Background.
Hans is a Financial Planner IAF & Federal Diploma of Higher Education — a member of Switzerland's professional association for financial planners — and operates at Expat Savvy as the specialist for the Swiss pension architecture and the cross-border questions that international clients bring.
The pension system is three pillars deep, the 3a regime has two caps depending on employment status, the cross-border tax treaties branch into three patterns, and the staggered-withdrawal architecture has to be built during accumulation rather than at retirement. Hans's work is mapping the household to that architecture, not picking a product.
The grosse 3a question is the place where I most often save people six figures over a working life — not by recommending a specific app, but by getting the architecture right in their thirties. — Hans Steiner
Credentials.
Three things to know — what the IAF designation means, the depth of the Swiss insurance and pension experience behind it, and the working languages that decide which households Hans can read fluently.
- Financial Planner IAF & Federal Diploma of Higher Education — designation issued by the Institut für Finanzplanung, Switzerland's professional body for financial planners. The IAF curriculum runs across pension architecture, tax optimisation, life insurance, and cross-border situations — the exact terrain Hans operates in.
- 20+ years in Swiss insurance, pension, and tax. Long enough that the AHV reform cycles, the BVG mandatory-portion debates, and the cantonal tax-rate shifts of the past two decades sit as lived context rather than briefing notes.
- Languages: German, English, French. Full advisory fluency in three of Switzerland's four national working languages — the conversation can run in whichever language carries the household's actual financial vocabulary.
Areas of expertise.
Five terrains where Hans does most of his work. Each one is a different mix of federal law, cantonal practice, and household-specific architecture — and each has a few questions where the obvious answer isn't the right one.
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Pension planning
Pillar 3a (tied, tax-deductible, federal cap) and pillar 3b (flexible, no cap, no withdrawal restriction). Deciding which structure fits which household goal — and where the hybrid pattern beats either lane on its own.
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Tax optimisation
The federal, cantonal, and communal tax stacks behave like three separate marginal-rate ladders. How a 3a contribution actually saves you, where the bigger Pensionskassen-buy-in lever lives, and which canton-specific quirks change the order of operations.
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Cross-border situations
Recent arrivals (first-year tax residency, Quellensteuer transition), households leaving Switzerland (pension withdrawal, cantonal exit-tax window, treaty respect), and dual-jurisdiction setups where one earner is taxed in Switzerland and the other elsewhere.
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Life insurance integration
When life-cover bundles into 3a make sense — usually a real disability or premature-death gap — and when banking 3a plus separate term-life is the cleaner structure. The honest decision depends on the household, not the brochure.
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Pension overlap with health insurance
Supplementary timing (the age-curve trap on private and semi-private add-ons), maternity coordination across KVG and VVG, and how pension-side decisions in your thirties shape what supplementary cover you can still access in your fifties.
What Hans works on.
Four families of question, run in 45-minute consultations. The cap, the wrapper, the account count, the withdrawal sequence — and where the cross-border tax treaty interacts with the next 5–10 years.
3a architecture
Kleine vs grosse 3a (CHF 7,258 / CHF 36,288), banking vs insurance wrapper, multi-account staggered withdrawal.
Pillar 1 & 2
AHV, BVG, Pensionskasse buy-ins, 13th AHV pension, retirement-income modelling across cantons.
Treaty & portability
Article 25f FZG, EU/EFTA mandatory-portion, US/UK/DE treaty patterns, leaving-Switzerland withdrawal tax.
Term & 3a-wrapped
When a disability premium waiver fills a real gap. When term life beats insurance 3a. Honest fit analysis.
Recent writing.
Three of Hans's most recent pieces. The full archive sits at the blog.
Languages.
Hans works in German, English, and French. The French-language access matters for clients sitting at the German-French linguistic boundary or moving between Romandie and Deutschschweiz.
Get in touch.
A first review with Hans is free, in English (or German or French), by video call. Bring your 3a statements, the income picture, and the next 5–10-year plan. The mechanics of the call sit at what happens in your first review.