Advantages

Because you deserve the best.

Employer

Your advantages as an employer

Avanea closes the gap between full insurance and a collective foundation. Employers and employees benefit from maximum security, low pension premiums and high investment returns with above-average interest rates for higher retirement benefits.

Avanea is the first independent collective foundation to offer capital protection against the risk of reductions in retirement assets in the event of partial liquidations due to contract termination or restructuring with insufficient cover.

This earmarked reserve is financed by employer contributions and investment income.

When you join Avanea, you and your employees choose the investment strategy you want. Avanea offers two different strategies. Avanea 30 with a strategic equity component of 30% and a bandwidth of 20% to 50% or the new investment pool Avanea PizSol, which will be available from January 1, 2025. This pool is based on a return-oriented investment strategy and a dynamic investment allocation, i.e., reacting to market events and taking advantage of opportunities as they arise without sacrificing sustainability.

Further information on our two investment pools can be found on the Investment pools page.

Thanks to its successful investment activities, Avanea was able to exceed the interest rate set by the Federal Council in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023. This enabled our policyholders to benefit from additional interest on their entire capital. Link

The risks of death and disability are 100% reinsured externally. Thanks to the law of large numbers, all affiliated employers benefit from a high level of security and favorable conditions in the risk area.

Regardless of the sector, the risk premium is calculated on the basis of the insured benefits, the average age of the insured persons and the available retirement assets. Industry-specific surcharges are not applied. A comparison between your current pension solution and Avanea will show you any savings.

With most pension solutions, the risk premiums are adjusted annually based on the age of the insured persons. Avanea, on the other hand, defines a uniform risk premium for all insured employees. Provided the average age of the insured employees does not fluctuate too much, we guarantee the risk rate for the next three years.

If the foundation is underfunded due to a future financial crisis and restructuring measures have to be implemented as a result, the restructuring contributions are recognized as employer contribution reserves with a waiver of use. This corresponds to a loan from the employer to its own pension fund and therefore does not represent a cost. As soon as the bottleneck has been overcome, the advances made can be used to pay the current contributions.

Occupational pension provision is an attractive instrument for tax optimization.

As a company, you have the option of transferring so-called employer contribution reserves in addition to the regular contributions. This allows you to temporarily increase your personnel expenses and consequently reduce your company’s profit. This reduces the liquid funds not required for operations, and at the same time, leads to a lower tax burden.

Ask your insurance broker and/or tax advisor about your options for tax optimization through occupational pension provision.

Invoices for pension fund contributions are issued quarterly, at the end of each quarter.

Avanea does not charge interest on arrears.

Whether you want your insurance broker to take care of the advice and administrative processing, or whether you prefer direct contact with us – we are happy to adapt to your wishes.

Insured persons

Advantages for insured persons

Avanea places actively insured persons, recipients of retirement pensions, disability pensions and surviving dependants at the center of its activities. The following benefits summarize the most important aspects that set us apart in the pension market.

The realized profits are first used to pay the legally required interest. In addition, reserves must be formed to cover future fluctuations and to ensure the solidity of the pension fund. The available surplus is credited to you as additional interest. In 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023, our insured persons were able to benefit from additional interest. Our policyholders have benefited from an average interest rate of 2.00% since the scheme was established. INTERESTING

This protection is the main advantage of Avanea.

The partial liquidation risk only arises if the affiliation is terminated or if your employer is undergoing restructuring that leads to redundancies. In these two cases, a so-called partial liquidation must be carried out at the pension fund: If the pension fund is overfunded (coverage ratio > 102%), the departing employees may be entitled to the available reserves in the form of potential additional interest. If the pension fund is underfunded (coverage ratio < 98%), this can lead to a reduction in the retirement assets saved.

At Avanea, the accumulated retirement assets are not reduced, as we have set aside appropriate reserves to cover this risk.

With Avanea, active insured persons can freely choose the proportion of the desired lump-sum withdrawal and retirement pension when they reach retirement age.

Many pension funds apply different conversion rates (so-called split conversion rate) for the BVG portion of the retirement assets (currently 6.8%) and a greatly reduced rate for the non-mandatory portion (sometimes below 5%).

Avanea uses a uniform conversion rate (so-called enveloping conversion rate) and therefore does not differentiate between mandatory BVG capital and extra-mandatory capital (current conversion rate in 2024 at age 65 is 6.1%).

As a rule, around 50-70% of the total pension capital is mandatory BVG capital. This leads to a higher retirement pension if the overall conversion rate is applied.

If an insured person has made tax-privileged purchases with Avanea for missing contribution years, these will be refunded to the surviving dependants in addition to any pensions in the event of death.

If the deceased insured person was a single parent, Avanea pays a care pension of the same amount in addition to the orphan’s pension.

The Federal Disability Insurance Act (IVG) only provides for a partial pension of 25% in the event of partial disability from 40% of the degree of disability. Many pension funds and pension schemes follow this logic and only grant a disability pension for partial disability from 40% of the degree of disability

Avanea grants disability pensions from an IV degree of 25% and increases them in line with the degree of disability.

Example assumption: Employee, monthly salary CHF 6,000 before disability, now awarded partial disability 33%, insured disability pension 2nd pillar (with 100% degree of disability) CHF 1,742.50

According to IVG logic: continued salary CHF 4,000, IV pension from 1st pillar
CHF 0, from 2nd pillar CHF 0

Avanea: continuing salary CHF 4,000, IV pension from 1st pillar CHF 0, from 2nd pillar Avanea CHF 580.85

A death not only leaves an emotional gap for the deceased, but usually also a financial one for funeral costs and the like. Avanea takes this into account and offers an additional lump-sum death benefit of CHF 10,000 for all insured persons, without a cost surcharge.

If a person opts for a retirement pension on retirement, the conversion rate on ordinary retirement is 6.1% of the enveloping capital. In the event of death after retirement, the surviving spouse receives 60% of this as a spouse’s retirement pension.

As the expenses for the surviving partner sometimes do not necessarily decrease in the event of death – for example, rental costs remain the same – Avanea Pensionskasse has taken this into account and introduced the 90/90 pension model as of January 1, 2024.

The insured person can opt for the 90/90 pension model before the first pension is paid out, provided this does not fall below the BVG minimum benefits. In this case, the calculated retirement pension is reduced by 10%. In contrast, the spouse’s prospective retirement pension is increased to 100%. In the event of death, the spouse thus receives a spouse’s retirement pension that is the same as the retirement pension.

Example: Man, married, retirement assets at retirement age CHF 300,000. Age at retirement 65 years

Traditional: CHF 300,000 x conversion rate of 6.1% results in a retirement pension of
CHF 18,300.00 and a prospective spouse’s retirement pension of CHF 10,980.00

Model 90/90: CHF 300,000 x conversion rate of 6.1% x 90% results in a retirement pension of CHF 16,470.00 and a constant reversionary spouse’s retirement pension of CHF 16,470.00

A new option for voluntary insurance (external membership) has been created. This enables the insured person, for example in the event of unemployment, maternity or a sabbatical, to continue the insurance for a maximum of two years. The insured person has the choice of continuing to insure only the risks of death and disability (without savings contributions) or also building up retirement provision (with savings contributions). The previous AHV salary will continue to be insured unchanged. Irrespective of this, the retirement assets will continue to accrue interest. The administration costs have been set at CHF 150.00 per year.

Retirement is now possible in a maximum of 5 steps. A maximum of 3 lump-sum withdrawals are possible. In the case of partial retirement, the benefit entitlement corresponds to the extent of the salary reduction.

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