Thanks to ETFs, you can invest broad-based from as little as CHF 500
Instead of investing directly in equities, bonds and real estate, we use ETFs (exchange-traded funds).
Since each ETF covers an entire bond, equity or real estate market, you can invest in more than 3’000 individual assets worldwide with as little as CHF 500.
From a jungle of over 1’500 ETFs, we have selected 9 ETFs for you and put together four ready-made investment solutions.
Thanks to ETFs, you can invest broadly from as little as CHF 500.
Instead of investing directly in equities, bonds and real estate, we use ETFs(exchange-traded funds).
Since each ETF covers an entire bond, equity or real estate market, you can invest in more than 3’000 individual assets worldwide with as little as CHF 500.
From a jungle of over 1’500 ETFs, we have selected 9 ETFs for you and put together four ready-made investment solutions.
Low costs
Always in your interest
By acting independently and keeping costs low, more ultimately stays in your pockets.
We also regularly review the ETFs we use and make adjustments when better ones come onto the market.
It is important to us to be able to stand behind the investments we make. In order to take social and environmental values into account, we use ESG Screened ETFsfor equity investments outside Switzerland in all our findependent investment solutions.
We are constantly monitoring whether an ESG Screened ETF is also becoming established for the Swiss market. In this case, we would replace our Swiss equity ETFs with the more sustainable variant.
No critical sectors
Companies from the following sectors are consistently excluded from ESG Screened ETFs:
Furthermore, all must abide by the UN Global Compact.
Communicated transparently
In the app, you can see for each ETF what its ESG ratingis and what sustainability ratingwe give it.
Would you like to learn more about sustainability in investing and find out more about findependent’s stance? Then read more in our blog post (in German).
Based on our ETFs, we have put together a specific investment solution for each investment character.
All of them use the same ETFs, but the allocation between equities, bonds and real estate differs.
The higher the equity component of the investment solution, the higher the expected long-term return, but the higher the loss of value in a crisis.
It is important to choose your investment solution in such a way that you can personally withstand the loss in value during a crisis and still sleep well.
The chart shows the performance after management & custody fees and product costs for a one-time investment of CHF 1’000 at the beginning based on index data. The historical performance is no guarantee for future market developments.
You can use all findependent investment solutions at the Start or Grow level.
At the Start level, you can invest as little as CHF 500.
As soon as your investment amount exceeds CHF 2’000, you automatically switch to the Grow level and benefit from additional ETFs. Of course, you can also start right away at this level.
CHF 500-2’000 investment sum
For cost reasons, it makes sense to start with a low investment sum with only these core ETFs. But even so, you are already widely diversified and use the most important equity markets.
from CHF 2’000 investment sum
These additional ETFs are continuously added in a cost-optimised manner, so that from an investment sum of approx. CHF 2’500 your investment solution then consists of all ETFs. This way you benefit from additional markets.
Equities 40%
Bonds 48%
Real estate 10%
Liquidity 2%
To keep you liquid at all times, we hold a small portion of your investment solution in cash in the bank account.
Note: The table shows the allocation of the investment solution to the individual ETFs for the Grow / Start levels.
Return/risk expectation
With the investment solution Cautious with a 40% share of equities, you aim for moderate long-term capital growth while taking a moderate risk.
Performance
(2005 to 31.12.2022)
Note: The net return is very similar for the Start and Grow levels. The same applies to the largest annual loss. The figures shown are based on calculations for the Grow level.
Equities 60%
Bonds 28%
Real estate 10%
Liquidity 2%
To keep you liquid at all times, we hold a small portion of your investment solution in cash in the bank account.
Note: The table shows the allocation of the investment solution to the individual ETFs for the Grow / Start levels.
Return/risk expectation
With the investment solution Balanced with a 60% share of equities, you aim for medium long-term capital growth while taking a medium risk.
Performance
(2005 to 31.12.2022)
Note: The net return is very similar for the Start and Grow levels. The same applies to the largest annual loss. The figures shown are based on calculations for the Grow level.
Equities 80%
Bonds 8%
Real estate 10%
Liquidity 2%
To keep you liquid at all times, we hold a small portion of your investment solution in cash in the bank account.
Note: The table shows the allocation of the investment solution to the individual ETFs for the Grow / Start levels.
Return/risk expectation
With the investment solution Brave with a 80% share of equities, you aim for increased long-term capital growth while taking an increased risk.
Performance
(2005 to 31.12.2022)
Note: The net return is very similar for the Start and Grow levels. The same applies to the largest annual loss. The figures shown are based on calculations for the Grow level.
Equities 98%
Liquidity 2%
To keep you liquid at all times, we hold a small portion of your investment solution in cash in the bank account.
Note: The table shows the allocation of the investment solution to the individual ETFs for the Grow / Start levels.
Return/risk expectation
With the investment solution Risky with a 98% share of equities, you aim for high long-term capital growth while taking a high risk.
