Divorce: occupational pension provision
Divorce: occupational pension provision
"A friend of mine told me that there will soon be changes in the law concerning occupational pension provision in the event of divorce.
I would be grateful if you could tell me what these changes will be.
Anonymous, Geneva
Your friend is right: a revision of the Civil Code relating to the division of occupational pension provision in the event of divorce was adopted by Parliament in June this year and, as no referendum was lodged until last October, it is now up to the Federal Council to set the date on which it will come into force. In order to settle the technical issues, ordinances will shortly be drawn up, and these legislative changes will probably come into effect during 2016 or even early 2017.
At present, when one of the spouses becomes disabled or dies of old age, it is no longer possible to divide the pension assets acquired during the marriage. To compensate for this lack of sharing, article 124 of the Civil Code provides for fair compensation to be paid to the spouse who would have been entitled to share in the assets.
The main new feature of the revised legislation is the correction of this exception. From now on, if one of the spouses already has a pension when the divorce proceedings are initiated, it will still be possible to divide the pension assets acquired during the marriage. Therefore, if one of the spouses is already receiving a pension at the time of the divorce, this pension can be divided.
The second topical amendment to the Civil Code concerns the determining moment for calculating the division. In divorce proceedings, the amount of vested claims is currently calculated from the date of the marriage to the date on which the divorce decree is issued. Under the new law, the calculation of the division will now be carried out only up to the day on which the divorce proceedings are initiated. As divorce proceedings can sometimes be relatively lengthy, the effect of this change will be that amounts accrued between the day on which the divorce application is filed and the day of the judgment will no longer be shared.
Finally, in the event of a divorce abroad, it is useful to know that the foreign judge will not be able to rule on the division of the spouses' occupational pension provision. In future, Swiss courts will have exclusive jurisdiction to deal with the division of occupational pension provision in connection with a Swiss occupational pension scheme.
