Independent Asset Managers in Switzerland

If you had only one question to ask a potential asset manager in Switzerland, it would probably be about whether he is independent or not. This question is essential to knowing whether your assets are really invested in your best interests or whether they are invested in the interests of the bank or asset manager in question. Only those who live exclusively from their clients' fees and do not generate any further income from their assets are truly independent of conflicts of interest. This is the only way to ensure that investment decisions are made only in your best interests and not for the purpose of maximising operational profit, for example by using expensive products.

If a bank or asset manager is not independent, he or she has incentives to enrich himself or herself with your assets in addition to the management fee. For example, he uses expensive products that are not necessary from an investment policy point of view, but which grant him a share of the costly management and transaction fees for these products. Because this happens in disguise, you never know whether an investment that is used in your portfolio is really suitable and optimal for you, or whether it is only intended to generate hidden additional income for the bank or the asset manager. In case of doubt, you should assume the latter. Such covert additional costs cause lasting damage to the return on your portfolio.

To guarantee our independence in our investment decisions, in our actions and all our activities, we follow clear and transparent guidelines:

• We trade as little as possible and as much as necessary. Many providers have an incentive to generate trading turnover because they earn money from it. Excessive trading simply results in costs that reduce your performance. We earn nothing from trading.
• We do not use any high-margin banking products and funds and thus we avoid all indirect, hidden costs that burden your performance.
• We also have no funds of our own where hidden costs could arise for you.
• We do not receive any refunds or retrocessions on transactions, no distribution fees for products, no finder's fees or other monetary benefits. We transfer the discounts we obtain from our main banks directly to our clients in the form of substantially reduced bank charges.
• Finally, the most important thing is that our only income is our clients' fees; this, together with our investment policy, makes us one of the very few truly independent asset managers in Switzerland.