companies).
- You take unpaid leave longer than a few months.
- You leave Switzerland for the EU/EFTA — the mandatory part of your LPP must compulsorily be paid into a vested benefits account in CH.
Who manages vested benefits assets
| Type | Number | Profile |
|---|---|---|
| Banking foundations | ~340 | Linked to a bank (UBS, Raiffeisen, BCV, BCGE…) or independent. Account or securities. |
| Life insurance policies | Several dozen | Built-in risk coverage (death, disability). More expensive but more complete. |
| Supplementary Institution LPP | 1 | Official safety net. Receives by default if no other instruction. |
Details on the three system institutions (funds, foundations, supplementary) are covered in our who does what article. For the difference between account and policy, see our account vs policy comparison.
Your options on a vested benefits account
| Option | When it's relevant |
|---|---|
| Let it sleep | Short transition (< 1 year). Legal until 5 years after the ordinary retirement age. Interest rate often < 1%. |
| Transfer it | You resume employment. Transfer to the new fund is mandatory within 6 months. |
| Invest in securities | Long horizon (>10 years). Available at most foundations, fees to compare (see our fees article). |
| Withdraw it | Legal case: main residence purchase, departure outside the EU, self-employment, retirement, total disability. |
Why it is complicated to track everything
You can have several vested benefits accounts, opened at different moments. The law limits to two accounts for the same beneficiary — but in practice, many people have more, unknowingly, because no central system unifies the information on the individual's side.
How Pillarum helps you
We send a pooled power of attorney to the Central 2nd-Pillar Office and to the 340 Swiss vested benefits foundations. In 4 to 6 weeks, you know exactly where your assets are and who holds them. For the precise amount, that is the next step (consolidation with the identified funds). Free, no commitment, no forced product sale.
- 01Vested benefits is the legal waiting room of the 2nd pillar — for periods without an active fund.
- 02~340 vested benefits foundations in CH + 1 supplementary institution (the Central Office, in Berne) receive pending assets.
- 034 options: let it sleep, transfer to a new fund, invest in securities, withdraw (if legal case).
- 04At withdrawal, the taxing canton is the foundation's, not the taxpayer's — hence the value of a prior transfer to a favorable canton.
To start, first read our intro to the 2nd pillar. To dig into the choice between the two products, see account vs policy. And to understand fees to scrutinize before opening an account, our fee guide.