Well I dug around and didn't find this posted anywhere.
Maybe I missed it.
Anyway, I worked in Zurich on a 6 month contract in 2006, and then I worked as an employee for over a year 2007-2008.
I have left Switzerland, is there any way to collect my pension fund?
I heard through the grapevine that when I started working foreigners could withdraw their pension early if they left Switzerland (with a penalty) and then after I had been working for some time I heard (just hearsay) that the law had been changed. If so, am I grandfathered?
How does one go about doing such a thing?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Oh one bit of info that may be important. The 2nd job was in Thurgau.

I left another country to come to Switzerland. I contacted HR who explained everything and gave me the contact details. Try that approach - use email to keep records too.

As far as I know:
-It depends where you go after CH. EU and some other countrise have agreement with CH, so that the money is transferred to your dest. country.
- Until 2 years ago you could easier cash it out but rules are changed.
-To countires without agreement with CH, you can cash it after some months.
- If you stay more than 10 years in CH, then you can get your pension (or part of it) via CH, even living in another country.

Correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks for the info. Any idea on how to contact the part of the gov't that handles pension?

Are you asking about the state pension (Pillar 1) or the company pension (Pillar 2)?

Contact your last Swiss employer about the company pension. Either they are holding the assets themselves or have transferred to a "Freizügigkeitskonto" (vested benefits account).

Depends on where you went and your nationality.

I'm an American living in Ukraine now.

It is probably best to contact the AHV Organisation directly.

They will have the correct answers for you. The bad thing
now is that you are in Ukraine and cannot just walk down
there.

You should be able to take out your company pension, AHV, with a small tax charge, 8% maybe. For Social Security, there is Social Security agreement between the US and Ch, so you won't collect anything on this. You need to contact the AHV office, plus do you know where you company pension money is sitting now? Probably in one of the Vested Funds foundations, so you will need to contact them also, you should find out from your previous employer.

I've a friend who recently asked me this question. She's going to Germany, so I guess the chances of her getting the money, rather than having to transfer it into a German pension fund are pretty low. Is this the case?

Please have a look at the relevant section of Swiss pensions consolidated summary

I would be interested to hear other reports of the actual steps to get the money back, I will add this to the sticky.

D

I'm shortly leaving Switzerland after working here for nine years. My employer tells me my pension will be put into a blocked account until I'm 65. However I have heard rumours that there are ways of getting your pension in a lump sump by moving to a non eu country. Is this true? I've also heard that you can raid your pension for the purpose of buying property. Again, is this true?
Any helpful advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

did you look at the top post in this thread?

http://www.englishforum.ch/finance-banking-taxation/

Swiss pensions consolidated summary

that should cover everything!

Thank you so much, I'm starting to get my head around it. One more question or two. Can I sort all this out before I leave Switzerland? My employer has fairly inept or lazy accounts dept and they tell me that I can't do anything until my contract officially ends. Finally the sum for working out how much I can take... I'm a little slow. It's my age minus 20 to the power of 4, which equals the percentage I can take, minus the compulsory part. Correct?

Out of interest, what do you plan to do with the cash?

I'm not at all sure of the wisdom of taking the cash out of the system. For instance lets say you have about 200K in the fund right now and you move it out of the system, allowing for interest growth alone, that would mean you have just burned off about 50K of the capital sum of your future pension......

Just my 2c,

Jim

Uhh spend it? Could you expand on the wisdom of leaving it in?

I just did!!! When do you want to retire? Are you going to be happy to live on less than others in the future? What happens if you develop some illness and are unable to work in the future?

I know a couple of people that did exactly what you are suggesting, they are now in their mid forties and are crying at the amounts they now have to pay into the pension in order to be able to have a decent pension when they retire and they will be working to 65....

The back of a napkin calculation would suggest that you need to have saved between 700,000 and 1,000,000 in order to enjoy a pension of around 4,000 per month... at that point there will probably be two of you to support, non insured medical stuff, helping out your kids with their finances and what not.

The bottom line is that the sooner you stand saving the earlier you can retire and the better the pension you can expect....

Jim

Ok, another question. Bear with me Jim. If I'm leaving CH then the money goes into a blocked account earning 1.5% not much above the rate of inflation, correct, this is why I thought about extracting it. Can I continue to put money into my 1st and 2nd pillars and thereby keep my pension pot alive whilst living and working in the eu? or do I need to transfer the pension to another pension scheme in my eu country of residence?

You would have to check with your pension company, generally it stays in the 'pot' so goes up along with everyone else (or down). You can also transfer your pension to another pension company either here or the uk etc.

On the flip side, I had a quite large pension in the uk which I kept there, every year since its gone down by about 6k gbp, I'd have been better off sticking the cash in my matress