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Findependent Review 2023 – Pros & Cons

Baptiste Wicht | Updated: |

(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links)

It seems that there will not be a shortage of Robo-Advisors in Switzerland anytime soon. These last few years, there has been more and more new Robo-Advisor available for Swiss investors.

Findependent is a recent Robo-Advisor. They only started in 2021. But they have some interesting characteristics already. This review will cover all there is to know about Findependent and its pros and cons.

About Findependent
Management fee 0.44%
Product Costs 0.16%
Investing strategy Passive
Investing products ETFs
Minimum investment 500 CHF
Currency conversion Unknown
Customization Good
Sustainable ESG ETFs
Languages French, German
Custody bank Hypothekarbank Lenzburg
Users 5’000
Established 2021
Headquarters Lenzburg, Aargau, Switzerland

Findependent

Findependent Logo
Findependent Logo

Findependent started offering its services in 2021. So, they are a very recent addition to the Robo-advisors. They are a Swiss Robo-advisor founded by a previous employee of Neon, Matthias Bryner.

The goal of Findependent is to provide a simple service available to many people to invest their money in the stock market for the long term. They want a simple digital solution, like Neon for the banking system.

On top of that, they also want to provide an affordable service, so the fees are very fair.

While new, they have already attracted more than 600 customers in September 2021 and are seeing excellent growth. In December 2021, they even reached 2000 customers! As of July 2022, they went all the way to 5000 customers. This is quite impressive. They want to turn a profit in the next four years.

In July 2022, they secured a 1.2 million CHF financing round. This is also great news for the startup.

To open an account with Findependent, you will need at least 500 CHF. 500 CHF is an excellent minimum, the lowest among Swiss Robo-Advisor. And below 2000 CHF, your account will be cheaper (details later on).

Only Swiss residents at least 18 can open an account with Findependent. On top of that, they must only be liable for taxes in Switzerland.

Onboarding can be done entirely from the application. The app is available in German and French.

Investing Strategy

Findependent has a relatively standard investing strategy, and they use index ETFs for each portfolio.

Asset allocation with findependent
Asset allocation with findependent

They have four different strategies available for their customers:

These are good strategies. It would be slightly better if we could choose the bonds and real estate allocation. For instance, I prefer a proper 80/20 portfolio rather than an 80/8 plus some real estate. But I do not believe this will make a very significant difference. And the 98% stocks portfolio does not have a real estate allocation which is great.

I wish we could go to 99% stocks. Ideally, we would like 100% stocks, but no Robo-advisor currently allows this because they need some cash to pay the fees. But 98% in stocks is already excellent.

When you open an account, they will ask you the usual questions to guess your risk capacity. With this information, they will propose you one of the four portfolios. But you can choose yourself if you disagree with their recommendations.

For these portfolios, Findependent uses 9 Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). All the ETFs they use are physically replicating ETFs, which is great. And Findependent is very transparent and shares the exact ETFs they are using for each of their portfolios

As an example, let’s look at the composition of the 98% stocks portfolio:

While it could be simpler, this portfolio is quite solid. The allocations make sense, and they are using relatively cheap ETFs. In total, the TER of this portfolio is about 0.12%, which is very reasonable.

However, you may have seen that they force you into ESG ETFs. ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance. An ESG ETF is one of the ways to invest sustainably. They are not bad ETFs at all. If you want to invest sustainably, Findependent is great.

However, I wish Findependent would give their users the choice of either investing in ESG ETFs or not. These ETFs have a bias against some companies, and we do not know whether this will perform better or not. Also, these ETFs are more expensive than the standard non-ESG ETFs. So for me, a Robo-Advisor should let its customers choose whether they want or not to use them.

Now, Findependent also lets you create a custom strategy, and there you can choose the ETFs you want. More about that in the next section.

Also, this portfolio has a strong bias towards Switzerland, with almost 40% invested in Swiss Stocks. This is too much home bias for most people, and I wish we could configure that.

Interestingly, you will only have access to 5 ETFs if you have less than 2000 CHF in your account. In that case, you will not have emerging markets, japan, and medium-cap Swiss companies in your portfolio.

Findependent executes stock operations once a day. So, your money will be invested once a day and possibly rebalanced once a day if need be.

