Kaspar& 3a Review 2025 – Pros & Cons
| Updated: |(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links)
Kaspar& 3a is a relatively recent third pillar provider. They are claiming to be a simple, efficient and transparent third pillar.
So, we will review Kaspar& 3a in detail, its investing strategy and its fees. We will see its advantages, disadvantages and how it compares with other alternatives. I must mention that this service is only available in German. By the end of the article, you will know whether this provider is a good fit for your third pillar.
| Total Fee | 0.85% |
|---|---|
| Maximum portfolios | 5 |
| Stock allocation | 97% |
| Maximum foreign exposure | 30% |
| Maximum investment in cash | 100% |
| Investment Strategy | Index funds |
| Fund providers | Credit Suisse and Swisscanto |
| Languages | German |
| Sustainable option | ESG funds only |
| Mobile Application | Yes |
| Web Application | No |
| Custodian Bank | Hypothekarbank Lenzburg |
| Customers | 2000+ |
| Established | 2020 |
| Foundation’s domicile | Schwyz |
Kaspar& 3a
Kaspar& was started in 2020, as a startup spin-off of the University of St. Gallen and the ETH Zurich. The company offers multiple services, but in this article, we will only focus on the third pillar.
It is important to know that Kaspar& 3a is only available in German. Some of the website is translated in English, but the translation is really limited and most of the information is only limited to German. Usually, I do not review services that are not available in either French or English, but since this review has been requested many times, I have made an exception.
For the first pillar, Kaspar& does not have its foundation, but instead collaborates with the Liberty foundation.
Investment strategy
First, we must study the investment strategy of the service.
With Kaspar&, you have the choice between different strategies, from fully invested in cash all the way to 97% invested in stocks. Except for the cash strategy, the other strategies are investing in stocks and bonds and gold and real estate. Each of the strategy is investing in index funds, which is an excellent thing. The cash itself is invested with the Hypothekarbank Lenzburg (HBL) bank.
The portfolio with 97% in stocks is invested as such:
- 25% in CSIF Equity Switzerland ESG Blue
- 22.8% in CSIF Equity World ex CH ESG Blue CH0424136817 22.8%
- 7.2% in Swisscanto Index Equity Fund Emerging Markets Responsible CH0561458610 7.2%
- 42.0% CSIF Equity World ex CH ESG Blue, hedged to CHF
- 3% in cash
There are multiple things interesting about this portfolio. First, all funds are sustainable (either ESG or Responsible). Kaspar& does not offer the choice of using sustainable funds or not. Interestingly, the Swiss bias is only 25%. With most third pillar providers, the home bias is larger by default. Finally, we can see that 70% is either in CHF or hedged to CHF. This means we are limited to 30% foreign currency exposure. This is a significant limitation. Other than that, the allocation makes sense and tightly represents current world market capitalizations.
With some providers, it is possible to work around these limitations by using a custom portfolio, but this does not seem to be the case with Kaspar&. At least, it is possible to use up to five portfolios (to stagger withdrawals) and accounts can be created staring from 1 CHF. Investments are only made monthly.
Overall, the investing strategy of Kaspar& is relatively good, but quite limited since it is not possible to invest in non-sustainable funds and not possible to create custom portfolios.
Kaspar& 3a Fees
Often, we can use the fees to differentiate different third pillar providers. With similar passive indexing portfolios, fees are what will make the difference in the long term.
Kaspar& 3a has a basic pricing structure. They have a single fee of 0.85% that includes everything:
- Custody fees
- The trading fees
- The product costs
- The currency exchange fees
The 0.85% fee can be separated in two parts:
- 0.45% is the fee for Kaspar& 3a
- 0.40% is for third-party fees
The Kaspar& 3a fee is even capped at 419.40 CHF per year (34.95 CHF per month). Starting from about 93’000 CHF, your fee will start to be reduced. If you have 150’000 CHF in your 3a, the total fee will only be 0.67% in total. This is a surprising system because I do not know any other third pillar doing that.
The base fee of 0.85% is quite expensive. However, if you have a lot of money in your 3a and go above the cap, this may become quite interesting. On the other hand, hardly any people have enough money in their 3a to make it worth it. Even with 250’000 CHF in a 3a, you would still pay 0.56% total fee, which is much better than 0.85%, but still expensive compared to alternatives.
Security
Whenever you are thinking of trusting any money to a financial service, it is important to look at its security.
The Kaspar& 3a service is quite young. But I have not heard of any security issues with this service.
The Liberty foundation itself is well established. In the case of Kaspar& 3a bankruptcy (nothing seems to indicate this is close), the foundation will find another fund manager for the customers.
