What Makes arvy Different From Other Providers (Robo-Advisors, Banks, DIY-Apps)
September 24, 2026
10 min read
What Makes arvy Different From Other Providers
Level with the cheapest on price. The difference is elsewhere.
In 30 seconds
- Against other digital providers: almost the same price. Winning that comparison on cost means winning by hundredths of a percent.
- Against doing it yourself: 0.20% to 0.50% a year, plus roughly 150 hours of your time. At the lower end you are cheaper than we are, at the upper end more expensive.
- Against a bank: 1.2% to 1.8% for the same portfolio. That is CHF 75,000 to CHF 127,000 over thirty years.
- The largest item appears on no table: the behaviour gap of 1% to 1.5% a year. It is three to five times the cost difference.
- What we add is education and company — not a return promise. A behaviour gap of just 0.25% a year erases the cost advantage of doing it yourself.
Contents
- On price we are not alone
- Against doing it yourself: cheaper, if everything goes smoothly
- The number at which it flips
- Against a bank: same portfolio, four times the price
- Against other digital providers
- What you additionally get: you are not left alone
- What we explicitly do not promise
- Investing is where you learn the most about yourself
- Founder-led, with our own money in it
- When another route suits you better
01On price we are not alone
Most providers answer this question with their price. We start by saying that the price does not answer it.
The arvy ETF Savings Plan costs a 0.39% management fee plus 0.06% product costs, 0.45% all-in in the Growth profile. Those are the lowest all-in costs in our provider comparison. The lead over the next provider, however, is 0.02%.
The uncomfortable truth
Two hundredths of a percent are no reason to choose a provider. Over thirty years at CHF 500 a month that is roughly CHF 3,250 — a number any single week of market movement covers up. Anyone deciding on price is deciding between several providers that cost practically the same.
The interesting differences therefore do not sit between us and other digital providers. They sit between four fundamentally different routes.
02Against doing it yourself: cheaper, if everything goes smoothly
Anyone who opens an account with a cheap broker, buys a world equity ETF and tops it up every month lands, depending on provider and approach, at roughly 0.20% to 0.50% a year. The range is that wide because more adds up than the fund's product costs:
| Item when doing it yourself | Order of magnitude |
|---|---|
| Product costs of the ETF | 0.06% to 0.20% |
| Custody fee | 0% to 0.25% |
| Brokerage per purchase | CHF 0 to CHF 9 per execution |
| Currency conversion | up to 0.50% per contribution if not bought in francs |
| Tax statement | CHF 0 to CHF 150 a year |
| Your time | roughly 150 hours over thirty years |
Stamp duty applies equally in both cases and is therefore not listed. Time calculated at 15 minutes a month for execution and checking plus two hours a year for tax paperwork.
At the lower end of that range you are cheaper than we are. At the upper end you are more expensive:
| Route | All-in a year | After 30 years | Difference to arvy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doing it yourself, highly disciplined | 0.20% | CHF 586,452 | +27,958 |
| Doing it yourself, realistic | 0.35% | CHF 569,488 | +10,994 |
| arvy ETF Savings Plan | 0.45% | CHF 558,494 | — |
| Doing it yourself, with FX and custody fee | 0.50% | CHF 553,089 | −5,405 |
| Cheapest other digital provider | 0.48% | CHF 555,244 | −3,250 |
| More expensive digital provider | 0.90% | CHF 511,973 | −46,521 |
| Bank mandate, lower end | 1.20% | CHF 483,467 | −75,027 |
| Bank mandate, upper end | 1.80% | CHF 431,863 | −126,631 |
CHF 500 a month, 7% gross return, 30 years. Model calculation on the assumptions stated, not a forecast.
The 150 hours
None of those numbers contains your time. Logging in every month, checking the price, working out the number of shares, placing the order, verifying it — plus gathering the tax paperwork once a year. Over thirty years that is roughly 150 hours, close to four full working weeks. What that time is worth is your call: at CHF 50 an hour it would be CHF 7,500, and therefore more than the cost difference over the same period.
We write that plainly because it is true: anyone who buys with discipline, picks the cheapest broker, avoids the currency conversion and prepares their own tax paperwork is cheaper than we are. That is not a courtesy; it follows from the table above.
