Find the Best Swiss Wealth Managers with FinGuide
With FinGuide, you can find your best Swiss private bank or best independent Swiss wealth manager through a simple and free of charge process. We compare fees and performances of wealth managers and banks. Our proven approach is tailored to your individual needs and many satisfied clients are testament to this.
We shake up Swiss private banking by creating transparency and a sound basis for decision-making. FinGuide is committed solely to the client’s interests. We work independently and provide neutral advice. It makes no financial difference to us which provider you choose. The minimum investable assets required for our service are CHF 500,000. If you reside outside Switzerland, the minimum amout is one million.
Avoid Providers With ...
- insufficient performance
- high (hidden) costs
- product sales instead of investment advice
- excessive bonuses
- frequent advisor changes
Choose Wealth Management With ...
- financial outperformance
- transparent costs
- investment advice instead of product sales
- fair business practices
- time for clients
Four Steps to Finding Your Ideal Provider
Understanding your needs
• online
• 5-10 minutes
Discussion of results
• Sample report
• 1-1.5 hours
Meeting with the top two
• Getting to know the wealth managers
• 2 x 1 hour
Decision
• Support from FinGuide
• Case-by-case
Free of Charge?
Where's the Catch?
The many free services available on the internet have raised awareness that nothing is truly free, and users of these services often pay with their data. How does FinGuide work?
- FinGuide is paid by the provider that customers choose. FinGuide’s compensation is exactly the same across all providers. Therefore, FinGuide has no conflict of interest and our advice is always unbiased and independent.
- FinGuide is remunerated when we create value for our clients.If the providers suggested by FinGuide are not satisfactory to your liking, we do not get paid. We therefore have a strong incentive to work with only the best private banks and independent wealth managers.
- The data collected is used solely for one purpose: to find the best wealth management for you.
Who Are Our Customers?
- Employees who are retiring and like to invest their pension funds.
- Entrepreneurs who sell their company.
- Heirs who want to invest their inheritance (in a better way).
- Investors who are not satisfied with the services or performance of their current wealth manager or bank.
- Banking clients who have not invested their wealth so far.
Here's What Our Customers Say About Us
Information and Knowledge About Investments
FinGuide Insights
Unique Selling Propositions in Private Banking
Successful companies are characterized by unique selling propositions or "USPs."...
READ MORE
Baumann & Cie new Partner on FinGuide Platform
We are pleased to announce our partnership with another private...
READ MORE
BILANZ: Best Swiss Wealth Managers 2026
For many years, we have been collaborating with the magazine...
READ MORE
Find Best Wealth Manager Digitally
In today's Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) author Mark Baer investigates...
READ MORE
FinGuide in the Media (Articles in German)
FAQ
Questions About FinGuide
Why should you choose FinGuide for your wealth management?
The integration of customers and banks or independent wealth managers at FinGuide is data-driven, neutral, and independent. We model customer needs and the details of the provider’s offering to achieve the highest possible alignment. This service is unique and enables our customers to make informed decisions. However, the purely quantitative matching of customer needs and offerings is just the beginning. In personal conversations, customer needs are deepened, and the strengths and weaknesses of individual providers are identified. Thus, we complement the quantitative matching with qualitative criteria such as investment focuses and much information about the providers that cannot be found online.
At FinGuide, identifying the right personal advisor is also of great importance. Therefore, we strive to find an advisor with the most ideally suited profile for each customer. During the personal meeting, our clients can assess whether the chemistry is right.
Moreover, FinGuide verifies the returns achieved for private clients. It is not enough for us when a bank or an wealth manager claims what returns were allegedly achieved. We examine this in detail to ensure that we receive no inflated data and that all costs have indeed been deducted.
Do you want to find out which bank or asset manager suits you best? Start your non-binding needs analysis now and share your wishes with us.
What are the flaws of AI in the search for good wealth management?
Every Artificial Intelligence (AI) operates using data from the internet. As long as the information necessary for a decision is available online, AI can quickly and easily lead to great results. However, in Swiss private banking, there is a lack of transparency, meaning that the important data for informed decision-making is not publicly accessible. We continually test this and have encountered the following persistent challenges:
- The banks and wealth managers that disclose a lot about themselves are positively mentioned. Those that operate more discreetly are not included in the recommendations, even if their services are excellent.
- Every AI tends to rely on publicly available tests and comparisons. However, the quality of these tests is rarely considered. If a consumer magazine publishes an article with unverified returns, the AI simply accepts these figures without questioning them.
- AI often fabricates facts where none exist. For example, a client presented us with a comparison of the political affiliations of wealth managers that he had created using AI. Information on this topic is, of course, rarely available online. Nonetheless, the AI provided an answer for every asset manager in question.
- AI lacks awareness of how competent it is in answering a question. The responses usually sound very convincing, and those who are not experts may not realize which responses are incorrect.
