Neon 3a Review 2026 – Pros & Cons

Neon 3a

Great App to Pay, Save and Invest

Neon

4.5

All the services you need to pay, save and invest, in a neat package, with extremely good prices!

Use code poorswiss to get your debit card for free!

Pros:

• Invest with great fees

Use code poorswiss Read my review

Neon is a Swiss bank that started in 2017 and that has been growing well ever since. As of 2025, they have over 240,000 customers. In 2023, they introduced their own brokerage features with Neon Invest. And now, in November 2025, they introduced their own Neon 3a.

Neon is a mobile-only bank account. Therefore, it is logical that Neon 3a is also a mobile-only third pillar. You will only be able to access your third pillar from your mobile phone. It will be accessible from the standard Neon app (available on the App Store and Google Play); no need for a separate app.

It is worth mentioning that Neon itself is not a bank. They use the banking services of Hypothekarbank Lenzburg (HBL). Interestingly, for the 3a, they are using Lienhardt & Partner as a custody bank. And they use the digital 3a foundation from Simply 3a.

So, we can now delve into Neon 3a in detail.

Investment strategies

So, now, we should start by seeing how Neon 3a invests.

First, Neon 3a invests through funds. All these funds are provided by Swisscanto. And they are all institutional funds, which means they do not have any TER. Unfortunately, Neon 3a does not use funds meant for pension funds. These funds are called IPF from Swisscanto. It means that we will lose on the withholding of US dividends. This is hidden that we cannot recover. On average, this will mean about 0.15% drag in performance per year. This is a limitation of how the custody of the funds is made for Neon 3a.

Neon 3a has four different investment focuses:

• Global with a focus on global diversification.
• Swiss with a focus on Swiss shares.
• Sustainable with a focus on global sustainable shares.
• Swiss Sustainable with a focus on Swiss sustainable shares.

A good thing is that a Swiss-focused portfolio will also have some world shares. This is great because investing 100% in Swiss shares is poor diversification. Increasing the Swiss bias may make sense for some people, so these options are often here in most third pillar providers.

And in each of these focuses, you can choose between 5 different portfolios:

1. Defensive with 25% of stocks
2. Balanced with 45% of stocks
3. Dynamic with 65% of stocks
4. Ambitious with 80% of stocks
5. Offensive with 100% of stocks

These are good default choices. And since we must keep one percent in cash, the maximum allocation to stocks is 99%, like the best providers available. All the portfolios have 1% in cash. If you do not use 99% in stocks, you will get bonds on the part not invested in stocks.

We can look at some examples in detail. Fortunately, Neon 3a is very transparent, and we can see the funds used in each strategy.

1. Offensive with global focus
   • 10% in Swiss shares
   • 71% in world shares
   • 18% in emerging markets shares
   • 1% in cash
2. Ambitious with Swiss focus
   1. 3% in Swiss bonds
   2. 2% in foreign state bonds
   3. 4% in foreign corporate bonds
   4. 48% in Swiss shares
   5. 26% in world shares
   6. 7% in emerging markets shares
   7. 9% in real estate
   8. 2% in commodities
   9. 1% in cash

The offensive portfolio with global focus is fine. The portfolio is well-diversified, and the allocations are good.

On the other hand, the Ambitious portfolio with Swiss focus is a bit all over the place. For me, a 2% allocation in commodities does not make sense. It is too small to have any impact and will only increase rebalancing needs. I am also not convinced about using foreign bonds. I know that currently Swiss bonds are poor investments, but foreign bonds have their issues as well since they introduce currency risk. Instead, I would prefer having cash instead of bonds, or at least the choice between both.

The maximum foreign exposure in the portfolios is 50%. That means the rest of the money is either held in CHF or hedged to CHF. For some people, this will be a disadvantage. But for many, it should be fine because many people want to be more conservative.

You can have up to five different portfolios with Neon 3a. This is great because it will allow you to stagger your withdrawals and save on taxes.

Overall, the investment strategy of Neon 3a is okay. They use good funds and have decent portfolios (which could be simpler). Neon 3a could be even better if they allowed custom strategies and increased the maximum foreign currency exposure. Unfortunately, the fact that they do not use pension fund funds for their 3a means significantly lower performance.

Neon 3a Fees

Since you generally keep your money in a 3a for a long time, investing fees are crucial. Therefore, it is essential that we look at the fees of Neon 3a in detail.

The good news is that the fees are very straightforward. All the strategies have the same fees. You will pay a fee based on the size of your 3a deposits:

• A fee of 0.45% from 0 to 4,999 CHF
• A fee of 0.44% from 5,000 to 9,999 CHF
• A fee of 0.43% from 10,000 to 24,999 CHF
• A fee of 0.41% from 25,000 to 49,999 CHF
• A fee of 0.39% from 50,000 CHF and above

These fees are excellent, among the best available for third pillar accounts.