Findependent is currently working on adding support to have multiple portfolios in your account. This will also allow investing for your children, which is great!

Custom Portfolio

The second option with Findependent is to create a custom portfolio. In that, you have large freedom to create exactly what you want. Of course, you need to know a little about what you are doing to have a well-diversified portfolio for the long term.

To create your custom portfolio, you can choose about 30 ETFs. They have a nice choice with standard ETFs, ESG ETFs, and SRI ETFs. These ETFs are all European ETFs and are generally low-cost.

Each ETF has a maximum weight, so you have some limits. But these limits make sense. For instance, you cannot invest more than 50% in the SPI index, making sense for diversification. On the other hand, you can invest 100% in VWRL, a world ETF.

It is important to note that custom portfolios are only available starting from 5000 CHF. Below that, you will have to use Findependent portfolios.

Overall, I like their concepts of custom portfolios. It allows ETF investing easily.

Deposits and withdrawals

When you want to start investing, you will need to fund your account.

As mentioned before, you will need 500 CHF in your account to get started. And below 2000 CHF, you will only have access to a subset of ETFs, but you will have lower fees.

You can only deposit money in CHF, like with most Robo-advisors. And you need to deposit money from an account in your name for security reasons.

For withdrawals, the principle is the same, you can withdraw money at any time but only to an account in your name.

Fees

I say this in every review: investing fees are very important. If you are a long-term investor, you need to minimize fees. This is especially true if you are a passive index investor, where fees are the best lever at your disposal to increase your returns in the long term.

With that said, let’s delve into the fees of Findependent.

Findependent charges a 0.44% fee on your assets, billed quarterly. So, if you have 10’000 CHF with them, you will pay 44 CHF per year.

On top of that, several fees are not included:

For the most aggressive portfolio, this will give a 0.56% fee per year based on your assets. And on top of that, the other fees will depend on how much you invest. This base fee is very good.

On what you invest, these fees can quickly add up. Each investment (and withdrawal) on the aggressive portfolio will add up to about 0.38%. These are not negligible fees, but management fees are much more important than one-time costs in the long term. And some costs will also arise when rebalancing hits.

Interestingly, the 0.44% fee will be free below 2000 CHF. This free investment option can be great for testing Findependent without paying high fees.

Is it safe?

If you want to invest money online, it is essential to make sure it is safe first.

Looking at regulations, we can see that Findependent is well regulated in Switzerland. On top of that, they are a member of The Financial Services Standards Association (VQF) and the Industry Organisation for Independent Asset Managers (BOVV). These are important compliance organizations that ensure that financial advisors are doing a proper job with your money. 

Findependent is depositing your money and shares at Hypothekarbank Lenzburg (HBL), the same bank Neon uses. With that, deposit protection will insure your liquidity up to 100’000 CHF. And your shares are deposited in your name. So, in case of bankruptcy of either Findependent and HBL, you should be able to recover your shares. 

As for technical security, Findependent does not share much information on their website, unfortunately. I wish they would communicate more about that. For instance, they should tell whether they provide a second factor of authentication or not.

However, one great thing about their security is that you can only deposit money into an account in your name, which improves security.

So, overall, I would say that Findependent is as safe as other Swiss Robo-advisors. I would just wish they shared a little more information on their website about technical security.

Alternatives to Findependent

Cheapest Swiss Robo-Advisor
TrueWealth Robo-Advisor
4.0
Very affordable

TrueWealth is an excellent Swiss Robo-advisor with very affordable prices, making it the best Robo-advisor for serious investors.

Pros:
  • Very customizable
jetzt investieren Read my review
By using this link, you will pay only 0.25% fees for a year!

We can mention a few alternatives to Findependent.

True Wealth is currently the cheapest Robo-advisor available in Switzerland. They allow investors to invest very aggressively at a great price, but they are not always the easiest to use. You can read my True Wealth review for more details.

Selma is another great Robo-advisor. They are extremely simple to use but they are significantly more expensive than Findependent. I have an entire review of Selma should you want more information.

If you want to look at more alternatives, I have an article about Robo-Advisors in Switzerland.

FAQ

What is the minimum deposit for Findependent?

You need to have at least 500 CHF in your account.

