Best Swiss Robo Advisor

What is the best robo advisory service available in Switzerland?

Hi there,

A number of robo advisors now operate in Switzerland. The best known Swiss robo advisors are currently:

True Wealth (of which the BLKB is a shareholder)

Investomat (Glarner Kantonalbank), which also makes software available to other banks.

Swissquote Robo Advisor

Which robo advisor is the "best" is subjective because many different factors play a role including costs, available investment vehicles, fuctions, the user interface and - of course - returns on investment (although returns can only be estimated).

You can find more information about robo advisors here.

Best regards from Moneyguru

I came across yova.ch through a Facebook ad. I took a look at the product, but frankly, I don’t really understand it. It sounds like a robo advisor service which uses portfolios made up entirely of stocks.

Somehow I can’t imagine that that is all it does, because you pay a 1.5% annual fee. I have been a truewealth.ch customer for 2 years now and pay 0.5% (plus fund TERs of 0.19%) for a similar service but based on ETFs.

Yova markets itself as a wealth management service which invests in the stocks of sustainable companies. But I can do the same thing with Truewealth by selecting ETFs which meet the ESG standard.

Has anyone here used Yova or can at least tell me whether or not I missed something? I have been using Truewealth but am open to building a second portfolio to diversify my investments. But this service just seems very expensive to me, if all it does is manage a sustainable stock portfolio.

You need to invest a minimum of 5000 francs, which is similar to the minimum amount required by other robo advisors. Savings plans are also offered.

The 1.5% fee is high compared to competing robo advisors. That fee covers transaction fees and custodial fees, but that is generally the case at other digital wealth management services as well.

Apparently, investments are made directly by Yova rather than via ETFs to provide better control over investments.

The startup markets itself as a tool for impact investing – investing in sustainable investment that make a difference. If that is the case and is done right, that could definitely be a value-added service. But is that value-add worth paying double the average fees for? I’ll leave that to investors to decide.

There's little reason whatsoever for a swiss investor to bother with swiss roboadvisors. Ridiculously overpriced rubbish. Mix and match from ETFs on the market using a low cost discount broker, much cheaper and about as good returns-wise.

American roboadvisors provide real value to US taxpayers by implementing tax loss harvesting which saves several times more than their fees. But this problem simply doesn't exist in swiss tax system. Don't board the hype train without understanding what you're actually getting into

>1.5% annual fee

Ripoff for idiots. This is a price tag for fully staffed hedge funds from which you can demand cutthroat performance, not some unknown wannabe portfolio managers investing into an index and selling you stories about how you make the world a better place

I have been using Elvia e-invest, which is being shut down at the end of November.

Now I am looking for a suitable alternative robo advisor.

Selma and Yova, 2 competing robo advisors which also use Saxo Bank Switzerland are offering to take over my e-invest account. Both are advertising no wealth management fees for up to 5000 francs of assets during the first year.

But I decided to liquidate my assets and transfer the money to a bank account, as per Elvia’s recommendation.

I would like to invest my money through a wealth manager again though, because I actually made a decent return using Elvia e-invest.

So I am looking for a replacement. Which service would you recommend? I plan to invest between 8000 and 20,000 francs.

In my search, I came across your comparison of robo advisors and through that, I discovered True Wealth. It seems to me like True Wealth has negligible costs in comparison to other robo advisors. True Wealth works with 2 partner banks, which means you can choose between Saxo Bank and the Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank for your custodian bank.

But unlike Yova and Selma, True Wealth cannot take over my e-invest account. I would have to liquidate my e-invest assets and then invest the money with True Wealth from scratch.

I have had a True Wealth demo account for some time.

Am I correct in assuming that True Wealth is the best replacement to e-invest for my situation?

Hi there,

There are many things to consider when picking a robo advisor. Some of the most important things to look for are:

• The lowest possible flat fee.
• The lowest possible product costs. In the case of most robo advisors, that means the most affordable ETFs. Costs generated by investment vehicles are typically charges separately on top of the flat fee.
• Access to solid investment vehicles, such as a good range of ETFs.
• Low incidental costs (currency exchange costs, spreads).
• Good user friendliness and tools that minimize effort on your part.
• The highest amount of assets under management (AUM), which indicates a solid user base.
• Good past performance. This factor is debatable, since past performance does not guarantee future performance.

In your case, the costs of transferring your assets also come into play. Over a long investment term, these costs will become negligible, especially if your move to a cheaper service provider and save money on fees.

True Wealth is one of the cheapest robo advisors and in terms of AUM it is one of the biggest in Switzerland. You can find an overview of all the most important information in the PDF comparison which you can download at the foot of this guide to Swiss robo advisors.

Best regards from Moneyguru

The Zürcher Kantonalbank has just released its frankly app-based pillar 3a wealth management service.

You can find a clear overview of how the costs of frankly compare to those of other pillar 3a wealth management solutions (Viac and Selma) in this review:
frankly pillar 3a from ZKB compared