In Switzerland, there is no civil partnership (PACS) or any equivalent legal framework that protects cohabiting couples in the same way as marriage. Concubinage – as the law refers to this situation – does not automatically confer any rights on the couple. This includes no inheritance rights, no widow’s or widower’s pension, and no preferential access to the other partner’s assets. If your partner dies without having made a will, you are legally a stranger to the inheritance.
When it comes to the AVS, paradoxically, cohabiting couples come out ahead as long as both partners are alive. Each is entitled to 100% of their individual pension, up to a maximum of 2,520 francs per person per month in 2026. A married couple has a combined pension cap of 150% of the maximum individual pension, which in practice limits what the couple receives jointly. The difference can amount to several hundred francs a month. But when one of the two dies, that is when the problem begins: the surviving partner in a cohabiting relationship is not entitled to the widow’s or widower’s pension under the first pillar. The one who passes away takes their pension with them.
The situation also varies for the second and third pillars. Under pillar 3a, cohabiting couples can name each other as beneficiaries, but the fund or insurer must be notified in writing in advance. Under the LPP (second pillar), the right to a survivor’s pension exists, but with stricter conditions than for married couples. As for the flat, if the tenancy agreement is in the name of only one of the two, the other has no legal right to remain there if the tenant dies.
The solution isn’t necessarily to get married, but rather to put the situation in order: a will, a cohabitation agreement, a life insurance policy, and explicit designation of beneficiaries in pension funds. Many couples in Switzerland have been living together for years without doing any of this, convinced that time alone confers rights. In this country, however, rights are conferred by a legal document.