We willingly use AI and view it very positively. However, when it comes to identifying the appropriate asset management, the data foundation is simply insufficient, resulting in outcomes that are therefore not very meaningful.
At what wealth is FinGuide's service accessible?
The required minimum investable assets for our service amount to CHF 500,000. For residents outside of Switzerland, the minimum is CHF 1 million. There is no upper limit – we regularly tend to mandates in the double-digit millions range. Through our data-driven categorization, we ensure that regardless of your exact wealth size, you will find the private bank or asset manager that welcomes you as their client.
Does your portfolio meet the minimum volume? Start your non-binding needs analysis now and find the ideal partner for your wealth in just a few steps.
How does FinGuide finance itself while remaining completely neutral and independent?
If a bank or an independent wealth manager passes FinGuide’s due diligence check, we offer a collaboration agreement. This document outlines that FinGuide will be compensated for bringing in new clients.
The compensation is exactly the same across all providers, ensuring that FinGuide can always provide neutral and independent advice. Furthermore, FinGuide only receives the full compensation if clients stay with their new provider for at least 10 years. This ensures that all parties involved—clients, providers, and FinGuide itself—are pursuing the same goals.
How does FinGuide ensure the quality and fairness of the providers?
Our review covers the entire range of services provided by private banks and independent wealth managers in detail. The two most important criteria are performance strength and fairness towards clients.
Performance strength means consistently beating the benchmark defined by FinGuide over several years and across various risk classes.
Fairness means that there are no conflicts of interest between providers and clients. For instance, FinGuide excludes all providers whose advisors have sales targets on investment products. Such advisors prioritize their bonuses over the well-being of their clients. We consider that to be wrong.
How does the wealth manager comparison work at FinGuide?
The path to your customized wealth management is simple, transparent, and divided into clear steps:
- Online Needs Analysis: Clients conveniently fill out our online questionnaire about their needs from the comfort of their homes to capture their individual requirements and financial goals.
- Data-Driven Matching: FinGuide analyzes customer needs and uses an algorithm to find the four or five most suitable private banks or independent wealth managers in Switzerland. The goal is to achieve the highest possible match between needs and offerings.
- Personal Consultation: The evaluation is discussed in detail during a video call lasting 1 to 1.5 hours, aiming to define the top two favorites.
- Advisor Selection: FinGuide identifies a suitable advisor among the top two providers that matches the clients’ needs.
- Getting to Know & Strategy: Clients personally meet the advisors from the top two providers and establish the groundwork for the investment strategy to be defined.
- Decision & Start: Clients choose one of the providers. With this, FinGuide’s task is complete, and the chosen provider (bank or independent wealth manager) takes over the client relationship.
How secure are my personal and financial data with FinGuide?
The data provided to us by customers will only be used for one single purpose: to search for the most suitable provider for wealth management. The storage of customer data occurs exclusively on servers in Switzerland, operated by Swiss cloud and hosting providers. Our customer data is fully subject to the Swiss Data Protection Act and is as secure as possible from access by foreign authorities. Additionally, any data transmission is encrypted according to the highest security standards.
Protecting your privacy is our top priority. We treat your data with absolute confidentiality and never share it with third parties without your explicit consent.
Who are the owners of FinGuide?
FinGuide is exclusively owned by the managing partners Oliver Kuan and Matthias Hunn. It is particularly important to us that no bank or wealth manager holds stakes in FinGuide. This ensures our independence.
What is the difference between a bank and an independent wealth manager?
The result is the same for both: They manage your assets and assist you with all questions related to capital investment. Private banks specialize in asset management; they could also be referred to as wealth managers with a banking license. The banking license means that banks are allowed to accept customer funds and maintain accounts and deposits for them. Consequently, banks can offer “all-inclusive” services in wealth management.
Independent wealth managers require a so-called custodian bank for the management of portfolios and the execution of purchases and sales of securities. After the account is opened, customers have no further contact with the custodian bank; the independent wealth manager is their main point of contact. They make decisions regarding transactions within an asset management mandate. Customers pay two fees: one for wealth management and another for the custodial management and execution to the custodian bank.
How does FinGuide decide between a private bank and an independent wealth manager?
FinGuide recommends that customers approach the selection process openly, incorporating both banks and independent asset managers as a rule. However, some customers prefer to bundle asset management and transaction services with a single contact, leading them to favor banks. On the other hand, many customers perceive banks primarily as product sellers and therefore prefer independent asset managers.
The perception that banks—unlike independent asset managers—are merely product sellers is not entirely accurate. While many banks do set sales targets for their own products for their advisors, not all do. At FinGuide, we work exclusively with banks where advisors do not have sales targets for specific products. Conversely, there are also various independent wealth managers who work with their own products and actively market them.
What is cheaper: disretionary management or investment advice?
