How much could it grow?
Choose an amount, how long it stays invested and a growth rate. The chart shows what the money could become with each of the three ways to invest, after all their fees, next to leaving it in a savings account.
Markets don't rise in a straight line: some years are negative, and falls of 20–30% happen. The lines show a steady average so the three ways can be compared fairly. The same growth is used for all three, because with the same mix they buy much the same thing (see What about returns?). Savings account: assumed 0.3% interest a year.
The short version
The main points in one place. The rest of the page explains each one in more detail.
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Your investments stay yours. At every regulated provider, Swiss or foreign, they are kept separate and handed back if it goes bust. Only cash has limited protection. Is the money safe?
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Yearly fees are what add up. They are charged on the whole amount every year, so a low yearly fee matters far more than a cheap purchase. What you pay for
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What you buy matters as much as where. One broad, low-cost world fund (an ETF) is the usual simple choice, and its fee is the same at every provider.
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Retiring soon: split the money by time. Money needed within about five years usually stays out of shares. Only money that can stay put for ten years or more goes into shares. Common questions
What the numbers show
Next steps
- Set asideDecide how much can stay invested for ten years or more.
- Pick a wayDo it yourself, digital asset manager or bank. The decision helper suggests one.
- CompareTry two or three providers in the cost calculator with your real amount.
- Check the feesAsk for the current fee list. PostFinance changes its prices on 1 January 2027.
- Open and buyIf you do it yourself: transfer francs and buy the fund in francs on the Swiss exchange, so there is no currency fee.
Three ways to invest
Every provider on this page belongs to one of these three groups: a broker where you do it yourself, a digital asset manager (mostly Swiss fintechs), or a bank mandate. The real choice is between the groups. Within a group, the providers work in much the same way and mainly differ on price.
| Question | Do it yourselfYou open an account at a broker, buy one or two broad funds and leave them. | Digital asset managerA Swiss fintech such as VIAC or finpension (often called a robo-advisor): you pick a strategy and it invests for you automatically. | Bank mandateThe bank's portfolio managers run the money, and you have a personal advisor. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who decides | You | The provider, within the risk level you choose | The bank, within the strategy agreed with your advisor |
| What you own | The funds, in an account in your name | Fund units, held for you at a Swiss bank | Investments (often the bank's own funds) in your account at the bank |
| Typical yearly cost | 0–0.05% for the broker on large amounts (more at a house bank), plus about 0.2% for the fund | 0.25–0.75% for the management, plus 0.1–0.2% for the funds | 0.9–1.5% for the management, plus 0.2–0.5% for the funds |
| Effort | A couple of hours to set up, then almost none | 15 minutes to set up, then nothing | One or two meetings a year |
| Suits someone who | wants the lowest cost and is happy to make a few simple decisions | wants it fully automatic at a moderate price | values a personal relationship more than cost |
| Examples | Interactive Brokers, Saxo, Swissquote, PostFinance e-trading, the house bank | VIAC Invest, finpension, True Wealth, Selma, PostFinance e-asset management | UBS, Kantonalbanks, Raiffeisen, private banks |
What a digital asset manager or a bank mandate does for you
- You give a mandate. You choose how much risk you want, for example "balanced, about half in shares". The provider decides which funds to buy, how much, and when to adjust. You don't approve each purchase.
- The money stays yours. It sits in an account in your name, or held for you, at a Swiss bank, separate from the manager's own money. If the manager went out of business, the investments would be returned to you.
- They can only buy and sell inside your account. They cannot move money out to themselves. Only their agreed fee is taken, automatically.
- You can stop at any time. Digital asset managers usually sell everything and pay you out in cash. Banks can also move the investments to another bank.
- Digital or bank: same idea, different price. A digital asset manager follows fixed rules. A bank gives you a person to talk to and usually costs two to four times as much.
- VIAC is a slight exception. Legally, VIAC Invest does not manage the money under a mandate: you pick one of its ready-made strategies, and VIAC carries it out and keeps it balanced automatically. In practice it works the same way for you.
- Not the same as "advice". With investment advice ("Anlageberatung") the bank only makes suggestions and you decide each purchase. With a mandate ("Vermögensverwaltung") they decide.
Is the money safe?
