Revue de VIAC Invest 2025 – Avantages & Inconvénients

VIAC Invest

I have talked multiple times about VIAC on this blog. They have started with a 3a account (the best when it was introduced). Then, they introduced a vested benefits account. And finally, they even started offering their own mortgages through their parent bank, WIR.

In December 2024, VIAC has now started a new product: VIAC Invest. This product is a Robo-advisor service that lets you invest automatically in a chosen portfolio. It had been expected for a while and now it is live!

Currently, VIAC Invest is only offered to Swiss residents, that only pay taxes in Switzerland.

So, we can now delve in details into VIAC Invest.

Investing strategy

As usual, we start with the investing strategy. It is essential to see how a Robo-advisor invests to see whether it fits your investing needs.

VIAC invests is entirely based on passive investing. It means they are investing in indexes and not in stocks directly. This is good news because it has been shown to be the best way to invest in the long term for the majority of people.

However, contrary to most other Robo-advisors, VIAC does not invest directly in Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). Instead, they invest through their VIAC funds. And their funds themselves invest in index funds. So, we can see how this works out with their strategies.

There are three different investment focuses:

• Global: Invests globally in the world in a diversified way.
• Switzerland: Invests only in Switzerland, also diversified.
• Sustainable: Invests only in sustainable funds, diversified across the world.

One interesting thing is that you can choose whether you want to use bonds or cash. It is important to note that you will only pay fees on the invested amount (stocks and bonds), but not on cash. If you like, you can also build your portfolio out of the available VIAC funds.

Within each of the three investment focuses, you can pick from 0% to 99% invested. For instance, here is the composition of the Global 100 strategy (the one I would personally use):

• 1% cash
• 39% VIAC Equity Switzerland
• 10.60% VIAC Equity Europe
• 33.44% VIAC Equity North America
• 7% VIAC Equity Pacific
• 8.96% VIAC Equity Emerging Market

With 40% in Swiss bias (cash plus Swiss stocks), this is a very standard portfolio, without surprises. The Swiss bias is probably too high for many people, but 40% seems to be the default with all companies. The rest is well diversified according to the market cap of each country.

We can also look at what is inside some VIAC funds. For instance, VIAC Equity Switzerland is made of:

• 0.10% cash
• 99.90% UBS Equity Switzerland Total Market

It is interesting to note that this fund has some cash inside, but since it is only 0.10%, it will not make a huge difference overall. And this fund is made of a single index fund, from UBS.

We can take another example and see what is inside VIAC Equity North America:

• 0.10% cash
• 95% UBS Equity US
• 4.90% UBS Equity Canada

Again, this VIAC fund has a small amount of cash, and then it is composed of two index funds. The diversified seems alright to me.

If you do a custom portfolio, you will be able to choose from the 15 VIAC funds. It is good to be able to do a custom portfolio, however, the choice of funds is rather limited. For instance, we cannot select any factors, and we cannot pick any non-VIAC fund directly. If we do not use sustainable funds, we are left with only 8 funds to pick from. One thing we could do is reduce the bias towards Swiss stocks.

Overall, the investment strategy of VIAC Invest is excellent. It will be excellent for investing for the long term. If you are an advanced investor and want to create a more personalized portfolio, this may not be enough. But this is a slight disadvantage only, since most advanced investors will not use a Robo-advisor in the first place.

VIAC Invest Fees

To distinguish good Robo-advisors with passive investing, we should compare their fees to see how much returns we will get. Indeed, the fees are the most important factor in returns when following index investing. So, we will analyze VIAC invest fees in detail.

VIAC Invest has a 0.25% administration fee. This administration fee contains almost everything:

• Custody fee
• Transaction fees
• Swiss stamp duties
• Foreign currency fees

It is worth mentioning that from December 2024 to the end of December 2025, this fee is entirely waived. Of course, since investing in a long-term game, you should not choose VIAC because of that only. But it is a nice saving if you are using their services.

On top of this 0.25% fee, you will also need to pay the fees for the funds themselves. These product costs range from 0.21% to 0.27% for the default strategies. If you are doing custom strategies, this may be higher because some funds have higher fees (especially real estate).

So, the total fee of VIAC is between 0.46% and 0.52%. We can take 0.49% on average. This total fee is excellent!

Since VIAC uses index funds only, you will not have to pay any Swiss stamp duty on top of the fees. And the currency exchange fee is also included in the management fee. So, their fee is as close as possible to an all-in fee.

We also need to consider the subscription and redemption fees of the funds. For instance, the VIAC Equity Switzerland fund has 0.025% subscription and redemption fees. This means you will lose 0.025% of your invested money every time this fund is bought and sold. And moreover, since VIAC uses funds of funds, we also need to look at the fund inside the VIAC fund. In this case, the UBS fund has extra 0.01% subscription and redemption fees.