From the perspective of banks and independent wealth managers, it is clear: advisory clients require more effort than those with a wealth management mandate. This would suggest that they should pay more. However, not all providers set their prices according to the effort involved. For most, discretionary management and advisory mandates cost the same. There are even a few providers where the advisory mandate is cheaper. The trend for the future is clear: advisory mandates will be more expensive than discretionary wealth management mandates. For some banks and independent wealth managers, this is already a reality today.
Here’s a link to an aritcle about how much private banking actually costs, if you would like to know more about the topic.
What is more important: costs or returns?
The discussion in the media strongly focuses on costs. This is mainly due to the fact that reliable figures on returns achieved by wealth managers are hardly available. Instead, the costs of actively managed investment funds are compared with the costs of passive ETFs. This leads to the conclusion that investments using low-cost products are superior.
However, when making an informed decision, it is never just about costs or the gross return alone. The most important factor is the net returns, which are the returns achieved after deducting all costs. Comparisons of active and passive funds in a specific sub-market (e.g. Swiss stocks) are also not relevant, but rather diversified client portfolios. At FinGuide, we analyze the actual net returns achieved for clients across different risk classes and compare them with well-diversified investment funds from the largest providers. From this, we derive who generates long-term value for clients and who does not.
Will I pay more if I choose a new provider via FinGuide?
No. FinGuide has an agreement with providers that customers who sign up through FinGuide will receive at least the same prices as direct customers.
In practice, we have already negotiated special conditions for FinGuide customers with most providers. The payment to FinGuide is considered marketing costs by the providers and is not reflected in the pricing.
FinGuide recommends that all customers visit two providers in person. This way, all banks and independent wealth managers are aware that there is another top provider competing for the customer. This competitive situation ensures that providers are never tempted to charge high prices.
What is safer: a bank or an independent wealth manager?
In general, investors have nothing to fear when it comes to investments in securities. These are classified as separate assets and are not included in the balance sheet of the managing bank. Only account balances are at risk, as they represent a liability of the bank towards its customers. If the bank goes bankrupt, there is a risk that it cannot meet its obligations. In Switzerland, account balances up to CHF 100,000 are protected by deposit insurance.
When choosing a bank as your wealth manager, it is wise to inquire about the bank’s capital adequacy. The more equity a bank has, the lower the likelihood of bankruptcy.
If you are a client of an independent wealth manager, you will be presented with a choice of different custodial banks. Clients can choose whether they prefer a bank that offers low costs or one that provides maximum security for their deposits. Cantonal banks with state guarantees also serve as custodial banks. Therefore, those seeking maximum security can opt for a cantonal bank as their custodian.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of wealth management compared to ETFs?
One often hears the statement that wealth managers are unnecessary because they cannot outperform the market in the long term and only generate unnecessary costs. Therefore, one should rather invest in inexpensive ETFs. This statement has a kernel of truth but is ultimately incorrect. ETFs can cover individual investment segments (e.g., US stocks) more cheaply than active asset managers, which is true. However, the most important contribution of asset management is not to outperform individual stock indices but to allocate the client’s assets across various investments. For most wealth managers, it is not about outperforming the S&P 500 index in the US stock market. It is about determining what portion of the assets should be invested in US stocks and whether this should be done with or without currency hedging. Additionally, it is crucial that this allocation of assets to specific investments is continuously evaluated and adjusted when necessary. ETFs cannot provide this service.
We recommend ETFs for investors who feel comfortable with financial topics and have both the desire and time to engage regularly with their investments. If you are clear about how you want to allocate your wealth geographically, sector-wise, and currency-wise, then go ahead. If you have an informed opinion on which markets are currently undervalued and which are overvalued, that also helps.
What we strongly advise against is investing in a single ETF. Many investors believe that a low-cost ETF tracking the MSCI World Index offers a good, diversified investment. This is incorrect. The MSCI World Index has concentration risks in the US and in technology. Furthermore, currency risk is not hedged in most ETFs. Therefore, if the US stock market, the technology sector, or the dollar loses value, it directly impacts the value of the investment. Hence, it is essential to consider investments in Swiss securities, emerging markets, precious metals, real estate, and other asset classes to diversify risk.
What distinguishes FinGuide from financial or insurance brokers?
The crucial difference lies in our uncompromising neutrality. Traditional financial and insurance brokers often operate with significantly different commission structures: They tend to earn much more from Product A than from Product B, or their commission increases with the number of clients they bring to a specific provider. This creates a massive conflict of interest at the expense of their clients.
At FinGuide, we have consistently eliminated this problem:
- Exactly equal rates: The compensation for bringing in new clients is precisely the same across all banks and wealth managers on our platform.
- No false incentives: Financially, it makes absolutely no difference to us which provider we recommend to you.
While traditional brokers often optimize for their own financial gain, the selection process at FinGuide is solely based on one criterion: Which bank or wealth manager delivers the best results for your individual goals? FinGuide only receives full compensation if the clients we advise stay with the newly selected provider for at least ten years.