I have not found much financial information about Kaspar& (or Kasparund AG, the company). In 2022, BLKB invested in the company. And in 2024, Avaloq invested 2.5 million into the company as well. So, there still seems to be traction going on in this company.
Overall, it seems that Kaspar& 3a is as safe as other 3a in the market.
Sustainability
Kaspar& 3a has a sustainable-by-default approach. You cannot opt out of using sustainable funds. All the funds used by Kaspar& 3a are either ESG funds or Responsible funds.
From a sustainability perspective, this is a good basic. However, it is important to note that most of these funds are not very aggressive in screening companies. This is the most basic way of doing sustainable investing.
However, it is disappointing (to me at least) that they do not have an option to opt-out for people who want more diversification.
Alternatives
There are many third-pillar providers in Switzerland. We can compare Kaspar& 3a with two other providers to see how they compare.
Kaspar& 3a vs Finpension 3a
Finpension 3a ist die beste dritte Säule der Schweiz.
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First, we should compare Kaspar& 3a with my favorite third pillar, Finpension 3a.
Both have a similar approach to investing, using index funds. However, Finpension has sustainable funds has an option while it is forced for Kaspar&. And you can do custom portfolios with more freedom on Finpension.
Finpension 3a allows you to invest 99% in stocks, compared to 97% for Kaspar&. And with custom portfolios, you can reach 99% foreign currency exposure with Finpension, but only 30% with Kaspar&.
Finally, looking at the fees, we have Finpension 3a with 0.39% against 0.85% for Kaspar& 3a. Even with the fee cap and a 3a of 250’000 CHF, we would not get lower than 0.57% fee with Kaspar& 3a. In fact, both components of the Kaspar& 3a fee are each higher than the total fee of Finpension 3a.
Overall, I think Finpension 3a is a much better option than Kaspar&.
Kaspar& 3a vs True Wealth 3a
TrueWealth is an excellent Swiss Robo-advisor with very affordable prices, making it the best Robo-advisor for serious investors.
- Very customizable
We can also look at a third pillar provider that started as a Robo-advisor, True Wealth.
True Wealth 3a is much more flexible than Kaspar&. Indeed, you can invest up to 99% in stocks, 99% in foreign currency, and you can choose between sustainable and non-sustainable funds.
And when we compare the fees, there is a huge difference. The base fee of True Wealth 3a is 0.18% (for an aggressive investor). This is more than four times cheaper than Kaspar& 3a, and the fee cap is not enough to bridge that difference.
Overall, I think True Wealth 3a is a much better option than Kaspar&.
Kaspar& 3a FAQ
What the minimum you need for Kaspar& 3a?
You can start your third pillar with Kaspar& 3a starting from 1 CHF.
Who is Kaspar& 3a not good for?
Kaspar& 3a is not the best third pillar if you want the lowest fees or the most aggressive investing.
Who is Kaspar& 3a good for?
Kaspar& 3a is good if you want a third pillar investing in sustainable funds, have a lot of money and speak German.
Kaspar& 3a Summary
Kaspar& 3a
Kaspar& 3a is a relatively recent third pillar with some interesting features. We check how it fares in practice in this review.
3
Pros
- Fee cap
- Uses index fund
Cons
- Low foreign currency exposure
- Only 97% allocated to stocks
- High fees by default
- Low customization
- Only sustainable funds
- Only available in German
- Website is quite poor on information on 3a
Conclusion
Overall, Kaspar& 3a is a decent option for a third pillar. However, it has some severe limitations. You can only invest in sustainable funds and the foreign currency exposure is very low. Additionally, the base fees are quite expensive.
The only advantage of Kaspar& 3a in my mind is that they have a fee cap. However, since this only applies to the Kaspar& fees, you need a lot of money in your 3a to make this really interesting. These days, there are some great alternatives, with significantly lower fees.
Overall, I think there are better alternatives, like Finpension 3a (my review here).
What do you think of this Kaspar& 3a account?
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Thank you for the review, very interesting. However, I think it would be fair to add that Kaspar& is much more than just a savings instrument for third pillar, but also for other goal-based saving/investment. For that, I find the app extremely user-friendly because it gives me a very precise recommendation of how much I need to invest per month to reach a pre-determined savings goal by day X. Would appreciate if you made a review of goal-based saving and the underlying funds, as well.
Hi Raffael,
Yes, Kaspar& has other services, but I do not mix my reviews. I did the same for VIAC/FP and such who also have other services and I keep everything separated. If there is enough demand, I will review the other servives, but apart from your comment, I had never heard of them. I will keep this future review on my list. Thanks for the suggestion.