Swiss Mutual Fund and ETF Savings Plan Cost Comparison

A savings plan based on an ETF or mutual fund enables you to make regular, step-by-step investments in the stock market. Savings plans are designed for customers who want to invest a certain amount of money at regular intervals – every month, for example.

In the past, savings plans were primarily offered by established banks. Many of the offers were anything but attractive because they used expensive strategy funds as the investment solution. There were also high minimum fees for buying fund shares and for holding them in custody. But all of that has changed, with only a few banks still having minimum fees.

The market has been stirred up in recent years, observes moneyland.ch expert Ralf Beyeler. Today, the Swiss neobanks Neon, Radicant, and Yuh, as well as online stockbrokers like Saxo Bank and Swissquote have their own savings plans. Some service providers, like Swissquote and Yuh, let you use fractional shares for savings plans. There are also Swiss robo advisors that offer savings plans.

Viac, known for its online retirement saving solutions, announced that it will be releasing a savings plan in the future, although the details are not yet known. Before the end of the year, Alpian will begin offering its customers the option of making regular investments in an ETF. Not all of these products are branded as savings plans, but their function is similar. They let you invest a predefined amount of money into a mutual fund or ETF at regular, predefined intervals.

Different fee structures

The different service providers use different fee structures, which makes a direct comparison of different offers difficult. With all of the savings plans included in the study, the fees charged by the mutual fund or ETF used (normally shown as the TER) are charged to the customer separately. The stamp duties for fund share purchases are also charged to the customer separately. Many service providers also charge the value-added tax (VAT) separately. Only very few service providers expressly state that VAT is included in the savings plan fee.

Some service providers charge a fee when you buy and when you sell fund shares. Among the savings plans that have these, the brokerage fees can be as high as 1.5 percent – but there is no minimum fee. Swissquote uses a flat brokerage fee system, with the lowest possible flat fee per transaction being 3 francs. Many service providers like Raiffeisen, the Berner Kantonalbank, and Valiant charge custody fees, which are usually equal to between 0.2 and 0.5 percent of your custody account balance per year. The highest custody fee charged by any savings plan provider is 1 percent.

An increasing number of savings plans now have just one flat fee, instead of charging you individual brokerage fees and custody fees. The flat savings plan fee covers the costs of buy and sell transactions, and the cost of holding your fund shares in a custody account. Among the savings plans that have a flat fee, the highest fee is equal to 0.9 percent of the value of your fund shares.

The mutual funds or ETFs used for a savings plan also play an important role. “Using a broadly-diversified investment portfolio that includes numerous stocks from around the world is generally recommended. That can be done by using a global ETF or global index fund, or with a global investment portfolio like those offered by robo advisors,” explains Ralf Beyeler. “But using fund-based savings plans only makes sense if you are able to ignore temporary losses in the value of your savings. If your savings losing value would keep you up at night, then fund-based savings plans are not an optimal savings solution,” adds Ralf Beyeler.

Paying careful attention to the fund fees when choosing a mutual fund or ETF for your savings plan is always beneficial. Fund fees are often shown as a total expense ratio (TER). The cheapest fund offered in combination with a savings plan has a TER of just 0.03 percent per year, while the TER of the most expensive fund is over 2 percent per year. Important: Funds with a low TER are often money market funds or bond funds that are not suitable for investing in the stock market.

A moneyland.ch cost simulation reveals big differences between Swiss savings plans

In order to compare savings plans in spite of the differences in fee structures, moneyland.ch simulated the investment costs of using different savings plans. The cost simulation is based on a customer who pays 200 francs per month into their savings plan over a 10-year term. At the end of the 10-year term, the customer terminates the savings plan, sells their ETF or mutual fund shares, and transfers the money to their bank account.

The results of the cost simulation are shown as a span with the lowest and the highest costs of a savings plan. That is because the fund fees vary broadly depending on which mutual fund or ETF is used for the savings plan. Additionally, with some service providers, the fund you use can also determine the brokerage fees, custody fees, or flat savings plan fees you pay. While moneyland.ch calculated the span between the lowest and highest possible cost, the cost simulation does not account for the kind of investment fund used.

The cost simulation is a simplified simulation that does not account for possible gains in the value of investments. Because the fees charged are often based on the value of your assets, the actual costs can be even higher. The simulation also ignores the minimum deposit required to open certain savings plans.19

These are the cheapest stock-based savings plans

The cheapest stock-based savings plan is offered by Saxo Bank to customers who enable securities lending. Over the 10-year saving term, the cost of using Saxo Bank’s savings plan to invest in an ETF based on the S&P 500 index that includes 500 US stocks is 80 francs. Customers who do not enable securities lending pay more, with a total cost of 346 francs. If you were to use a geographically-diversified ETF based on the MSCI World global stock index, the cost would be 261 francs with securities lending enabled, and 527 francs without securities lending.

After Saxo Bank, the neobank Neon (193 francs) and Yuh (325 francs) are the next most affordable solutions for the profile used. With both of these service providers, the lowest costs were for savings plans that used ETFs that replicate the S&P 500 index with 500 US stocks. With both Neon and Yuh, the cheapest savings plans based on globally-diversified funds both use ETFs that replicate the FTSE All-World index. The total cost of global savings plans are 301 francs (Neon) and 386 francs (Yuh).   

Avadis and the Basellandschaftlichen Kantonalbank both have savings plans that are even cheaper than the cheapest stock-based savings plans. “But the money market funds and bond funds used in these savings plans are not suitable for building wealth,” notes Ralf Beyeler. Both of these service providers also offer stock-based investment funds, but the costs are much higher.

