Insurance is confusing. We have the answers.

The life insurance product landscape can be divided into two major sectors: Life insurance with a savings part and pure risk life insurance. Life insurance with a savings part focuses mainly on retirement and tax optimization (pillar 3a). In the second case of risk life insurance, the risk of death or disability is insured. There is also a combination of the two products: Savings insurance with a risk component.

Death risks are usually insured with a one-time lump sum in case of death during the duration of the policy. In that case, the beneficiaries are paid the sum insured in cash after the death of the insured person. In the event of disability, a pre-defined benefit is insured that is paid periodically to the insured person until the end of the disability, the end of the contract period or his/her death.

We strongly believe, that risk and savings should be considered as two separate matters. That’s why you only find risk insurance coverage at vlot.

To answer this question, vlot has changed the complex insurance world into a simple questionnaire that allows us to capture, calculate and identify any need for your personal situation.

In short, it may well be that you or your family have no income gaps to insure. If our calculations do identify a gap, we will show you where it is and recommend a corresponding coverage solution.

The main reasons for life insurance for disability or death are usually one or more of the following:

• You want to secure your income and your/your standard of living
• You want to make sure that your current housing situation (e.g. your residential property) is secured
• You want to make sure that the education of your/your children is not at risk
• You need to give your mortgage lender a security in case of death or disability

Death risk insurance: If it is important to you to ensure the standard of living for your partner / family in the event of death, a death insurance policy is recommended. For singles or cohabiting partnerships, this product doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, as there are usually no financial dependencies. However, once children or home ownership are in play, it’s well worth thinking about it.

Disability risk insurance: If it is important to you to ensure a standard of living in the event of disability, a disability benefit is recommended. Important to know: The level of disability doesn’t depend on a medical assessment, but on the level of income loss associated with the disability. Therefore, if you become disabled due to an illness or accident and you carry out another job and earn the same or more than before, no benefits will be paid.

We have spent countless hours in the development of the vlot analysis tool. It is unique on the life insurance market. Our analysis has three steps:

Data: We love precision, we hate lengthy data entry. We want as little data as possible, but as much as necessary about you and your family. As you’re entering your data, we’re building a family unit in the background, which builds the backbone of our calculations. By combining all the individual data points and parameters, we’re creating a holistic picture of your situation.

Calculation of existing benefits: We take into account all available benefits from the state social security (1. pillar), employer benefits (2. pillar) and – if available – the private benefits (3. pillar). Since the calculation of illness and accident benefits are substantially different, we calculate both scenarios in parallel and show you the scenario with the larger income gap. In order to capture your situation holistically and make it as meaningful as possible, it’s important you enter all data correctly and completely. We are legally obliged to avoid over-insurance.

Evaluation of the personal situation and needs: After calculating your existing benefits, our algorithm helps us evaluate your income gaps accurately. The following factors come together and influence each other:

• your age
• your education
• your job and your salary
• your family situation and your civil status
• number and age of your children
• your current housing costs for rent
• your interest, maintenance and amortization costs for ownership
• current market interest rates
• cost of living adjustments

All of these factors influence the amount of coverage we propose. We base our proposition on the extensive knowledge and experience of the vlot founders.

The vlot analysis helps you to find the right insurance coverage. Keep your pension fund certificate ready and any mortgage contracts or existing risk insurance policies. If you have everything you need, the analysis including the insurance application takes about 5 minutes to complete.

Vlot uses your data for the analysis of the financial situation in your household and to calculate any income gap and recommended insurance coverage.

Your personal data will only be transmitted and stored on the servers of our insurance partner Elips Life AG when you apply for the contract. Until then, your data rests encrypted and anonymized on the vlot servers.

Please read our terms & conditions and data & privacy policy for more details.

Data security has the highest priority for us and our insurance partner Elips Life AG.

Your personal data is encrypted and stored in Switzerland with our insurance partner. The entire IT infrastructure has been thoroughly tested and verified by independent experts. We comply with all legal requirements, regulations and guidelines on data protection and data security.

