What needs to be kept in mind when founding a company

Often, little thought is given during the initial phase to protecting against the inability to work or to establishing pension provisions. And yet company founders (including family and staff) are exposed to a number of risks: they can become ill or suffer an accident. Swiss Life is happy to assist you when you commence self-employment – whether you need help protecting your company, your employees or your family.

As a company owner, you are legally required to obtain certain forms of insurance cover and pension solutions for your employees (such as occupational pensions and accident insurance). The regulations governing personal insurance are not always the same, with differences based on legal form and sector. The occupational provisions checklist for company founders provides you with a useful overview of all the different forms of insurance.

Company owner (sole proprietorship)

As a company owner, do you want to protect your family, your business partners and yourself from financial difficulty in the event of illness, accident or death, and save on taxes at the same time?

Take note of an important distinction:

• As a self-employed person you are no longer required to be covered by an occupational pension. Only social insurance (AHV/IV/EO) is still mandatory – making your personal pension cover all the more important.
• As the owner of a public limited company (AG) or limited liability company (GmbH) you are subject to the same insurance cover requirements as all other employees.

As a company owner, you can supplement the provisions of the first and second pillars:

• You can conclude private insurance cover through pillar 3a (tax-qualified provision, with a maximum tax deduction of CHF  6 826).
  
• As a self-employed person without affiliation with a pension fund, under pillar 3a you are eligible for an increased tax deduction (20% of income, or maximum CHF 34 128 per year).
• Or you may choose pillar 3b as a freely available option.
• Or you may combine the benefits of 3a and 3b.

We recommend a personal consultation, so we can find the right solution together.

Insure employees (GmbH/AG)

As a company owner, you are required to insure your employees at or above a certain salary level. Normally all individuals subject to AHV and earning an annual salary over the so-called entry threshold (currently this is CHF 21 330) are subject to BVG.

Questions that arise for your company in its early stages:

What happens if you – or one of your key employees – is unable to work?
How sound is the financial foundation of your company?
How would you like to provide for your employees?

The answers to these questions are decisive for choosing the right pension solution.

Swiss Life supports you in finding answers, as well as helping you with other questions you may have. That’s how we provide bespoke solutions.