AVENA evening information sessions
Over 250 fund members attended AVENA’s three evening information sessions held in fall 2024, the third year in a row we have offered this event. The impressive online and in-person turnout and the numerous questions asked underscored members’ need for information on the Swiss pension system, as well as their keen interest in retirement planning.
This year, for the first time, we used a different format for each information session. The first one, “Occupational pension Q&A night,” was our first extended question-and-answer session run both in-person and online; it proved to be a hit, with close to 120 questions asked at the event. The following session, “The ABCs of your occupational pension,” was held as a German-only online event for the first time and drew a large crowd. The final session, “Key steps in retirement planning,” was held in Lausanne in person, bringing together fund members of all ages from across Vaud Canton.
Advantages of AVENA
Some fund members had questions about how the Swiss pension system works in general: When can I take early retirement? What steps do I need to take now if I want to retire in five years? How is the conversion rate calculated, and how low can it go? What reference salary will be used to calculate my AVS pension if I change employers one year before retirement?
Other members asked questions specific to how AVENA works, which gave panelists the opportunity to highlight AVENA’s advantages relative to other pension funds. These include the inability to rapidly reduce the conversion rate under the current regulations, and the fact that if a member dies before retirement, any voluntary contributions (less early withdrawals) will be returned to the beneficiaries.
Spotlight on phased retirement
Fund members’ questions also pointed to their embrace of the trend toward phased retirement: Can I continue to work after I retire? In which canton does it make sense tax-wise to hold my retirement capital if I retire abroad? Can I stop working at 55? Should my retirement budget be the same at 86 as it is when I’m 66? Questions such as these showed that people in Switzerland are increasingly choosing to keep working at least part-time in retirement or to ease into retirement, whether for financial reasons or to maintain social ties.
Voluntary contributions: beyond the basics
These increasingly complex retirement situations also prompted a great many questions about voluntary contributions, also known in Switzerland as “purchasing” past years to close any gaps in pension coverage. Until what age can I continue to make voluntary contributions? How do I make voluntary contributions when I have several businesses registered in my name? How can I simulate my options for making voluntary contributions?
Francis Bouvier, the director of AVENA, and Olivier Reymond, a retirement planning specialist at BCV, reviewed the basics of voluntary contributions in their presentations. They also provided tips and tools for fund members on understanding their pension statements, preparing a retirement budget, keeping in mind important deadlines, spreading their pension assets across several accounts in order to stagger withdrawals, and more.
“Take out your phones!”
The sessions were highly interactive, with attendees encouraged to use their mobile phones to submit anonymous questions and respond to live polls, such as “How many of you have already made a retirement budget?” Despite the differences in fund members’ individual situations, this format revealed a number of common questions and doubts – underscoring the importance of information sessions like these. See you in 2025!
Learn more
Click on the links below for a recap of the three information sessions discussed here. Answers to a number of questions asked by fund members are available here.