Please read our terms & conditions and data & privacy policy for more details.

The cornerstone of our calculation is the current family situation. This includes any partnerships or children in the same household. In the following questions, we create a household profile that helps us calculate the exact income gaps and coverage proposals for you and your family. But only if you have a gap of course!

Your personal information is important to understand the base of your personal situation. Part of this data is needed for the analysis of your household income, another part for the calculation of the insurance premium, should there be an income gap.

The partner details are just as important as the details of the applicant. We take a holistic view of your financial situation so that you and your family receive the insurance cover you really need – not too much and not too little.

At vlot, we only have employees who have children themselves. We know how important the well-being of our children is.

Children play an important role in the calculation of existing benefits, both in terms of state or employer benefits. Today’s family constellations are also very different. Whether it’s a patchwork family or a single parent … it’s the children who are the most vulnerable to the fate of a death or a long illness. That’s why it’s important to enter your children’s data accurately.

But you only have to reveal what is absolutely necessary:

• You prefer not to give the names of your children? No problem. You can just enter “child 1”. It is important that the age and the affiliation to the parent are correct<
• You have children who are no longer eligible for support? Please enter them anyway. They have a relevance for calculating the state social security benefit amounts – also retrospectively.

Marital status and date of marriage or registration of a partnership are important factors in the calculation of pension benefits. Depending on the service provider and the type of death (due to accident or illness), different conditions apply regarding the duration of the relationship and age of the respective partner in order to receive benefits.

Registered partnerships are equivalent to married couples.

Cohabitaion of an unmarried couple is not a legally binding partnership according to Swiss law. Especially in the state social security and accident insurance, there are significant benefit losses.

As a registered vlot customer you can simulate a marriage in the customer portal and see the financial implications. After the wedding, you record the new civil status and we recalculate your situation and the necessary amounts. Push of a button, and the policy is adjusted.

Your income is the basis of your standard of living. We need to know how high your income is, so that we can correctly allocate the income in the household profile.

As a student or homemaker we ​​calculate fictional income values because costs and needs are not matched by a financial compensation. Don’t worry, we’ll do that for you in the background without any additional input from your side.

Please fill in your current gross annual income in the appropriate field.

We want to get the most comprehensive picture possible of your current household income in order to correctly calculate your financial situation and any gaps. The income of both partners are relevant for this.

As a student or homemaker we ​​calculate fictional income values because costs and needs are not matched by a financial compensation. Don’t worry, we’ll do that for you in the background without any additional input from your side.

Please fill in the current gross annual income of the partner in the appropriate field.

The pension fund is an important component of the risk coverage of all employees in Switzerland. Those who do not reach the entry threshold of CHF 21,330 are not mandatorily insured (but can be voluntarily insured by the employer).

• all employees receive their pension fund certificate once a year. It shows all the benefits that have to be entered in the five input fields on vlot.
• self-employed, homemakers and students are usually not insured in a pension fund. The corresponding input fields are to be filled with CHF 0.

You can find an example of a Swiss pension fund certificate and the 5 values we need for calculation here.

The pension fund is an important component of the risk coverage of all employees in Switzerland. Those who do not reach the entry threshold of CHF 21,330 are not mandatorily insured (but can be voluntarily insured by the employer).

• all employees receive their pension fund certificate once a year. It shows all the benefits that have to be entered in the five input fields on vlot.
• employed, homemakers and students are usually not insured in a pension fund. The corresponding input fields are to be filled with CHF 0.

You can find an example of a Swiss pension fund certificate and the 5 values we need for calculation here.

Vlot is obliged to avoid over-insurance. Therefore, we must be informed about all existing risk insurance in place today. This information is included in the calculation of the coverage requirements.

The following insurances must be input:

• any benefits paid on death or disability.
• savings policies can be entered as death lump sum with the current surrender value

Please make sure you note whether the benefits are due in case of accident and / or illness.

