Moving Pension Fund Benefits to Switzerland

Hello
I am trying to move my vested benefits in Sweden to Switzerland, which seems to be a very foreign concept. The reason why it might be a slightly unusual question is that in order for this transfer to not take years and to be as tax efficient as possible, I am looking for an institute to do it. That way it can be done in one go and taxes will commensurate. If I do it myself it will take 5 years and taxes will spike. Also, another issue is that the size of the funds does not exactly qualify as high net, but for me as an individual the sum is rather sizeable. Do you have an inkling of whom I might ask?

As far as I know, a direct transfer of vested benefits is not possible. For British pension benefits, there are a handful of Swiss pension funds which qualify as QROPS, so direct transfers of UK pensions to those are possible. But I do not know of any similar option for Swedish pension benefits.

I don't know what the process for withdrawing vested benefits would be on the Swedish side, so I can't speak to that.

On the Swiss side, it works like this:

If you are employed in Switzerland, then you may be able to pay the withdrawn Swedish benefits into your Swiss employer's Swiss pension fund as a voluntary contribution. The requirement would be that the "gap" in your Swiss pension fund is equal to or higher than the amount of your Swedish benefits.

The result is a tax-neutral situation in which the Swiss income tax on the withdrawn Swedish pension benefits is balanced out by the tax deduction for contributions to a Swiss pension fund.

Before you do this, though, you should check with your Swiss pension fund about possible contractual limitations on voluntary contributions. You should also consult your municipal or cantonal tax office to find out whether it would be acceptable to contribute that amount of money, and how you should go about it correctly so that the voluntary contribution qualifies for the tax deduction.

If you have a pension fund, then extra contributions are possible. But there's no way to transfer foreign vested benefits into Swiss vested benefits, as far as I know. So being employed in Switzerland would be essential to converting your foreign benefits into a Swiss pension.

Do the Swedes even let you withdraw benefits? Switzerland does not let you withdraw Swiss vested benefits if you are living in the EFTA or the EU. They have to stay vested in Switzerland until you reach retirement age, unless you use them to buy a house or a few other exceptions.