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.