A pillar 3a quote is not a price list. It starts from your situation: whether you belong to an occupational pension fund, earned income liable to AHV, payments already credited this year, and the choice between a bank foundation and an insurance policy. The pillar 3a offer that follows states an amount, a term and, where relevant, benefits. It does not rank providers, and it does not replace the legal ceiling.
Basic advice at Finwise, a brokerage in Geneva, is free of charge. The pillar 3a page remains the advice page. This article explains what a quote needs, what the offer should show, and what it cannot promise. The figures are those published by the Federal Tax Administration for 2026 and 2027.
What the quote has to know
Without these facts, two offers cannot be compared. The first is affiliation to an occupational pension institution. Affiliation, even a voluntary one, opens the smaller contribution. No affiliation opens the larger contribution, calculated on earned income. Being employed or self-employed does not settle the question by itself.
The second is earned income liable to AHV. Investment income, pensions and pension withdrawals are not part of that base. The third is the amount already credited in 2026 across all your pillar 3a accounts and policies: several contracts do not multiply the ceiling. The fourth is the horizon: age, how long you expect to keep working, and any plan to withdraw (retirement, home, leaving Switzerland, or starting a self-employed activity).
A quote prepared without a pension-fund certificate, or without the year’s payments, can propose an amount above the allowed deduction. The excess is not deductible. The payment must also be credited before the end of the tax year to count for that year.
Bank or insurance: two different offers
Pillar 3a can be an account or a securities plan with a bank foundation, or a tied pension policy with an insurer. Both stay inside the same legal frame, the OPO 3 ordinance. The annual ceiling does not change with the provider. What changes is the content of the offer.
A bank offer usually states the vehicle (account or fund), the fees, and the fact that the payment is free within the legal limit: you may pay less, or nothing, in a given year. On its own it does not include a death lump sum or a waiver of contributions. Those benefits, if you want them, are a separate contract.
An insurance offer states a premium, often periodic, a term, and benefits according to the contract: death, incapacity, waiver of premiums. The premium is not a transfer you can stop without consequence. Ending the contract early can reduce the surrender value. Capital projections are illustrations. They are a commitment only where the contract says so, and only for the guaranteed part.
The choice is not a ranking. It depends on whether you need a guarantee and whether you can keep a premium to the end of the term. That criterion is set out in 3rd pillar: bank or insurance?.
The ceiling caps the amount
No quote can exceed the deduction allowed for your situation. In 2026 the smaller contribution is CHF 7,258 for a person affiliated to a second pillar. Without affiliation, the larger contribution is 20% of earned income, at most CHF 36,288. From 1 January 2027 the Federal Tax Administration raises those ceilings to CHF 7,373 and CHF 36,864. A payment credited in 2026 stays under the 2026 amounts.
Buying back a gap, possible from tax year 2026 for a gap no earlier than 2025, is a separate amount. In 2026 it is capped at CHF 7,258, including for a person on the larger contribution, and only if the ordinary contribution for the year has already been paid in full. A quote that adds the ordinary payment and a buyback must say so, and must name the year of the gap.
The figures, the credit date and the buyback are in the maximum pillar 3a contribution in 2026. A quote that ignores that ceiling is not usable.
What the offer should show
To read a pillar 3a offer, the same headings should appear on each proposal, built on the same assumptions. Otherwise a difference in the amount means nothing.
| Heading | Bank offer | Insurance offer |
|---|---|---|
| Amount | Proposed payment, inside the ceiling for your situation | Periodic premium and annual total |
| Flexibility | Scope to pay less, or to pause | Term, and what happens if the premium stops |
| Fees | Account or fund fees, where they are stated | Policy charges, where they are stated |
| Benefit | Usually no death cover and no waiver of payments | Death lump sum, incapacity or waiver of premiums, if the contract includes them |
| Projection | Interest or a fund scenario, shown as an assumption | Projected capital, with the guaranteed part separate from the illustration |
Ask each offer to state what has already been paid in 2026, so the balance proposed does not exceed the ceiling that remains. A return illustration is not a promised return. An illustrated surrender value is not the amount you would receive if you stopped the contract tomorrow, unless the contractual table says so.
What a quote does not say
The quote does not set the tax on withdrawal. Pillar 3a capital is taxed on exit under the rules for pension benefits, and the rate depends on the canton and on other withdrawals in the same year. No sales document can give that rate without your tax domicile and the timetable of withdrawals.
It also does not say which contract is “the best”. Fees, funds and benefits differ, and a lower premium may simply cover less. Finwise does not publish a ranking of insurers or banks. The useful comparison is two or three offers drawn up on your own file, with the same payment and the same term.
Finally, a quote does not create the right to contribute. Without earned income liable to AHV, an ordinary pillar 3a payment is in principle not possible. A spouse’s or registered partner’s ceiling is not shared.
Papers to prepare
Five items are usually enough to prepare the quote:
- A pension-fund affiliation certificate, or confirmation that you are not affiliated.
- Earned income liable to AHV: a salary certificate, or the self-employed accounts.
- This year’s pillar 3a certificates, from every institution.
- Date of birth, and the age at which you expect to stop working.
- If you want a benefit: the death lump sum you have in mind, and whether a waiver of premiums in case of incapacity matters to you.
Without the third item, the quote may propose a payment already used by another account. Without the first, it may apply CHF 36,288 to a person who can deduct only CHF 7,258.
Asking for the quote
Send those papers, or what you have of them. We first check the ceiling that remains for 2026, then we request offers on that basis: a bank route, an insurance route, or both if a guarantee is a real question. You receive the headings in the table above, not a league table.
Basic advice is free of charge. If an offer leaves out the fees, the term or the guaranteed part of the capital, it is not complete enough to keep. A slower offer is better than an amount above the ceiling, or a benefit you did not ask for.
- Affiliation: with a second pillar, the 2026 quote stays within CHF 7,258. Without affiliation, it stays within 20% of earned income, at most CHF 36,288.
- Already paid: 2026 credits from every contract are subtracted before a balance is proposed.
- Bank or insurance: a compulsory premium and a free payment are not put in the same column.
- Buyback: it enters the offer only if the ordinary contribution is already paid and the gap is no earlier than 2025.
- Withdrawal: exit tax is looked at separately, with the canton and the other withdrawals of the same year.
Ask for a pillar 3a quote See pillar 3a
Sources
- Federal Tax Administration, maximum pillar 3a deductions, 2026 amounts and the 5 October 2026 release for 2027.
- Federal Social Insurance Office, the third pillar.
- OPO 3, article 7 on contributions and article 7a on buybacks.