Precautions for women: What can you do to avoid being poor in old age?

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Separation or divorce is debilitating, stressful, and can have serious financial consequences in the long run. Mothers in particular face high pension risks in such situations: as current research from the Swiss Life insurance group shows, since they often work part-time, they have to expect a serious pension shortfall in the event of separation.

“This is why it is so important to take a closer look at retirement issues if you are starting a family,” says study author Andreas Christen (38).

Deep pens should be considered carefully

In the beginning, you should evaluate the situation to know what kind of retirement you can expect one day. For married couples, in case of divorce, AHV, pension fund and the 3rd column are equalized for the years of marriage. Unless we reach an agreement on separation of property. Then individual measures become even more important. For example, both by paying to column 3.

However, in most cases there will still be a pension difference. Married mothers work with an average workload of 45 percent. “On the one hand, this leads to weaker wage development. “It’s also often difficult to be able to significantly increase your workload later,” says Christen. As a result, after divorce and settlement, the gap increases again until retirement.

What helps: A more balanced division of family chores so that women can work more hours. Or additional investment in women’s preventive care.

Couples living together should take more precautions

More and more parents live together, and here women’s retirement risks become even greater: in case of separation, the AHV and the pension fund are not shared. Therefore, unmarried mothers working part-time should make full payments into Pillar 3a if possible, and ideally form Pillar 3b to cover the gap in retirement funding. If you’re doing more work for your family, your spouse should at least compensate by increasing your pension. However, it is important that this is recorded in a binding manner within the framework of a cohabitation agreement.

Another unpleasant topic that no one likes to deal with: the sudden death of a partner. In cases of cohabitation, there is no right to receive a widow’s pension under the AHV. The pension expert therefore recommends life insurance in pillar 3. You should also check whether your spouse’s pension fund pays survivors’ benefits. “Many pension funds do this, but most of the time you have to notify your partner in writing,” says Christen.

Source :Blick