The funds themselves have a 0% TER. Usually these funds also have issuance and redemption fees. However, in this case, this will not apply. So, there will be no issuance or redemption fees with Neon 3a.

Additionally, you may expect some costs from hedging. But we cannot really quantify this fee. Also, some people are willing to pay that fee since it protects them well from currency risk.

Overall, these fees of Neon 3a are excellent. They would be perfect if we could opt out of hedging to reduce the costs.

Sustainability

Many investors want to invest sustainably. Neon 3a lets you invest sustainably with an option, with both Swiss and global focus. But is investing with Neon 3a sustainable?

When you choose the sustainable option, Neon 3a will use different index funds. In this case, they will use the responsible funds from Swisscanto. So, the sustainability aspect is entirely in the hands of Swisscanto.

Swisscanto uses ESG criteria (environment, social, and governance) to select the companies that are deemed responsible. The idea is to remove companies that are clearly unsustainable and focus more on companies that do well. This strategy should remove fossil fuels from the companies, for instance.

However, this is a limited strategy. Indeed, the funds still focus on making profits, so they only excluded the most blatant companies from the index. So, the top of the responsible index looks a lot like the standard index, with huge AI companies at the top, drawing more and more power.

Unfortunately, this is the standard sustainability that is provided in Swiss third pillars. And doing better is actually not trivial. Therefore, we can deem the sustainability of Neon 3a to be decent, but do not expect to save the planet with it.

Security

To invest money in financial services, you must ensure good security.

Technically, Neon 3a has decent security. Your account is linked to your phone, and you will have either a password or biometric access. But people cannot simply install the app and try to guess your password since it is linked to a given phone. This is a form of second factor authentication.

All your assets are held in your name by the custody bank, Lienhardt & Partner. If Neon fails, the foundation (Simply 3a) will have to find a new manager for your fund, but they will be safe. If the custody bank fails, they will need to be transferred to a new custody bank.

Neon 3a is as safe as other third pillar accounts. There is nothing special about its security, but it follows the standard practice of such apps.

Alternatives

It is essential to compare Neon 3a with some alternatives before thinking of using it. There are now many good third pillar accounts in Switzerland. Ever since independent providers have entered the market, we have seen great options arrive.

Neon 3a vs Finpension 3a

Best Third Pillar!

Finpension 3a

5.0

Very low fees

Finpension 3a is the best third pillar in Switzerland.

Use the FEYKV5 code to get a fee credit of 25 CHF!

Pros:

• Invest 99% in stocks

Grow your 3a with FEYKV5 code Read my review

If you use the FEYKV5 code, you will receive 25 CHF in fee credit. Only for Swiss residents.

Finpension 3a is currently the best third pillar available in Switzerland.

Finpension 3a lets you invest in funds from either UBS, Credit Suisse, or Swisscanto. In each case, Finpension 3a uses pension funds, while Neon 3a uses institutional funds from Swisscanto. This gives a significant advantage to Finpension.

Both third pillars let you create up to 5 portfolios. Neon 3a has four different focuses, while Finpension has three. However, Finpension 3a lets you create a custom portfolio with all their funds, so it is much more flexible. Finpension 3a also allows you 100% foreign currency exposure, against 50% for Neon 3a.

Finally, Finpension 3a has 0.39% fees for all portfolios. Neon 3a has a tiered fee of 0.45% to 0.39%, depending on the size of the deposits. For a large 3a, both will have the same fee. For smaller ones, Finpension will be cheaper.

Overall, Finpension 3a is better than Neon 3a. They use more efficient funds and are much more flexible.

Neon 3a FAQ

Neon 3a Summary

Neon 3a Review. Is Neon the best place for your retirement savings? We analyze their 0% TER claim and the underlying investment costs.

Editor's Rating:
4

Neon 3a Pros

Let's summarize the main advantages of Neon 3a:

• Good degressive fees
• 99% invested in stocks
• Transparent about funds
• Easy to use
• Can create up to five accounts

Neon 3a Cons

Let's summarize the main disadvantages of Neon 3a:

• Does not use the best funds available
• 50% maximum foreign currency exposure
• You cannot make custom portfolios
• You can only use the account on your phone

Conclusion

Great App to Pay, Save and Invest

Neon

4.5

All the services you need to pay, save and invest, in a neat package, with extremely good prices!

Use code poorswiss to get your debit card for free!

Pros:

• Invest with great fees

Use code poorswiss Read my review

Overall, Neon 3a is a good third pillar. They have multiple options for investing and have decent fees. If you are already a Neon user and do not have a third pillar, this is a suitable option.

However, there are some downsides to it. For me, the biggest disadvantage is the fact that they do not use pension-grade funds. Instead, they use institutional-grade funds. As a result, we would lose about 0.15% of our money every year.

They got many things right and are already better than many digital alternatives. If they can switch to better funds in the future, they will be among the best third pillars available.

If you would like to learn about other third pillars, you can check out the best third pillars available in Switzerland.