Some of these fees are fairly good. But other funds have higher redemption and subscription fees. For instance:

• The VIAC Equity Europe has a 0.275% subscription fee
• The VIAC Corporate CHF fund has a 0.375% subscription fee.
• The VIAC Real Estate World Sustainable fund has a 0.45% subscription and redemption fee.
• The VIAC Equity Emerging Markets Sustainable has a 0.725% redemption fee.
• The worst is the VIAC Equity Emerging Markets has a 1.250% redemption fee.

While subscription and redemption fee are better than management, they are not negligible either. So, people have to be cautious with this kind of fee. And more than 1% redemption is not acceptable for me.

On other hand, while there are redemption and subscription fees, there is no stock market spread. So, these one-time fees are like the spread of a product using ETFs.

If we take the default portfolio Global 100, this results in an average 0.07% purchase fee and 0.14% sale fee. So, the default is acceptable. When we consider that VIAC does not have stamp duties nor any exchange spread, this makes it good. However, you have to be careful with custom portfolios to avoid some large one-time fees.

Overall, VIAC Invest’s 0.49% total fee is excellent in Switzerland. However, we have to be careful about the fine prints because some funds can be pricier and some subscription and redemption fees are definitely high.

US Withholding Tax

Since the US taxes dividends at source, the domicile of funds and ETFs is essential. Indeed, this tax at source (withholding) will be done based on the domicile of the fund (and not your domicile).

Unfortunately, VIAC decided to use only Swiss funds. This means that 30% of the US dividends will be withheld by the United States. Most Robo-advisors are using Irish ETFs, only withholding 15%. One slight twist is that the funds used by VIAC hold 20% of their assets in Ireland. So, 20% will get 15% withholding and 80% will get 30% withholding. As a result, with VIAC Invest, we lose 12% of US dividends, compared to a solution using more efficient funds.

I am a bit disappointed by this choice, since this means an extra fee of 0.12% in total to our given (given current dividend yield and US market cap).

Ideally, we would even like to go to 0% withholding, by reclaiming the lost 15%, like we can do with US ETFs. But this is currently only done by one Robo-advisor and is not yet approved in all cantons.

Deposits and withdrawals

We can also look at how to deposit and withdraw money to and from your account.

It is good to note that we can start investing with as little as 1 CHF. There are only a few Robo-advisors that have such a low limit.

There is nothing special with deposits and withdrawals with VIAC Invest. You can easily transfer from your bank account to your VIAC invest account. It is important to note that you will need to declare accounts in advance. And you can only deposit and withdraw with this account. Currently, you can only fund your account in CHF.

Overall, deposits, and withdrawals are really convenient with VIAC Invest.

Safety

The security of our money is even more important than the returns we get. We should never put money into a company we do not trust.

VIAC Invest has a fund management license. It means they can hold assets from their customers into their own funds. These firms are well regulated, and it indicates that VIAC is serious. The fund unit themselves are held by Regiobank Solothurn.

In case of a bankruptcy, shares would be safe because everything is segregated with Swiss Robo-advisors. In this even, the shares would be transferred to another company. This may be slightly more complicated by the fact that VIAC uses its own funds, but these shares are still well protected.

For cash, it is slightly different because VIAC is not a bank. As a result, the cash itself is not protected by the deposit guarantee. However, VIAC thought of that and got a deposit guarantee from WIR Bank, for 100 million CHF. This deposit guarantee will cover the cash in case of bankruptcy.

Even since they started, I have not heard of any major technical or security issues with VIAC.

The only thing that plays against VIAC Invest is that it is a bread new Robo-advisor. On the other hand, VIAC itself has been managing money in the third pillar and vested benefits accounts for a while. They have experience.

VIAC Invest is as safe as any other good Swiss Robo-advisor.

Alternatives

Comparing a service against other alternatives is an excellent way to get an idea of how good this service really is. There are many Robo-advisors available in Switzerland. I have compared VIAC Invest against three services.

VIAC Invest vs Finpension Invest

Excellent Robo-advisor

Finpension Invest

5.0

Très bon marché

Un excellent Robo-advisor, optimisé au maximum, par Finpension.

Pros:

• Optimisé pour les impôts
• Accès au marché privé

Investir avec le code FEYKV5 Notre review

Avec le code FEYKV5, vous recevez 25 CHF en crédit de frais. Seulement pour les résidents Suisses.

Finpension Invest is one of the newest Robo-advisors, and it is also from a company that started with retirement accounts, like VIAC. So, it is important to compare VIAC Invest and Finpension Invest.

Both have similar strategies, based on index investing. However, VIAC uses its funds of funds, while Finpension invest mostly uses ETFs. This will not make much difference for the customer. Both services let you start investing with as little as 1 CHF.

When we look at the fees, it is interesting that VIAC Invest comes at 0.49% on average, exactly like Finpension Invest. So, they both have the same management fee.

