Honest answers without advisor-speak. No pressure, no commission.
Costs & Cancellation
The costs depend on your policy. Typical costs include: surrender loss (difference between premiums paid and current surrender value), cancellation fees in the early years of the contract, and forfeited death benefit premiums.
Our Delta Check shows you the exact amount for your situation — free and without any sales pressure.
Short-term, possibly yes — due to the surrender loss. Long-term, however, almost always no: index fund products (VIAC, finpension, Frankly) have historically grown significantly faster than guaranteed insurance returns. The Rescue Delta shows you exactly from which year you come out ahead.
Switching is almost always worthwhile: 10+ years until retirement, effective total costs above 1.5% p.a.
Switching is less sensible: Less than 3 years until retirement, you're already in your last contribution year, or you have a high death benefit need that you cannot replace more cheaply separately.
When in doubt, run the numbers — that's exactly what the Delta Calculator was built for.
A combined 3a insurance policy includes built-in death benefit cover. When switching to a pure fund solution, this cover falls away.
You can, however, take out pure term life insurance separately at usually lower rates — or review whether you actually still need it (occupational pension coverage, own assets, partner's insurance, etc.).
Bank vs. Insurance Basics
A 3a bank account or fund depot saves your money directly — no insurance component, low costs, full transparency. You can cancel or pause it at any time.
A 3a insurance policy combines saving with a death benefit and runs as a long-term contract. The catch: costs for distribution, administration, and risk premium often consume 15–25% of annual contributions that never flow into your balance.
Because a significant portion of every premium is consumed, not saved: distribution commissions to the advisor, administration fees, risk premium for the death benefit.
With bank products like VIAC or finpension, often over 95% of every payment flows directly into your depot. That is the structural difference — and why switching almost always makes financial sense over a long remaining term.
The surrender value (German: Rückkaufswert) is the amount the insurance company pays you if you cancel your contract before it matures.
It is almost always below the total premiums you have paid — because the early years are 'used up' by acquisition costs and commissions. Our Delta Check shows you how large this gap is in your specific situation.
Yes, that is possible. With a paid-up policy you stop paying premiums but the contract continues — with a reduced savings portion and death benefit. You avoid an immediate surrender loss, but still miss out on returns compared to an active fund depot.
Whether this makes more sense than cancellation depends on your remaining term and current surrender value. The Delta Calculator helps you run those numbers.
Tax Staggering
When withdrawing 3a funds at retirement, a lump-sum withdrawal tax applies. This is calculated separately and progressively per account.
Multiple smaller accounts, withdrawn in different tax years, can massively reduce the tax burden — depending on canton and balance, savings of CHF 5,000 to CHF 20,000+ are possible.
Swiss Pillar 3a (voluntary pension savings) is Switzerland's private pension system that provides tax advantages while saving for retirement.
Rule of thumb: Total balance ÷ CHF 50,000 ≈ optimal number of accounts.
Our Tax Staggering Planner calculates the tax-optimal number precisely for your balance, your canton, and your situation — including a full tax comparison across all scenarios.
No. Tax rates and progression curves are canton-specific. Zurich has a different curve than Schwyz or Basel-City.
Our calculator covers all 26 cantons and shows the actual tax savings for your place of residence.
Security & Privacy
Yes. Documents are transmitted and stored with encryption (AES-256). Access is restricted to the 3a-Rescue team for processing your request — no sharing with third parties, no insurance partners, no advertising partners.
After completing the analysis, your documents are deleted.
No. The Delta Check is completely anonymous with respect to your insurance company. We do not contact your provider and do not share any information.
Your insurer will not know that you are analysing your situation or considering a switch — certainly not before you sign anything.
Yes. The calculator works completely without an account or email address. Your inputs are not saved.
You only need an email address if you want the result delivered as a PDF or have requested an individual analysis.
Only the 3a-Rescue team — specifically: Janek Heise, Amselstrasse 28, 4104 Oberwil (operator).
No external advisors, no insurance partners, no third parties. Your documents are used exclusively to process your specific request and are then deleted.
Legal & Trust
No. 3a-Rescue is a mathematical comparison and calculation tool. We do not provide personal investment or insurance advice within the meaning of FinSA (Swiss Financial Services Act / FIDLEG).
The results are mathematical scenarios based on your inputs — not recommendations. For individual investment advice, please contact a FINMA-licensed advisor.
3a-Rescue is operated by Janek Heise, Amselstrasse 28, 4104 Oberwil, Switzerland.
Not an insurance broker, not a financial advisor — a technical tool that gives you the decision-making basis. Further details in the Legal Notice.
Calculator inputs (entries in the Delta Calculator and Tax Staggering Planner) are not stored.
If you upload a PDF or provide an email address, this data is stored in encrypted form and used exclusively to process your request. No sharing with third parties. Details in the Privacy Policy.
FinSA/FIDLEG Notice: The contents of this website are for general information purposes only and do not constitute investment advice, asset management, or any financial service within the meaning of the Swiss Financial Services Act (FinSA / FIDLEG). The calculations and comparisons provided are mathematical models and not personalised recommendations. For individual financial and insurance advice, please contact a licensed advisor. No claim is made for completeness or accuracy of the information provided.
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Find out in 2 minutes what your 3a insurance is really costing you — and what switching would bring.