Two different risks are easy to mix up: the markets going down, which no provider can prevent, and the provider going bust. This section is about the second one.
| Topic | Swiss bank or broker | Swiss digital asset manager (VIAC, finpension) | Foreign broker (Interactive Brokers) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Examples | PostFinance, Swissquote, Saxo Bank (Schweiz), house banks | VIAC Invest, finpension Invest | Interactive Brokers |
| Supervised by | FINMA, the Swiss financial regulator | FINMA. VIAC Invest AG is licensed as a fund company, finpension AG as a securities firm. Neither is a bank. | Swiss clients are served by Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Ltd, supervised by the UK regulator (FCA). The parent company is a large US-listed group. |
| Your shares and funds | Yours. Kept separate as custody assets ("Depotwerte") under Swiss banking law, and handed back if the bank fails. | Yours. VIAC: you own units of VIAC's own Swiss funds, which by law are kept separate ("Sondervermögen") and not affected if VIAC or its bank fails. finpension: kept in custody accounts under the same Swiss rules as at a bank. | Yours. Kept separate under UK and US client-protection rules, and handed back if the broker fails. |
| Cash in the account | Protected up to CHF 100'000 per person per bank (esisuisse). Above that, you are one of the creditors in the bankruptcy. | finpension: protected up to CHF 100'000 (esisuisse). VIAC: no esisuisse, because it is not a bank. Instead, Bank WIR guarantees the cash in full if VIAC Invest AG fails; only if Bank WIR itself failed would the cash be at risk. Usually only a small part is held as cash. | No esisuisse. Depending on where it is held: UK scheme up to GBP 85'000, or US scheme up to USD 500'000, of which USD 250'000 can be cash. |
| If something goes wrong | Swiss law, Swiss process, in German or French | Swiss law, Swiss process, in German or French | UK or US law, foreign process, in English |
| Swiss stamp duty | Yes, 0.075–0.15% on each purchase and sale | VIAC: none on its own funds. finpension: included in its fee | No |
| Tax return | A ready-made tax statement | A free tax statement | You enter the investments and dividends yourself |
| For your heirs | They show the Swiss certificate of inheritance: a familiar process | The same Swiss process | They deal with a foreign company in English; documents may need translating; it takes longer |
| Language | German, French, Italian | German, French, Italian | Mostly English |
- Tip, at any provider: don't leave large amounts of cash uninvested in the account. Cash is the part with limited protection. Invested funds are not at risk if the provider fails, only from the markets.
- PostFinance belongs to the Confederation but has no formal state guarantee. Most cantonal banks do have a cantonal guarantee for deposits. This only matters for cash.
- Pillar 3a is a little different. 3a money (at VIAC, finpension or a bank) is held by a pension foundation. Invested 3a money belongs to the foundation for you and is handed back if a bank fails. 3a cash is not covered by esisuisse, but it is paid out ahead of most other creditors, up to CHF 100'000 per person, on top of any normal savings at the same bank. It can take longer to get back.
- The exact Interactive Brokers company is named in its account-opening documents.
What you pay for
There are six kinds of cost. Some you pay once, when you buy or sell. Others you pay every year for as long as you hold the investments. The coloured squares match the charts in the next section.
Trading fee
The broker's fee for carrying out a purchase or a sale. Some charge a fixed amount (Swissquote: CHF 190 for any purchase above CHF 50'000), others a percentage (Saxo 0.08%, Interactive Brokers about 0.05%).
Buying CHF 500'000 costs CHF 190 at Swissquote, CHF 400 at Saxo, but CHF 2'500 at the Yuh app (0.5%).
Worth knowing: it matters little if you buy once and hold, and a lot if you buy and sell often.
Stamp duty
A Swiss tax on purchases and sales made through a Swiss bank or broker: 0.15% for funds based abroad (most popular funds are based in Ireland) and 0.075% for Swiss ones. Interactive Brokers doesn't charge it because it isn't Swiss. VIAC doesn't either, because it uses its own Swiss funds.
CHF 750 to buy CHF 500'000 of an Irish-based fund, and again when you sell.
Worth knowing: often the biggest one-off cost. Because it's a tax, it is the same at every Swiss provider.
