What Does Investing in Switzerland Really Cost? The Honest Fee Comparison

Learn / Investing

Fees are the silent killer of your returns. Over 20 years, even a 0.5% difference in annual costs can add up to tens of thousands of francs — money that either compounds in your portfolio or ends up in your provider's pocket.

Yet most investors have no idea what they're actually paying. Banks hide fees in product costs, custody charges, and transaction fees. Robo-advisors advertise a single number but forget to mention fund costs. And DIY platforms sound cheap — until you place your first trade.

In this article, we lay it all out honestly: What does investing in Switzerland really cost? We compare four typical paths — the ETF robo-advisor, arvy, the traditional bank, and the DIY platform — and show you not just the costs, but what you actually get for your money.

The Big Fee Comparison

All costs are based on a CHF 10,000 investment and include all fees: management, product costs, transactions, custody charges, and stamp duties.

ETF Robo-Advisor: Cheap, But Passive

Robo-advisors like Selma, findependent, or True Wealth are the cheapest automated solution on the Swiss market. For around CHF 90–95 per year on CHF 10,000, they invest your money in a portfolio of ETFs — broadly diversified, automatically rebalanced, with zero effort required on your part.

The advantage: maximum simplicity at minimum cost. The disadvantage: you don't own individual stocks but index funds that mirror the entire market — the best companies alongside the worst. There's no active selection, no quality filter, no human being making investment decisions for you.

Additionally, at no robo-advisor do the founders invest their own money in the same portfolio as you. Interests aren't aligned — the provider earns its fee regardless of whether your portfolio goes up or down.

arvy: Professional Investing from CHF 84 per Year

arvy sits at CHF 84 to CHF 111 per year on CHF 10,000 — the same price range as a robo-advisor — but delivers a fundamentally different product. Instead of investing in passive index funds, the arvy team selects quality companies: businesses with strong cash flows, growing dividends, dominant market positions, and excellent corporate governance.

Everything is included in that fee — no exceptions: professional portfolio management, all transaction costs, foreign currency charges, the annual tax statement, and access to all educational content including the weekly newsletter arvy's Weekly with over 12,000 readers.

What sets arvy apart from every other provider: the three founders — Florian, Patrick, and Thierry — have each invested over CHF 100,000 in the same portfolio. Same fees, same returns, same risk. No other provider in Switzerland can make that claim.

Learn more about the investment philosophy behind arvy in our Owner's Manual. Why the founders invest themselves: Skin in the Game.

Traditional Bank: Expensive and Often Opaque

The traditional bank — whether Raiffeisen, UBS, ZKB, or Credit Suisse — charges CHF 300 to 400 per year on CHF 10,000 for a comparable investment. That's 3–4x more than arvy or a robo-advisor.

Where does the difference come from? Banks layer costs across multiple levels: an advisory fee (often 1–1.6%), custody fees (CHF 50–100/year), product costs from in-house funds (TER of 0.8–1.5%), and additional transaction fees. Clients are often steered toward in-house funds that generate higher margins for the bank — not because they're better for the investor.

The bank advisor earns a salary and often commissions — regardless of how your portfolio performs. Interests are structurally misaligned.

DIY Platform: Cheap Only on Paper

Platforms like Swissquote, DEGIRO, or Interactive Brokers advertise low transaction fees. At first glance, it sounds attractive — but the actual costs are often significantly higher than expected.

At Swissquote, you'd pay CHF 630 per year on CHF 10,000 with an active portfolio of 40 transactions. Add custody fees (CHF 60/year), the tax statement (CHF 100), and currency conversion costs on every foreign stock purchase.

But the biggest cost factor with DIY is invisible: your own time and your own mistakes. You need to research, trade, rebalance, and maintain the discipline to not panic-sell during downturns. Studies show the average retail investor loses 1.5–3% in annual returns through emotional mistakes — far more than any fee. More: → Master Your Emotions When Investing

The Hidden Costs Nobody Talks About

The fee on the factsheet is rarely the whole truth. Here are the costs most providers don't prominently communicate:

Foreign Currency Surcharges

Every time you buy a stock in USD or EUR, your provider converts the currency — and profits from it. Banks and brokers typically charge 0.5–1.5% on top of the exchange rate. At arvy, foreign currency charges are included in the management fee — no additional costs.

Stamp Duty

Swiss stamp duty is 0.075% on domestic and 0.15% on foreign securities — per transaction. For a portfolio that trades regularly, this adds up. arvy transparently discloses stamp duty: 0% to 0.102% p.a. depending on investment profile.

Tax Statement

Most brokers charge CHF 50–100 for the annual tax statement. At arvy, it's included in the fee.

Your Own Time

If you invest on your own through Swissquote, you spend hours on research, order placement, and portfolio monitoring. Time you could alternatively use for your career, your family, or your hobbies. With arvy and robo-advisors, this effort disappears — you set up a standing order and let the rest run automatically.

What Fees Cost Over 20 Years

Fees seem small — 0.5% here, 1% there. But over decades, they eat deep into your wealth through the compounding effect. Here's a concrete example:

Assumptions: CHF 10,000 starting capital, CHF 500/month savings rate, 7% average annual return, 20-year investment horizon.

Try it yourself with our Investment Calculator — even small differences in fees make a massive difference over 20 years.

Conclusion: What Really Matters?

The cheapest option isn't always the best. And the most expensive one is almost never the best. What matters is the ratio of cost to value:

A robo-advisor at CHF 94/year gives you passive index investing with no human decisions. Solid, cheap, boring — and perfectly adequate for many investors.

arvy at CHF 84–111/year gives you professional stock selection by a CFA team, founders who invest alongside you, and weekly investment education that makes you a better investor. At the same price as a robo-advisor.

A bank at CHF 343/year gives you an advisor who earns commissions and sells in-house products. No skin in the game, no transparency about true costs.

Swissquote at CHF 630/year gives you maximum freedom — and maximum risk of making expensive mistakes.

The question isn't "What does it cost?" — the question is "What do I get for it?"

With arvy, you get professional quality investing, complete transparency, and founders who invest their own money alongside yours — at a price that's lower than most robo-advisors. It's the kind of wealth management we've always wanted for ourselves. And now we're sharing it with you.

Related articles: Investing in Switzerland: The comparison → · Why your money is safe with arvy → · Skin in the Game → · Master your emotions → · The Standing Order →

This article was written by Team arvy and reviewed by Florian Jauch, CFA. Last updated March 2026. All fee information is based on publicly available data from the named providers (as of March 2026) and refers to a CHF 10,000 investment.

Disclaimer: This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute personal investment advice. arvy is a wealth manager supervised by FINMA with a CISA license. Imprint & Legal Notice