Facts
A., born in 1968, was employed by B. AG until 30 June 2005 and was thus insured under the Winterthur-Columna Collective Foundation 2nd Pillar. After termination of the employment relationship, her vested termination benefit of around CHF 54,470.90 was used to establish a vested benefits policy with Winterthur Leben. In October 2006, A. terminated the vested benefits policy and had the balance paid out to a third party. When A. later applied for a disability pension, the Collective Foundation recognized its obligation to pay and paid A. a disability pension from 1 May 2006. However, A. demanded that her retirement assets of CHF 54,470.90 be credited back to her pension contract and that a correspondingly higher old-age pension be paid out when she reaches retirement age. The Federal Supreme Court dismissed the appeal.Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court held that under Art. 3 para. 2 VBA, the former pension institution (here the Collective Foundation) is only obliged to reclaim the vested termination benefit if this is necessary for the payment of survivors' or disability benefits. Since the Collective Foundation paid A. an unabated disability pension despite not receiving the vested termination benefit, it was under no obligation to reclaim the vested termination benefit from Winterthur Leben (now AXA Leben AG). Nor did this result in an obligation to pay A. an old-age pension…