New pension compensation in case of divorce
The pension compensation in case of divorce will be adjusted. Read here what is valid from 1 January 2017.
If a divorce is imminent, there are many questions to be answered. Among other things, after the division of property - including the pension assets.
Pension assets are divided according to the principle of participation in acquired. This means the husband gets half of his wife and vice versa. Divided are the assets accumulated during the marriage. If only one spouse is employed, that means he or she loses half of the assets because there's nothing to share from the other side.
Here the most important changes that come into force on 1 January 2017:
- Authoritative date for the calculation is no longer the end of the divorce proceedings but the initiation.
- Newly division will also be performed if the pension pool is paying benefits already, for example, a retirement or disability benefit. In these cases the calculation is based on a hypothetical withdrawal benefit or an existing pension is divided.
- Pension and vested benefits institutions must make regularly report to the 2nd Pillar Central Office so that no pension assets are removed from the division process.
- If a person receives pension assets out of a division, but is not connected to a pension scheme him- or herself, they can be transferred to the Foundation "Auffangeinrichtung BVG" and can later be converted into a pension.
For people already divorced there are transitional arrangements until 31 December 2017. Of course, the changes also apply to persons in a registered partnership.
Source: www.admin.ch