LGBT advice

Marriage for all: what rules apply?

Since 2022, same-sex couples have been able to marry or convert their registered partnership into a marriage.

Both partners are automatically better protected as a married couple than as registered or cohabiting partners. However, marriage is usually not enough to provide the surviving partner with the best possible protection. The laws on marriage and inheritance offer ways of optimising protection if you utilise them correctly.

Marriage also has far-reaching consequences for social security, matrimonial property, inheritance and taxes. That's why it's important to obtain sufficient information before you decide to take this step.

What are the differences between marriages and registered partnerships?

By default, the separation of property regime applies for registered partnerships, which means that if a partnership ends, there are no joint assets that will be divided up. By contrast, the joint ownership of acquired property applies for married couples. This means that if a spouse dies or the couple separates, each partner receives half of the assets that have been jointly accrued during the course of the marriage. Even with married couples, however, it is often necessary to have additional arrangements to ensure that the surviving partner is financially secure. 

For married lesbian couples, the surviving partner will receive an OASI survivors' pension if she is at least 45 years old and they had been married for at least five years. By contrast, in a registered partnership she would only receive a pension as long as she has a child under the age of 18.

Additionally, married lesbian couples have access to sperm banks and non-Swiss spouses of Swiss citizens in all homosexual marital relationships are entitled to simplified naturalisation.
 

What do cohabiting couples need to know?

Under social insurance schemes and inheritance law, cohabiting partners are in a worse position than spouses: pension funds, for example, apply strict conditions to the payment of a survivor's pension or lump sum to cohabiting partners, and the legal order of succession doesn't take cohabiting partners into account at all. Cohabiting partners must therefore put plans in place if they wish to ensure that their surviving partner doesn't struggle financially. 
 

What should homosexual couples consider with regard to retirement?

By the time you reach 55, you should have started planning your retirement. When doing so, you have to make a lot of very important decisions for your income to be sufficient for the rest of your life and for your partner to be financially secure. When considering these issues, cohabiting gay and lesbian couples often wonder whether it would be a good idea to get married. This decision will have a significant impact on their OASI pension, occupational pension and taxes. That's why it's a good idea to plan your retirement with the support of our LGBT specialists.