Federal Act
on the Amendment of the Swiss Civil Code
(Part Five: The Code of Obligations)

¹ At any time up to three years be­fore be­com­ing en­titled to draw re­tire­ment be­ne­fits, the em­ploy­ee may claim an amount from his be­ne­fits scheme for the pur­pose of ac­quir­ing a prop­erty for his own per­son­al use.

² Em­ploy­ees un­der the age of 50 may with­draw an amount up to the lim­it of their trans­fer­able be­ne­fits. Em­ploy­ees aged 50 or older are en­titled to with­draw no more than the trans­fer­able be­ne­fit en­ti­tle­ment they would have had at 50 or one-half of their trans­fer­able be­ne­fit en­ti­tle­ment at the time of the early with­draw­al.

³ The em­ploy­ee may also use such amount for the pur­pose of ac­quir­ing shares in a hous­ing co­oper­at­ive or sim­il­ar par­ti­cip­at­ory ven­ture provided a res­id­en­tial unit jointly fin­anced in this man­ner is for the em­ploy­ee’s own per­son­al use.

⁴ The early with­draw­al brings about an im­me­di­ate re­duc­tion in oc­cu­pa­tion­al be­ne­fit en­ti­tle­ments in ac­cord­ance with the be­ne­fits scheme reg­u­la­tions and the ac­tu­ar­ial basis em­ployed by the be­ne­fits scheme. In or­der to avoid a short­fall in be­ne­fits cov­er res­ult­ing from this re­duc­tion in be­ne­fits in the event of death or dis­ab­il­ity, the be­ne­fits scheme of­fers sup­ple­ment­ary in­sur­ance either dir­ectly or as broker for a third-party in­surer.

⁵ Mar­ried em­ploy­ees may make such an early with­draw­al and any sub­sequent es­tab­lish­ment of a charge on im­mov­able prop­erty only with the writ­ten con­sent of their spouse. Where the em­ploy­ee can­not ob­tain such con­sent or if it is with­held, the em­ploy­ee may ap­ply to the civil courts. The same ap­plies to re­gistered part­ner­ships.¹⁶²

⁶ Where mar­ried per­sons di­vorce be­fore the be­ne­fits fall due, the early with­draw­al is deemed a trans­fer­able be­ne­fit and is di­vided in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 123 of the Civil Code¹⁶³, Art­icles 280 and 281 CPO¹⁶⁴ and Art­icles 22–22b of the Ves­ted Be­ne­fits Act of 17 Decem­ber 1993¹⁶⁵. The same ap­plies in the event of ju­di­cial dis­sol­u­tion of a re­gistered part­ner­ship.¹⁶⁶

⁷ If the early with­draw­al or pledge of en­ti­tle­ments jeop­ard­ises the li­quid­ity of the be­ne­fits scheme, the fund may de­fer ex­e­cu­tion of the re­quests con­cerned. The be­ne­fits scheme must lay down in its reg­u­la­tions the or­der of pri­or­ity in which early with­draw­als or pledges of en­ti­tle­ments will be de­ferred in such an event. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates the de­tails.

⁸ In oth­er re­spects Art­icles 30d, 30e, 30g and Art­icle 83a of the Fed­er­al Act of 25 June 1982¹⁶⁷ on Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Old Age, Sur­viv­ors' and In­valid­ity Pen­sion Pro­vi­sion are ap­plic­able.¹⁶⁸