Findependent Summary

Findependent is a recent Swiss robo-advisor, from 2021. Their goal is to provide a simple service to many investors.

Product Brand: Findependent

Editor's Rating:
3.5

Findependent Pros

Let's summarize the main advantages of Findependent:

  • Good management and custody fees;
  • Very transparent about their fees;
  • Acceptable fees;
  • Custom portfolios;
  • Can start investing with as low as 500 CHF;
  • Management and custody fees are waived below 2000 CHF;
  • Can only withdraw money to an account in your name;
  • Properly regulated;

Findependent Cons

Let's summarize the main disadvantages of Findependent:

  • Very new platform;
  • Only available on mobile: no web app;
  • Strong bias towards Swiss stocks in default portfolios;
  • Very new service;
  • No information about technical security on their website;

Conclusion

Overall, Findependent is a very interesting Robo-Advisor. They have an excellent investing strategy and very fair fees. It is also great to get started since they have a very low minimum of 500 CHF (2000 CHF for access to all ETFs).

The default portfolios all invest in ESG ETFs. If you want more freedom, you can create custom ETF portfolios where you can choose each ETF directly.

And they have a very affordable management fee of 0.44%. However, it makes Findependent an excellent option for investing sustainably or investing in a custom ETF portfolio.

However, it is also important to mention that they are only available in German, which is a disadvantage. They are also very new, but they look like a good service.

I need to mention that I am not investing in Robo-Advisors. Instead, I am investing directly with a broker account, which is much cheaper and allows me much more customization. But not everybody wants to invest the time to invest themselves, and that’s where Robo-advisors are interesting.

What about you? What do you think about Findependent?

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Baptiste Wicht started thepoorswiss.com in 2017. He realized that he was falling into the trap of lifestyle inflation. He decided to cut his expenses and increase his income. This blog is relating his story and findings. In 2019, he is saving more than 50% of his income. He made it a goal to reach Financial Independence. You can send Mr. The Poor Swiss a message here.

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9 thoughts on “Findependent Review 2023 – Pros & Cons”

  1. Great article, thanks. I think another interesting fact is that their management fees don‘t have a maximum, so they can grow quite large with a bigger portfolio.

    Philip

    1. That’s a good point, but Robo-advisors never have caps on their management fees. Brokers often have a cap on their custody fees, but brokers will always be cheaper than Robo-advisors when used properly.

  2. Hi, I’ve been using Findependent since August 2021 and I’m quite satisfied – I wanted sustainable ETFs and Findependent has these by default. Account opening was pretty quick and simple and the app is really straightforward and easy to use. The team behind it also makes a good impression. It takes a few days before money actually is invested from the moment you send it to your account, so it’s not really made for reacting quickly to market fluctuations (although not sure any roboadvisers are really suited for that). But so far so good. They give codes that allow increasing the amount of your portfolio managed for free from 2000 to 3000CHF for life – here’s one if you’re opening an account: UOBZO2
    Cheers

    1. Hi Philippe,

      Thanks for sharing your experience, this is very important.
      To my knowledge, no Swiss Robo-advisor is good for reacting quickly. And they should not be! investors should not react to short-term events.

  3. Hi there,
    to ay I got an update for the Findependent App. You can now set up your portfolio manually too. Also with that comes to possibility to choose between non ESG, ESG or even SRI funds.

    Maybe you take another shot of findependent?

    Kind regards

    ei8ht

    1. Hi ei8ht

      Thanks for the information, I will have to take a look at this and update my article. But it seems that their website is not entirely up to date regarding these changes.
      Once it is updated, I will try to update the article once I get some time.

  4. Hi, why you don’t want to have a portion of the investment allocation in Real Estate?
    Do you just don’t like that it’s a forced thing, or you don’t like that allocation as a whole?
    Thank you.

    1. Hi Alessandro,

      I am not a huge believer in real estate that’s correct. But my point is more about being forced into it rather than have a choice.
      For me, real estate can be a good investment, but more if you do it yourself rather than through an ETF or index fund. The difference in returns between an ETF real estate or physical real estate are big.
      Also, in a world ETF, you will have some real estate as well.

      But, having 10% real estate is not bad in itself :)

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