Currency exchange
If you buy something priced in dollars or euros, the provider converts your francs at a rate slightly worse than the market rate. Roughly: Interactive Brokers 0.002%, Saxo 0.25%, Swissquote 0.95%, PostFinance 1.2%.
Changing CHF 500'000 into dollars costs about CHF 4'750 at Swissquote and about CHF 10 at Interactive Brokers.
Worth knowing: easy to avoid. Buy the version of the fund that is priced in francs on the Swiss stock exchange (SIX). The calculations on this page assume you do.
Custody fee
The fee for keeping your investments in the account (the custody account). It can be a fixed amount (PostFinance CHF 72 a year, Swissquote at most about CHF 216), a percentage (house banks often 0.15–0.30%), or nothing at all (Saxo, Interactive Brokers).
On CHF 1 million, a 0.23% custody fee is CHF 2'300 every year. A fixed fee stays at CHF 72–216.
Worth knowing: for large amounts this is the main difference between brokers. A percentage fee grows with your money; a fixed fee doesn't.
Management fee
What you pay someone to choose, buy and adjust the investments for you. It is always a percentage of the account: about 0.25% (VIAC Invest) to 0.75% (PostFinance e-asset management) for digital asset managers, and around 1–1.5% for a bank mandate.
On CHF 1 million: about CHF 2'500 a year at VIAC Invest, around CHF 12'000 at a bank.
Worth knowing: this is the price of not having to decide anything yourself.
Charged by the company that runs the fund (iShares, Vanguard, UBS…), not by the broker. It is taken out inside the fund a little every day, so you never get a bill, only a slightly lower return. Broad world funds cost 0.07–0.25% a year; banks' own funds often 0.3–0.5% or more.
About CHF 1'000 a year on CHF 500'000 at 0.20%.
Worth knowing: the same fund has the same fee at every broker. Choosing a cheap fund matters as much as choosing a cheap broker.
Small extras, not in the charts: VAT (8.1%) on some fees; the tax statement (Swissquote CHF 85 a year, free at most others); moving your investments to another bank (e.g. CHF 50 per fund at Saxo); and the small difference between the buying and selling price on the exchange (the spread, usually 0.02–0.1% for big funds).
What about returns?
A fair question: if a bank costs more, does it earn more? Mostly not. Here is what decides how much you end up with. The growth chart at the top shows the effect with your own numbers.
The mix decides the return
How much is in shares, bonds and cash (the asset mix) explains most of the ups, downs and long-term growth. A "balanced" bank mandate and a 100%-shares fund will perform differently because they take different risks, not because one provider is better.
Worth knowing: when you compare offers, compare the same risk level, for example "about 40% shares" everywhere.
Can a bank beat the market?
Banks often use actively managed funds that try to pick winners. Over 10 to 15 years, roughly nine in ten such funds do worse than a simple index fund after their fees (S&P's long-running SPIVA studies). Paying more is therefore not a reliable way to earn more.
Worth knowing: what you get for a bank's higher fee is a person and a service, not a better expected return.
The real risk of doing it yourself
The fund is the same; the danger is reacting to the news. Selling after a crash, waiting for the "right moment" to buy, or never rebalancing can cost more than any fee. Morningstar's "Mind the Gap" studies estimate that investors earn about 1% a year less than the funds they hold, because of badly timed buying and selling.
Worth knowing: digital asset managers and banks rebalance automatically and leave nothing to fiddle with. They can't stop you selling in a panic, though.
How much effort is it really?
With one world fund: an hour or two to open the account and buy, then nothing except a look once a year and entering it in the tax return. With a mix of a share fund and a bond fund: add about 30 minutes once a year to bring the mix back to target.
Worth knowing: a digital asset manager saves you exactly this work, and the tax statement comes ready-made.
Around retirement
A big fall in the first years of retirement, while you are taking money out, hurts more than the same fall later. That's why money for the next few years is usually kept as cash or in bonds, so you never have to sell shares after a fall.
Worth knowing: this applies equally to all three ways. It's about the mix, not the provider.
So which way?
Compare the costs
Here every provider is compared, not just one per group. The settings are the same as in the growth chart at the top: change them in either place. The growth rate doesn't change the fees themselves, but percentage fees get bigger as the portfolio grows.
Total costs
Point at a bar to see how its total is made up. Click it to read about that provider.
