How can you protect your cohabitation partnership?
The partnership can also be specifically protected when couples cohabit. This is done deliberately outside of legal obligations in order to preserve the intended non-binding nature of this way of life. Marriage is protected in matrimonial law on all issues ranging from retirement pensions to statutory matrimonial property regimes. The exact opposite is the case when it comes to pensions for cohabiting couples. The only rule that could be cited is that the couple share a flat, table and bed.
If you’d like more commitment for your relationship than ‘I love you’ from your partner but still don’t want to get married: Below you will find out in which areas you can proactively provide more protection if you cohabit. These measures and the downloadable checklist will help you take them into practice.
1. Draw up a cohabitation agreement
At first glance, an agreement seems incompatible with the informal nature of cohabitation. But it’s important if you want to play it safe. On the one hand, it helps to avoid disputes in the event of separation. And on the other hand, it serves as proof of your relationship – for pension institutions, for example. In addition, drawing up binding rules for your partnership also offers a non-bureaucratic benefit: the opportunity to talk extensively with your partner about the relationship and your respective ideas for the future together.
In addition to details on place of residence and the duration of your relationship, a cohabitation agreement can include the following points depending on your life situation; these should ideally be checked by a lawyer and be witnessed before a notary.
You can find a template for a cohabitation agreement on MyRight.
Inventory
When your relationship comes to an end, who owns what in the joint household? Or who is entitled to how much from a joint account? You can avoid disputes with an inventory list and a written agreement about how to deal with joint possessions upon separation. Make a list of the items and assets that you or your partner brought into the relationship. Record the proportion of costs that both of you contributed towards joint purchases. And don’t forget to regularly update the inventory.
Budget
Whether rent, electricity, food or insurance - there are many household costs that affect you both and should be equitably divided based on your financial capacity. Through a joint account or by monthly settlement. These costs are normally divided between both of you:
- Rent including ancillary costs
- Electricity, gas
- TV, radio, telephone and internet connection fees
- Premiums for household contents and liability insurance
- Food, hygiene items and cleaning products
- Costs of joint vacations/excursions
Housing
Who stays, who moves out, who is liable to the landlord? And what is the legal situation when an unmarried couple buy their own home together? Protection for cohabiting couples when it comes to housing has many pitfalls in particular and should be set out contractually.
You should only conclude a joint rental agreement if you also agree in writing about the consequences of a hypothetical separation. This is because you are jointly and severally liable to the landlord and can only terminate the tenancy together. If only one person is the lead tenant, we recommend drawing up a sub-letting agreement for the second person. And if you buy property together, then you should definitely seek professional help in addition to the cohabitation agreement to make arrangements in the event of separation and death, mutual rights and obligations, and mortgage repayment.
Children
Children are often the reason why couples decide to marry. This is because if people don’t tie the knot, many automatic procedures stemming from marriage do not come into play, starting with the fact that the father is not necessarily regarded as the father. He must first formally affirm paternity and the associated rights and obligations at the registry office. Joint parental care must also be declared there. As a couple and ideally before the birth, you should also consider what would happen if you separated. Where would your joint children live, what about maintenance payments and how would you organize access? You should make your arrangements in writing and have them recognized by a specialist agency such as the child protection authority. If both parents have joint parental custody, they must choose from either name and register this at the registry office. If one parent has sole care, then the child bears that parent’s last name.
2. Draw up powers of attorney
Unlike in a marriage, you and your life partner have no mutual obligation to provide assistance and consequently no right to stand in for one another in emergency situations. Without the corresponding powers of attorney, doctors are not allowed to give out information about your partner’s health condition. And authorities, insurance companies and banks do not recognize you as a representative either. You should therefore give each other the authority over the following points if you do not want to lose the support of your better half in an emergency.
Disclosure authority
You can release banks, (social) insurance bodies, authorities or landlords from their duty of confidentiality through a mandate. This way, your life partner has access to your circumstances if you are incapacitated due to accident, illness or death.
Release from confidentiality
By releasing doctors from their duty of confidentiality, cohabiting partners can be given information in hospital or at the doctor’s practice about the health condition of their loved one.
Living will
This ruling allows your partner to represent you regarding medical measures if you become incapacitated due to illness or accident.
Advance care directive
With this type of authorization, your life partner is entitled to represent you legally when it comes to personal care or financial matters.
3. Amend pension
Many couples opt for cohabitation because their pension and tax situation differs to some extent from that of married couples. In the past, the “marriage penalty” was also discussed in relation to taxation. With the adoption of individual taxation in March 2026, this tax disadvantage is to be phased out in the future. However, until the reform is fully implemented, differences may remain.
Regardless of this, the following applies: As a rule, unmarried persons make individual retirement provision. For this reason, unlike married couples, their future OASI pension is not capped at 150 percent of the maximum individual pension. Nor can your OPA capital from your time together be automatically halved in the event of separation – your pension contributions generally remain your own.
However, it is important to have seamless pension histories in order for this individual provision to actually pay off in retirement. Find out here how cohabiting couples can properly provide for retirement, avoid pension gaps, and what you need to bear in mind for state, occupational, and private pension provision:
OASI (Pillar 1)
Everyone earns their own OASI pension (Pillar 1). If a cohabiting partner dies, then, unlike married couples, the surviving partner has no claim to a widow’s/widower’s pension. This is why you should both be able to pay your own OASI contributions without interruption. As soon as either of you neglects your own provision in favor of staying at home and looking after children, the working person should be supportive and take over pension contributions. Ideally any gaps that arise through looking after children are covered by OASI education credits.
OPA (Pillar 2)
Occupational benefits insurance (Pillar 2) also deals with unmarried couples separately. As soon as you reach the reference age (formerly: normal retirement age), you will receive your retirement savings from the pension fund as a lump sum or paid out as a pension.
Unlike for married couples, the pension fund assets accrued during unmarried couples’ time together are not divided upon separation. Only in the event of death are OPA benefits possible for the surviving partner in a cohabitation arrangement, but there is no legal entitlement. Pension institutions that grant partner’s pensions often link these to a specific cohabitation period or to the care of joint children. The specific conditions vary depending on the pension fund.
Pillars 3a and 3b
As for all other Swiss, retirement provision with Pillar 3 also offers you the opportunity to save capital so that you can maintain your accustomed standard of living in retirement. However, Pillars 3a and 3b are also particularly advisable for you for the simple reason that Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 are only partly suitable for protecting life partnerships in the event of death. In a pensions consultation, you will ideally find the best individual solution. Overall the following can be said:
For tax-efficient tied Pillar 3a pension provision, there is a statutory prescribed sequence, under which biological children come first in your situation, only then followed by life partner and other family members. To provide clarity in the event of death, the order of beneficiaries and therefore succession for your 3a capital should already be defined with your pension institution during your lifetime.
Pension provision with flexible Pillar 3b is particularly suitable for cohabiting couples. Whether savings, bank accounts, life insurance, bonds, money market investments, equities, securities funds or residential property – all options can be used for mutual financial protection for cohabiting couples, as the beneficiaries can be chosen freely with the exception of the compulsory portions. Of course you can additionally record here the nature and extent in the beneficiary clause and also in your will.
