Our Mission
We are making Swiss private banking more customer-friendly. Thanks to greater transparency, clients should no longer choose provider based on where they happen to have a contact, but choose the best for them. We seek to support well performing, fair providers to win clients and weak providers to lose clients. This requires transparency, as it is the only way to achieve the desired market mechanisms.
The short-comings of major providers have led to a severe loss of trust. Many customers are of the opinion that it is normal for bank advisors to maximize their bonuses by filling customer portfolios with their own products. This is not the case! There are still highly recommended private banks and independent wealth managers who achieve top results for their clients. The majority of private banks and independent wealth managers, however, are unremarkable. These providers provide undifferentiated services without generating any real added value for their clients. A mediocre offering with mediocre performance is unfortunately the norm.
FinGuide analyzes the offering, services and incentive structures and picks out the best. We work with our clients to find the one that best suits their individual needs. Both customers and the top-performing providers benefit equally. And when customers decide in favor of one of the recommended providers, FinGuide also benefits. That's what it's all about: creating a win-win-win situation for everyone involved!
Our Business Model
FinGuide only earns income if we create added value for our customers. If the providers that we have identified as the best do not convince our customers, we do not earn any income. Clients can withdraw from the advisory process at any time without incurring any costs if they do not receive the desired added value. FinGuide is remunerated by the provider chosen by the FinGuide customer. This compensation is exactly the same for all providers. The advice is therefore completely unbiased and independent at all times. A federally certified auditor periodically checks our independence and testifies through the issuance of a certificate.
Many advisors believe that advice can only be independent if it is paid for directly by the client. This is why they charge their clients for the time spent, regardless of whether the advice leads to a satisfactory result for the client or not. We believe that advice is only independent if it is not subject to misaligned incentives. FinGuide has no interest in the longest possible discussions for which clients are charged. We seek to maximize efficiency for our clients, the wealth managers and, of course, ourselves.
Our Values
Profit maximization has no place in economic sectors with strong information asymmetry. Whenever a provider, be it a doctor or a bank adviser, has a major information advantage over their customers, they can abuse it. This leads to the provider putting his earnings before the customer's interests and customer not being able to recognize it. Companies have to earn money, that is clear. FinGuide strives to make a reasonable profit that ensures the continued existence of the company, but explicitly does not maximize profits.
Instead of maximizing profits, FinGuide focuses on sustainability. The business model is structured in such a way that we only receive full compensation if the customers stay for at least 10 years. This ensures that we do everything we can for a perfect match. Sustainability also characterizes our everyday life: it goes without saying that we do not travel to personal meetings by car, but by bike or public transport. To avoid unnecessary costs, we do not have our own dedicated offices. We work from home and in co-working offices. Client meetings take place via video call or in rented meeting rooms in Zurich.
Digital Versus Personal Advice
The decision as to who should manage your assets has far-reaching consequences. We believe that such a decision should not be made by an algorithm alone. FinGuide therefore pursues a hybrid advisory approach: data collection and the quantitative evaluation are digitized, while the results are verified in person and discussed with the clients. In this way, technology is used in a beneficial way, but customers still have a contact person to guide them.
The Company
FinGuide AG is a Swiss public limited company. The company was founded in May 2017 and the share capital is 100% owned by the company founder. There will never be any investments in FinGuide by wealth managers in order to maintain complete independence. FinGuide was founded by Matthias Hunn. Find out more about him here.
