Survey Shows That the Wealthy Invest in Stocks

For this year’s Swiss investment survey, moneyland.ch asked 1500 participants from both French-speaking and German-speaking Switzerland how much money they have invested in different investment vehicles. The results show that private accounts and savings accounts are the most popular investment vehicles. 36 percent of participants have invested at least part of their wealth in Swiss stocks, while 32 percent have invested in foreign stocks (see Table 1).

Wealthy residents invest in stocks

How the Swiss hold their money varies in keeping with their wealth brackets. That is particularly visible with stocks (refer to the detailed survey results). “The higher a participant’s income, the more likely it is that they have invested at least part of their income in stocks,” notes moneyland.ch CEO Benjamin Manz. Only 20 percent of participants with an income below 20,000 francs have invested part of their money in Swiss stocks. On the other hand, 75 percent of residents with personal wealth of one million francs or more have invested in Swiss stocks.

A similar pattern can be seen for foreign stocks: 69 percent of participants with at least one million francs of personal wealth have invested some amount of money in foreign stocks, compared to just 19 percent of participants with less than 20,000 francs of wealth.

Table 1: Popularity of investment vehicles

One-third invest in ETFs

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) – index funds traded on stock exchanges – are not exceptionally popular among Swiss investors. Just 34 percent of participants have invested money in ETFs. But ETFs offer several advantages, as moneyland.ch editor Dan Urner explains: “ETFs are a cost-effective way to invest in many different stocks at the same time, a practice that reduces the risk of loss of the long term.”

It is noteworthy that actively-managed funds are almost as popular as ETFs. “That is surprising because the fees charged by these funds are normally much higher than those of passively managed funds,” clarifies Urner. “The managers of actively-managed funds rarely manage to outperform the market.”

As with stocks, there is a visible gap between wealth brackets. Around 60 percent of people with personal wealth of 500,000 francs or more have invested in ETFs, compared to just 20 percent of people with less than 20,000 francs of wealth.

Private accounts and savings accounts lead

Private accounts are the most widely used tool for holding wealth, even though they are would not conventionally be considered an investment vehicle: 91 percent of all participants hold at least part of their money in private accounts. Savings accounts are used by 84 percent of residents, and take second place – even though they typically yield more interest than private accounts. “Many bank customers are not aware of the differences between private accounts and savings accounts,” says moneyland.ch CEO Benjamin Manz. “Private accounts are suitable for everyday financial transactions, but not for holding wealth.” What is more, 35 percent of survey participants hold a large portion of their wealth in private accounts.

The conservative investment habits of Switzerland’s residents are also visible in the popularity of cash, although only a minority hold a large part of their wealth this way. 67 percent of participants hold banknotes and coins at home, and 31 percent hold cash in safe deposit boxes.

Risk-averse retirement planning

The average Swiss pays a lot of attention to retirement planning – and normally shies away from risk. Pillar 3a retirement funds and other investment services are less popular than pillar 3a savings accounts: 47 percent of participants use pillar 3a investment services, compared to 62 percent who have money in pillar 3a savings accounts.

Bitcoin is becoming more popular

When you take the overall risk aversion into account, it seems surprising that cryptocurrencies have made their way into many Swiss investment portfolios. 26 percent of participants hold bitcoin. Altcoins are also held by 26 percent. 12 percent of survey participants have invested a large part of their wealth in bitcoin, while 11 percent have invested a big portion of their assets in other cryptocurrencies. “Cryptocurrencies have now become mainstream. But that does not make them a less risky investment,” comments Dan Urner.

Gold, which has long been a popular vehicle for hedging against inflation, can also be found in some Swiss investment portfolios. 30 percent of those surveyed have at least some money invested in gold. Another 24 percent have invested in other precious metals.

Women invest more conservatively than men

“The latest survey reveals that investing remains a male domain in Switzerland,” says Benjamin Manz. Across all investment vehicles, men are more likely to have investments than women are. The discrepancy is particularly clear when you look at Swiss stocks: 45 percent of men have shares in Swiss companies, compared to just 26 percent of women. That is a difference of 19 percentage points. The gender gap is also wide for foreign stocks (15 percentage points) and ETFs (14 percentage points).

Table 2: Gender-based differences

Investing is less popular in French-speaking regions

Residents of French-speaking Switzerland are less likely to invest than residents of German-speaking Switzerland. With the exception of real estate and life insurance, all of the investment vehicles included in the survey are more popular in German-speaking regions than in the Romandie. The difference is particularly noticeable for Swiss stocks, with 39 percent of German-speaking Swiss having invested in Swiss stocks compared to just 27 percent of French-speaking Swiss.

Table 3: Overview by linguistic region

More on this topic:
Detailed survey results (German PDF)
How to invest money in Switzerland