Claim of the surviving life partner to the lump-sum death benefit of the occupational pension

Facts

D., who was married to B., was insured with the pension fund of Bank A. for occupational pension from the beginning of 2008. In July 2015, he applied for the lump-sum death benefit upon his death to be paid not to his wife, but fully to his life partner C. D. passed away on November 29, 2015. His widow B. requested the payment of both the widow's pension and the lump-sum death benefit in December 2015. The pension fund took the position that the beneficiary C. designated by the insured fulfilled all the regulatory requirements for entitlement, and therefore the lump-sum death benefit was to be paid to the deceased's life partner, not the widow.

Considerations

The Federal Supreme Court notes that according to Art. 20a para. 1 let. a OPA, the pension institution may, in its regulations, in addition to the statutory beneficiaries, also designate other persons for the survivors' benefits, including the person who has lived in an uninterrupted domestic partnership with the insured for the last five years up to his death. The pension institutions are free to define the circle of beneficiaries more narrowly than specified in the law.

However, the pension fund had shortened the duration of the domestic partnership to only three years in its regulations. The Federal Supreme Court…