Performance
(2005 to 31.12.2022)
Note: The net return is very similar for the Start and Grow levels. The same applies to the largest annual loss. The figures shown are based on calculations for the Grow level.
This is how easy it is to find your investment solution
During the account opening process, we use a questionnaire to determine which of the four findependent investment solutions is suitable for you. You can accept our recommendation or choose one of the other ready-made investment solutions.
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An ETF («Exchange Traded Fund») tracks the performance of an index such as the SPI (Swiss Performance Index).
For example, if you want to invest in the entire Swiss stock market, you can either buy all 213 equities of the SPI separately, which is very time-consuming and only possible with high assets (because, for example, one equity of Lindt & Sprüngli alone costs around CHF 100,000), or simply invest in the ETF «iSharesSPI Core». This ETF pools the money of many investors and uses it to buy the corresponding equities in the SPI. As the owner of an ETF share, you own a certain proportion of it and thus indirectly of all the equities in the SPI.
With just one ETF you can therefore invest in an entire market. ETFs are therefore proven investment products for building up a broad-based investment solution.
Because you do not select individual investments but invest in an entire market, investing with ETFs is considered a passive investment strategy. Since ETFs basically track an index 1:1, they also achieve the same return as the index. This contrasts with actively managed funds, which attempt to achieve a higher return than the benchmark index by focusing on particularly promising investments. However, active management incurs many costs. For this reason, most active funds demonstrably fail to outperform the benchmark after deducting all costs, especially over the long term.
To cut to the chase: ETFs are inexpensive and make it possible to invest widely diversified even with little money. This makes it easier for beginners in particular to invest money with ETFs.
ESG steht für «Environmental» (Umwelt), «Social» (Gesellschaft / Soziales) und «Governance» (Unternehmensführung). Von einem ESG Screened Index werden Unternehmen aus gewissen kontroversen Branchen ausgeschlossen. Diese Unternehmen sind deshalb auch nicht in den von unseren Anlagelösungen verwendeten ESG Screened ETFs, welche diese Indizes abbilden, enthalten. Insgesamt werden rund 10% der Unternehmen durch das Screening ausgeschlossen.
Im Bereich der Umwelt sind das bspw. solche aus der Atomkraft oder im Bereich der Gesellschaft die Tabakindustrie. Und bzgl. Unternehmensführung müssen sich alle Unternehmen der ESG Screened ETFs an den Globalen Pakt der UNO halten. Dieser Pakt wurde geschlossen, um die Globalisierung sozialer und ökologischer zu gestalten.
Ob ein Unternehmen aus einer kontroversen Branche von einem ESG Screened Index, resp. ETF ausgeschlossen wird oder nicht, wird anhand von klar definierten und messbaren Kriterien bestimmt.
Bspw. für die Tabakindustrie sind das:
Since sustainability does not have a uniform definition in the field of investing either, measuring it is all the more difficult. So-called ESG ratings offer a point of reference, although here, too, there is no standardised way for providers to compile their ESG ratings. They all have their own approaches to the data and methods for the analyses.
MSCI, the issuer of the indices tracked by almost all the ETFs we use, gives companies an ESG rating as follows: MSCI captures a company’s business activities, company size and location of operations and analyses the extent to which they are exposed to specific ESG risks in their industry and how they manage them. This compares how they perform against other companies in their industry. Thus, they receive a rating from “CCC” (laggard) to “AAA” (leader).
MSCI’s ESG rating for companies.
ESG risks
MSCI has defined a total of 35 ESG risks. Those in the area of governance are applied to all companies. In the areas of environment and society, on the other hand, a company is only assessed for those ESG risks that are relevant to the industry. For example, while “water shortage” is a significant risk for coal companies, it is not sufficiently relevant for a pharmaceutical company.
ESG rating for ETFs
For ETFs, MSCI also assigns an ESG rating from “CCC” to “AAA” for each ETF. The rating for the ETFs is derived from the weighted average rating of the assets (e.g. all companies included in an equity ETF). In addition, the rating of the assets is checked to see whether it has improved or worsened and how many assets with the worst ESG rating “B” and “CCC” are included and if the ETF is thus exposed to extreme risks.
Exciting links on the topic
We believe that in addition to the ESG rating, ESG screening should always be taken into account. This is because in markets where sustainability standards are generally still very little advanced, ETFs that reflect them may not achieve a high rating despite screening.
In the app, findependent marks each ETF that has been screened according to ESG criteria with one 
and additionally awards an ESG rating of “AA” or “AAA” with one and two respectively.
The return is the profit that your investment solution achieves on the one hand through the increase in value and on the other hand through the returns (dividends, rental revenues, interest). Finally, the net return is the return minus the fees that are charged.
The annual loss is the largest loss in value that the investment solution suffered within one year. For all investment solutions, the largest annual loss was in 2008 during the financial crisis.
An annual loss of, for example, -29.9% means that the value of the investment solution fell from an initial CHF 10,000 to CHF 7,010.