As soon as I got some money few years ago, I immediately opened a 3a account, as once the year is over, one cannot retro-actively deposit, buy-back or whatever you call it.

Last year my bank gave me a brochure which mentioned about 3a / 3b but since it was in French, little value did it have for me and planning the family finances.

Several questions to those who walked this path:

- can I have *both* 3a and 3b pension
- is the 3b again, year-specific, i.e. no buy-back and December deadline for the current year?
- is there a tax-deductible limit to the 3b similar to 3a
- should I keep depositing into the same 3a each year, or open multiple accounts in multiple banks/insurance companies? What is your view on that?

Please share anything else related that comes to mind, you can tell I am novice to the subject so any tips are welcome!

Thanks

Yes. You can have both.

3a is regulated (liee) 3b is not (libre).

There are limits, entry/exit dates, etc to 3a but not to 3b.

You get tax breaks on 3a but not on 3b.

Had to google that as it threw me a little bit, 3b accounts is any saving account or capital saving vehicle of any type. Leaving your money in your current account could be seen as 3b, there is no such thing as a 3b account, it's just a concept.

See here

Might also be interesting for you to read up a little bit on the Swiss Pension System. Excellent resource here in English from Credit Suisse.

Thank you guys for the quick answers. While browsing the forum I also came across this link https://www.postfinance.ch/en/priv/p...pare/3a-b.html

Is it fair to say that between my current savings account and 3b, there is little difference beyond the title? It seems like 3b is a "dedicated" for retirement savings account but not much more? No tax deductions, taxable in your annual return (like fortune/assets)? Am I missing/overlooking something?

Regarding the single-vs-many 3eme accounts? What say you? Pile everything into one pot/bank/insurance company, or spread them among (for example) three different institutions? Year 1: bank A, year 2: bank B, year 3: insurance co C, ... and then year 4 again to bank A?

Well I don't live in Geneva, and your products don't sound very interesting to me... I'm out!