The item missing from both tables is the most important one: you are permanently on your own. Nobody puts it in context when the market falls twenty percent. Nobody tells you whether what you are about to do will still look right in five years. That is what the next section is about.
03The number at which it flips
There is one item that appears on no fee table and is larger than all the fees combined: the gap between a fund's return and the return its investors actually get.
Research by Vanguard, Morningstar and Dalbar converges independently on the same order of magnitude: 1% to 1.5% a year. The cause is not a cost item but behaviour — selling in a decline, buying after strong years, pausing when it gets uncomfortable.
That turns the question "is a provider worth it?" into something you can calculate. How large your behaviour gap may be before the cost advantage of doing it yourself dissolves depends on how cheaply you actually do it:
| Your cost doing it yourself | Advantage over arvy | Behaviour gap that erases it |
|---|---|---|
| 0.20% — highly disciplined | 0.25% | 0.25% a year |
| 0.35% — realistic | 0.10% | 0.10% a year |
| 0.50% — with FX and custody fee | none | immediately |
So even in the cheapest case a behaviour gap of a quarter of a percent a year is enough to turn the calculation around. In francs, starting from the disciplined 0.20%:
| Your behaviour gap | Doing it yourself | arvy | Who is ahead |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.10% a year | CHF 575,079 | CHF 558,494 | Doing it yourself |
| 0.25% a year | CHF 558,494 | CHF 558,494 | level |
| 0.50% a year | CHF 532,069 | CHF 558,494 | arvy, by CHF 26,425 |
| 1.25% a year | CHF 461,127 | CHF 558,494 | arvy, by CHF 97,367 |
Same assumptions as above. The behaviour gap is modelled here, in simplified form, as a permanent reduction in return.
Research puts the average four to six times higher than that 0.25% threshold — but an average is not your number. This calculation does not say "choose arvy". It says: look at what you actually did in 2008, 2020 and 2022.
04Against a bank: same portfolio, four times the price
A classic bank mandate costs 1.2% to 1.8% all-in. In many cases what you get for it is a portfolio of index funds — in substance the same thing a digital provider delivers for a fraction.
Over thirty years that is a difference of CHF 75,000 to CHF 127,000. That is not a nuance, that is a quarter of the outcome.
What you additionally get at a bank is usually an adviser. That can be worth a great deal when it comes to succession, mortgage financing, tax planning across several vehicles or a complex family situation. For a savings plan on the world equity market it is expensive.
05Against other digital providers
Here it gets undramatic: we are one of several good solutions, and the price difference is small. What sets us apart is three things — and none of them is a fee.
First: we show our building blocks. The page The Building Blocks lists every fund used, with ISIN, costs, domicile and as-of date. You do not have to believe us; you can look it up.
Second: we also write down what argues against us. Our provider comparison contains a section on where a competitor might be cheaper than we are. This article says that doing it yourself is cheaper. That is not a marketing trick; it is the condition for the rest being credible.
Third: there are people behind this, and you can reach them. Phone, chat, email — someone in Zurich who knows the portfolio answers. That sounds like it should go without saying, and it does not.
06What you additionally get: you are not left alone
The reason we put so much effort into explaining follows directly from the calculation above. If behaviour is the largest cost factor, then education is not a by-product but the core of the service.
Weekly by arvycontext every week, not price commentary
Podcast and YouTubemarkets, companies, mistakes — including our own
Over a hundred articles and calculatorsfrom compounding to the behaviour gap, all freely available
Explanation instead of alarmat a ten percent decline we put it in context rather than stir it up
People you can reachphone, chat and email, answered in Zurich
We show you what you own and why you own it. In calm phases that is pleasant to know. In difficult phases it is the difference between holding on and selling.
07What we explicitly do not promise
We do not claim that our commentary recovers those 1% to 1.5% for you. That would be a return promise, and nobody can keep one.
What we commit to is more concrete and more modest: when the market falls ten percent, we put it in context. When it falls twenty, we point out that historically those were the moments when adding paid off most. Whether you stay invested is ultimately your decision.
We also promise no outperformance. The ETF Savings Plan tracks an index and therefore does what an index does: it buys what is large and asks no questions about valuation. How that relates to our active approach is covered in Passive, Active or Both.
08Investing is where you learn the most about yourself
This is the side rarely written about, because it cannot be expressed in percentages.