Are you unsure if and how you should enter the benefits? We are glad to help you.

In the background, vlot calculates a household budget based on the average Swiss household. One of the biggest cost factors in a household is the cost of housing.

• Are you a tenant? Then please enter your rent incl. side costs
• Are you a real estate owner with mortgage? Then please enter the details of your current housing situation. We calculate all necessary costs such as interest, amortization and side costs

In addition to the financial calculation around your mortgage values, we record the expiry of the mortgage tranches. Since we consider the cost of the mortgage, it is important to know when mortgage tranches might get paid back or changed in amount. If you record this data correctly, we will automatically calculate your new situation shortly before the tranch expires and point out possible changes or adjustments.

Once you press the ‘Start Analysis’ button, the following calculations and analyzes take place in the background, all within seconds:

1. vlot creates a household profile and summarizes all information in a “family unit”.
2. Based on your information, vlot calculates the disability benefits you are entitled to in the event of both an accident and illness. In the event of disability, periodic disability benefits are the basis of the income replacement.
3. Based on your information, vlot calculates the benefits that are paid to your survivors if you should die after an accident or illness. In the event of death, periodic death benefits and / or capital benefits are the basis of the income replacement.
4. Once all benefits have been calculated, it is determined in which scenario (death or disability) which cause (accident or illness) creates the greatest income gap. For couples, both individuals are calculated separately depending on their current situation, but at the end “reassembled” to a household income.
5. After that, the household parameters are sent through a machine learning algorithm. This calculates if and how high an insurance coverage is recommended. For this calculation the following factors are taken into account:
   • mutual, financial dependence (with couples)
   • current age
   • number, age and level of education of the children
   • education of the partner
   • civil status
   • housing costs (rent / mortgage)
   • cost of living adjustments
   • market interest rates and compound interest calculation (for death lump sum)
6. Once the necessary coverage has been calculated, the amounts will be corrected by any tax implications on pay out. Our goal is to insure the correct amount AFTER taxes.
7. Finally, the three proposals “vlot minimum”, “vlot optimum” and “vlot maximum” are evaluated and the current monthly premiums for each cover are calculated.

Can you imagine that nearly 400,000 lines of code are needed to perform these calculations? I takes us seconds to do this, while a financial advisor or insurance specialist takes a couple of hours to work through the calculations. In addition, our algorithm runs calculations a normal calculator can’t even compute.

These are the most important steps and interpretations for your analysis:

• Use the “hover” for more information about the respective scenario or the displayed benefits. The legend gives you information about the different color codes.
• If there is no income gap for you, no income loss (red) appears. Congratulations, you are currently adequately insured!
• If you get red colored graph sections, we’ve identified income gaps in the respective situation. It may also be that your current coverage exceeds the minimum recommendation of vlot. We then show you the gap for the other suggestions only.

As a rule, we propose three different options to cover your income gap:

• vlot minimum: with “vlot minimum” you secure yourself or your family for a minimum standard of living. No extras, no big luxury. But it is enough to pay for living costs and not to become dependent on social welfare.
• vlot optimum: “vlot optimum” is our recommendation for the average household. A good mix of insuring current living standards in relation to the premium.
• vlot maximum: With “vlot maximum” we protect you and your loved ones so that no monetary losses occur and your standard of living stays the same as before.

Depending on your personal preference, the coverage suggestions can be selected individually for disability and death. The coverages are not interlinked.

The premium calculation is done individually and transparently:

• The premium we display is calculated exactly for you and your personal risk profile. However, it only becomes binding after completion of the health questionnaire (done online after creating your profile). Depending on the occupational class, the premiums for similar age groups may vary. Attention: Smokers shell out much higher premiums than non-smokers.
• You can freely choose if and how much you want to insure yourself. In any case, you can be sure that we do not want to overinsure you or give you something to chew on. If you do not want cover for the respective scenario, just click on the corresponding button and you can skip it (can be added later on).