A look at the cost spans of the three cheapest savings plan providers is also interesting. Savings plans from Saxo Bank can cost up to 1592 francs, while plans from Neon can cost up to 1402 francs, and those from Yuh can cost up to 1365 francs. That shows how big an impact your choice of ETF can have on the total costs.

Savings plans from some service providers can cost more than 3000 francs over a 10-year term, when an expensive fund is used for investing. The simulated cost of the most expensive offer is 4263 francs.

Savings plans from conventional banks

The moneyland.ch Swiss savings plan analysis also accounts for offers from 19 conventional banks.

The cheapest stock-based savings plan from a conventional Swiss bank is offered by Raiffeisen. Over a 10-year term, the cost of using a Raiffeisen savings plan with an index fund that replicates the S&P 500 index is 636 francs. A Raiffeisen savings plan based on the globally-diversified MSCI World stock index costs 733 francs for the simulated profile.  

Often, the cheapest possible savings plans are those based on money market funds or bond funds. For example, the cheapest Postfinance savings plan uses a money market fund with a TER of just 0.13 percent. The cheapest stock fund offered with Postfinance savings plans has a much higher TER of 0.6 percent. The cost simulation shows that over the 10-year term, the cost of using the stock fund is 569 francs higher, over the 10-year term.

A look at the savings plan offers from the biggest Swiss banks shows the following cost spans for the simulated profile and 10-year term:

Table 1: The cost of savings plans from major Swiss banks

The PDF available at the foot of this report shows the detailed results for all savings plans included in the comparison.

Savings plans from neobanks and robo advisors

The moneyland.ch analysis also included savings plans from four neobanks and seven robo advisors. Neon savings plan users can choose between 98 different ETFs, while Yuh lets you choose between 81 ETFs and tracker certificates. Those are relatively large selections, compared to the limited selections of most Swiss savings plans. Both Neon and Yuh advertise the fact that they do not charge you fees for purchases of ETF shares as part of a savings plan. However, the standard brokerage fees do apply when you sell your fund shares.

Neon and Yuh are among the most affordable options when it comes to choosing low-cost ETFs. But both neobanks also include relatively expensive ETFs with TERs just under 1 percent in their fund lineups. The cost of using a savings plan for 10 years, based on the simulated profile, ranges between 193 francs and 1402 francs for Neon savings plans, and between 325 francs and 1365 francs for Yuh savings plans.

Savings plans from Alpian and Radicant are more closely related to those offered by robo advisors. Instead of using one investment fund, these savings plans use a customized investment portfolio. These portfolios are typically comprised of a selection of various ETFs and index funds put together by the service provider based on your needs.

Typical savings plan users invest a certain part of their income in stocks every month. But many offers from robo advisors do not cater to this kind of customer,” observes Ralf Beyeler. Some robo advisors require a minimum initial deposit of 1000 francs or more when you open your savings plan, with some requiring as much as 8500 francs. Because of those minimum initial deposit requirements, these robo advisors are designed for people who already have some savings on top of their emergency funds, and want to invest those savings in stocks, while adding to them with additional ongoing payments.

Table 2: The cost of savings plans from robo advisors and similar service providers

* Hypothetical calculation without accounting for the minimum initial deposit.

Three stockbrokers offer savings plans

Three banks focused on online trading – Cash - Banking by Bank Zwei Plus, Saxo Bank, and Swissquote – also offer savings plans. Cornèrtrader will launch a savings plan in 2025.

These stockbrokers offer a comparatively large selection of different investment vehicles that can be used for savings plans. Saxo Bank lets you choose from more than 100 ETFs, while Swissquote lets you choose between 94 different ETFs. Swissquote also give you the option of making regular investments into your choice out of 298 stocks, 44 cryptocurrencies, and 38 themed investment portfolios. Cornèrtrader has said that it plans to offer more than 5000 different ETFs from 2025.

The analysis reveals the huge cost differences between service providers. Saxo Bank’s simulated cost across a 10-year savings term ranges between 80 and 1326 francs with securities lending enabled, and between 346 and 1592 francs without securities lending enabled. That makes it simulated cost lower than that of Swissquote (1205 to 2343 francs) and Cash - Banking by Bank Zwei Plus (1976 to 4263 francs). One reason for that is custody fees – Swissquote’s minimum custody fees add up to 80 francs per year. Swissquote does not offer its savings plan as a stand-alone product, so it is likely designed to appeal to customers who already use online trading, but also want to make recurring investments.

Table 3: The cost of savings plans from stockbrokers

Savings plans for children often come with discounts

Swiss banks have offered special fund-based savings plans for children for many years now. “In the past, godparents paid their dues into a passbook savings account. Today, their gifts can be invested using a savings plan,” explains Beyeler. Some banks offer gift savings plans. The fees are often lower than those applicable to savings plans for adults from the same bank.

Not all savings plan providers offer gift savings plans for children. Out of the 19 conventional banks included in the study, 16 bank offer gift savings plans. Postfinance is the only major Swiss bank that does not have a gift savings plan in its product lineup. Among Swiss neobanks, Radicant is the only one that offers a gift savings account. Gift savings plans are offered by 5 of the 7 robo advisors. Avadis and Philoro also have gift savings accounts for children.

More information is available in the guide

You can learn more in the detailed moneyland.ch guide to Swiss savings plans. You can obtain a PDF with comprehensive overviews of Swiss savings plans using the form below.