There is hardly another place in life where you get feedback about yourself as fast and as incorruptible as in an investment portfolio. Greed shows up when everything rises and you want more. Fear shows up when your portfolio is twenty percent under water. Doubt shows up when someone at dinner tells you about a threefold gain.
Anyone who lives through that for a few years and pays attention learns more about their own reaction patterns than from any personality test — and that insight reaches far beyond the portfolio. Better decisions come from better understanding. That holds for money, and not only for money.
That is why our learning section is not the marketing department but part of the product. And why our aim is not for you to check your portfolio daily, but the opposite: that your focus stays on your life, because you know what is going on and who to call.
09Founder-led, with our own money in it
arvy is owned by its three founders. There is no group needing a quarterly number and no financial investor with an exit date. That has a practical consequence: we can think in years because nobody asks us in quarters.
We invest our own money in the same portfolios as our clients, on the same terms. If a decision is bad, it hits us at the same time and to the same extent.
And we are supervised: arvy AG is a manager of collective assets authorised by FINMA. Your securities are held at Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, belong to you at all times and are segregated from arvy's own assets.
10When another route suits you better
So that this article does not end as an advertisement, here are the cases where you are better served elsewhere.
| If you … | then … |
|---|---|
| held through two market crises without flinching | do it yourself at a broker — up to 0.25% cheaper if you pick the cheapest route |
| want to pick your own holdings | you need a brokerage account, not a mandate |
| need the money within the next few years | it does not belong in equities, with any provider |
| want succession, mortgage and company solved together | you need comprehensive advice, not a savings plan |
| are only looking at the lowest price | keep comparing — the gap to the next ones is small |
What remains is the argument that matters most to us: a savings plan is only useful if it runs for thirty years. Everything we do is built so that you stay with it — not so that you sign up today.
11Frequently asked questions
What is the biggest difference between arvy and other providers?
Not the price. On the ETF Savings Plan we are ahead at 0.45% all-in, but only by 0.02% against the next provider. The difference is that we disclose every building block we use, that we also write down what argues against us, and that a full learning section and reachable people come with the plan.
Is arvy cheaper than other digital providers?
By hundredths of a percent, yes. Over thirty years at CHF 500 a month that is roughly CHF 3,250 against the next cheapest provider. Against a bank mandate it is CHF 75,000 to CHF 127,000. The first difference is small, the second is large.
Would it not be cheaper to do everything myself?
It depends. Doing it yourself costs 0.20% to 0.50% a year once you add up product costs, custody fee, brokerage, currency conversion and the tax statement. At the lower end you are 0.25% cheaper than we are, at the upper end more expensive. On top come roughly 150 hours of your time over thirty years. And it depends on your behaviour gap: 0.25% a year already erases the advantage.
What is the behaviour gap?
The distance between a fund's return and the return its investors actually get. Research by Vanguard, Morningstar and Dalbar estimates it at 1% to 1.5% a year. The cause is not a cost item but behaviour: selling in a decline, buying after strong years, pausing when it gets uncomfortable.
Do you promise I will do better with you?
No. We do not claim that our commentary recovers those 1% to 1.5% for you — that would be a return promise. What we commit to is explaining, in difficult phases, what you own and why, and that you can reach someone.
What does founder-led mean?
arvy is owned by its three founders. There is no group with quarterly targets and no financial investor with an exit date. The founders invest their own money in the same portfolios as clients, on the same terms.
Who is arvy not the right choice for?
Anyone who has demonstrably held through two market crises without flinching and is willing to carry the effort themselves — they are cheaper on their own. Anyone who wants to pick their own holdings. Money needed within a few years. And anyone needing comprehensive advice on succession, mortgage and company.
Keep reading
The price is the smaller part of the answer.
0.39% management plus 0.06% product costs, invested weekly — and a learning section that comes with it.
This article was written by Thierry Borgeat, co-founder of arvy, and reviewed by Patrick Rissi, CFA, and Florian Jauch, CFA.
Disclaimer: arvy AG is a manager of collective assets authorised by FINMA under Art. 24 CISA. This article is for information purposes only and constitutes neither investment advice nor tax or legal advice. All amounts are model calculations on the assumptions stated and are not forecasts. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
