Helvetia investment products. Investing with insurance coverage.

No, Helvetia investment products with a fixed contract term are offered only under Pillar 3b.

Federal government tax breaks for Pillar-3b products are not as generous as for Pillar 3a. The tax benefits are nevertheless worthwhile, especially if you are at least 50 years old when you conclude the contract. In that case, the payout at maturity is exempt from income tax, provided:

• The policyholder has reached age 60 at the time of the payout and
• The contract was concluded before reaching age 66 and
• The payout is made after a contract term of at least five years and
• The policyholder and the insured are the same person
  
  

You can purchase a Helvetia investment product for a one-time payment of as little as 15,000 francs. There is no upper limit to what you can invest. However, we recommend you get comprehensive advice before making any decisions, so as to ensure that your investment fits exactly with your overall pension plan.

In addition to offering a guaranteed minimum benefit at maturity, Helvetia investment products enable you to profit from the performance of a variety of different markets (commodities, real estate, equities, etc.). You do so via an index, however, and hold no direct investments in these markets. The index reflects the overall performance of the various markets.

The value of the index when the contract matures is decisive. Any earnings from the index are paid out to you along with the guaranteed minimum benefit when the contract expires.

If the index exceeds a certain threshold, a portion of the earnings is automatically hedged. These quarterly hedges increase the guaranteed minimum benefit paid at maturity.

Helvetia investment products are offered once or twice a year with a predetermined inception date, a fixed contract term and a limited premium volume. That is why they are also referred to as tranche products.

With each of these tranches, the entire investment volume is fixed for the envisaged contract term before the insurance commences and is placed in the market. The investment is not paid out until the end of the contract term. As a result, the guaranteed minimum benefit for your contract cannot be disbursed until the end of the contract term.

If you don’t want to keep the product until expiry of the contract term, the minimum benefit cannot be guaranteed, because the value of the investment fluctuates over the entire contract period. You should be aware of this before deciding to purchase a Helvetia investment product. So, invest only the amount of capital that you will not need to access throughout the contract term.