Where the money goes
Costs year by year
All amounts in one table
The green cell is the cheapest in each column. The small number underneath is the cost as a share of the amount invested. Click a row to read about that provider.
The providers one by one
Grouped by the three ways described above. Click any provider for a plain description, pros and cons, all its fees, and answers to common questions.
Decision helper
Answer four quick questions and the page suggests a shortlist. It's a starting point for a conversation, not financial advice.
Common questions
Click a question to open the answer.
Word list
The investing words used on this page, in plain language.
- A small piece of ownership in a company. Its price goes up and down with the company's prospects. Over long periods shares have grown the most, but they can fall by a third or more in a bad year.
- Bond ("Obligation")
- A loan to a government or company that pays interest and is repaid at a fixed date. Usually steadier than shares, with lower long-term growth.
- Fund
- A pot of money from many investors, spread across many shares or bonds by a fund company. You own a slice of the pot.
- ETF / index fund
- A fund that simply copies a whole market, for example "the 1'500 largest companies in the world", instead of trying to pick winners. ETF stands for "exchange-traded fund": it's bought and sold on the stock exchange like a share. Cheap and widely spread.
- Diversification
- Spreading money over many investments, so that one company doing badly hardly matters. A world ETF does this automatically.
- Broker
- The bank or company through which you buy and sell investments on the stock exchange. Online brokers (Swissquote, Saxo, Interactive Brokers) do this through a website or app.
- Custody account ("Depot")
- The account where your investments are kept. Like a bank account, but for shares and funds instead of cash.
- TER (fund fee)
- "Total expense ratio": the fund's yearly running cost as a percentage, for example 0.20%. It is deducted inside the fund automatically, so you never see a bill.
- Stamp duty
- A Swiss federal tax ("Umsatzabgabe") of 0.075–0.15% on each purchase and sale made through a Swiss bank or broker.
- Digital asset manager
- A company that invests your money for you online, following a strategy you choose: it buys a mix of funds and keeps it balanced automatically. In Switzerland these are mostly fintechs (VIAC, finpension, True Wealth, Selma); PostFinance offers one too. Called "digitale Vermögensverwaltung" in German.
- Robo-advisor
- A common nickname for a digital asset manager, because the buying and balancing are done automatically by a computer following fixed rules.
- Fintech
- Short for "financial technology": a newer company offering financial services mainly online or through an app. Swiss fintechs that look after client money need a licence from FINMA; most are not banks.
- Mandate
- An agreement that lets a professional make investment decisions for you within agreed limits (for example "balanced"). The money stays in your name.
- Asset mix
- How your money is split between shares, bonds and cash, for example 40% shares and 60% bonds and cash. It decides most of the risk and the long-term return. Also called "asset allocation".
- Active vs index fund
- An actively managed fund pays experts to pick investments they think will do better. An index fund simply buys the whole market. Index funds are much cheaper, and most active funds fail to beat them over long periods after fees.
- Rebalancing
- Bringing the mix back to the target from time to time, for example back to 50% shares and 50% bonds after shares have risen. Managed options do this automatically.
- Dividend
- Part of a company's profit paid out to its shareholders. Many ETFs reinvest dividends automatically ("accumulating"); others pay them out ("distributing").
- SIX
- The Swiss stock exchange in Zurich. Many international ETFs can be bought there in francs.
- Fund domicile
- The country where a fund is legally based, e.g. Ireland, Switzerland or the USA. It affects taxes. Irish and Swiss funds are the usual choice for Swiss residents; US-based funds can cause US inheritance-tax issues.
- esisuisse
- The Swiss deposit protection scheme. It protects cash at a Swiss bank up to CHF 100'000 per person if the bank fails. Investments don't need it: they are kept separate and returned anyway.
- FINMA
- The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, which licenses and supervises Swiss banks.
- Pillar 3a
- Private retirement saving with a tax deduction, capped at CHF 7'258 a year (2026) and only possible while you have income from work. It can't take a lump sum.
- Tax statement
- A document from your bank listing your investments and income for the year, ready to attach to the tax return ("Steuerauszug").
- Spread
- The small difference between the price you can buy at and the price you can sell at on the exchange. Tiny for big, popular funds.