One advantage of VIAC Invest is that stamp duty is included in the management fee, while it is not for Finpension Invest. So, you can expect to pay higher fees when you do some transactions on Finpension Invest. On the other hand, VIAC funds have some sale and load fees, while there are none for Finpension Invest. And again, Finpension will have some spread (likely in the same order as the one-off fees of VIAC). As a result, the one-off fees of VIAC Invest are cheaper. In the long term, it should not matter that much since what matters is what you pay on each fund year after year.

Finally, Finpension Invest has devised a way to reclaim the US dividend withholding through a DA-1, even though using ETFs from Ireland. In theory, this can add a 0.30% advantage to Finpension Invest. Currently, this scheme has been approved in the canton of Lucerne and Finpension is in discussion with other cantons to do the same. And Finpension Invest will give each customer the necessary documentation to do the claim, regardless of canton.

On the other hand, VIAC is stuck with 30% withholding on 80% of their assets, meaning an extra 0.12% fee compared to Finpension. If you live in an approved canton, you will have an extra 0.27% advantage!

So, Finpension Invest is cheaper than VIAC Invest. Finpension Invest is simply more optimized for fees.

Interestingly, both services offer 0% management fee in 2025! Since the base fee of Finpension is higher (but lower product costs), this makes Finpension Invest cheaper in 2025. But you should choose something for the long term, so this should only be a nice bonus.

If you want additional information, I have written an entire comparison of VIAC Invest vs Finpension Invest.

VIAC Invest vs True Wealth

Robo-Advisor le moins cher

TrueWealth

4.5

Très bon marché

TrueWealth est un excellent Robo-Advisor, à un prix très abordable. C'est le Robo-Advisor le plus adapté pour les investisseurs sérieux.

Pros:

• Très personnalisable

Investir à bon prix Lire ma review

En utilisant ce lien, vous paierez uniquement 0.25% de frais la première année.

True Wealth is probably the most established Robo-advisor in Switzerland. They have a great range of features and are quite mature.

True Wealth uses ETFs directly, while VIAC Invest has its funds. In both cases, they focus only on index funds. And they both allow you to create your custom portfolio (with a slight advantage to TW in this case).

One major advantage of VIAC Invest is that you can invest with as little as 1 CHF. This is good if you want to try the service. With True Wealth, you need 8000 CHF to start investing.

True Wealth has a total fee of 0.63% per year, compared to VIAC Invest at 0.49%. However, we must add the extra 0.12% of tax-inefficiency to VIAC, putting the total to 0.61%, slightly cheaper than True Wealth. On the other hand, you will save on stamp duty with VIAC, so one-off fees are lower. So, they are probably on the same level of fees.

If you have a lot of money with them, TW will reduce the fee (starting from half a million). In this case, it can do down to 0.38% (if you have eight million CHF). So TW can be significantly cheaper than VIAC Invest if you have a massive net worth.

Both Robo-advisors have more or less the same features, but VIAC Invest is slightly cheaper but has a lower minimum.

VIAC Invest FAQ

Résumé de VIAC Invest

VIAC Invest

VIAC Invest est un nouveau Robo-conseiller de VIAC, le célèbre fournisseur de troisième pilier. Dans cet article, nous examinons ce nouveau service en détail.

Note de l’éditeur/éditrice :
4

Avantages

• Frais excellents
• Pas de droits de timbre
• Pas de spread
• Peut investir jusqu'à 99% en actions
• Entièrement intégré avec les autres services VIAC
• Peut créer des portefeuilles personnalisés
• Transparent
• Web et mobile
• Peut investir avec seulement 1 CHF

Inconvénients

• Faible efficacité fiscale
• Impossible de récupérer la retenue à la source de 30% sur les dividendes américains
• Les portefeuilles personnalisés sont plutôt limités
• Solution entièrement nouvelle
• Frais de vente et de rachat relativement élevés

Conclusion

Dans l’ensemble, VIAC Invest est un bon nouveau Robo-conseiller. Ils ont réussi à offrir un bon produit, cohérent avec leurs autres produits existants.

Cependant, je suis un peu déçu par l’absence d’un point de vente unique avec cette offre. Lorsque nous prenons en compte tous les frais, ce service est plus cher que certains services existants. Et j’aurais souhaité qu’ils permettent un niveau de personnalisation plus élevé avec l’accès à plus de fonds, mais c’est une fonctionnalité qui ne manquera qu’à peu d’investisseurs.

Comme d’habitude, je dois mentionner que je n’utilise pas moi-même un Robo-conseiller. J’utilise l’investissement DIY via Interactive Brokers, ce qui peut potentiellement être beaucoup moins cher. Les Robo-conseillers offrent l’avantage de faciliter l’investissement. Bien que les Robo-conseillers puissent parfois être moins chers que les courtiers, ils sont généralement plus chers à long terme.

Si vous ouvrez un nouveau compte, vous pouvez utiliser le code 4266642, pour obtenir 2000 CHF gérés gratuitement à vie.

Et vous? Que pensez-vous de VIAC Invest ?