Selma vs True Wealth 2024 – Best Swiss Robo Advisor?
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Robo-advisors are a great tool for investing money without unreasonable fees for people unwilling to invest time in learning to invest themselves. But what Robo-Advisor should you choose?
Selma and True Wealth are two great Robo-Advisors, my two favorites. In this article, I will compare these two Robo-advisors in detail.
I compare Selma vs True Wealth on different factors. We will check their fees, investment minimums, and investing strategies.
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Perfect to get started
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Cheapest Swiss Robo-Advisor
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4.5
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4.5
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Selma Finance
Selma Finance started offering its services in 2016. In 2021, they had several thousand clients and managed millions of CHF in customer assets. While they have been growing quickly, they are not disclosing their numbers.
Interestingly, they also offer access to a third pillar, Selma 3a. Both are managed from the same platform, making it easy to have an overview of your assets.
In 2021, Migros Bank invested in Selma Finance, which is a good sign for its future. In 2024, Selma introduced its AI advisor: Selma AI, based on the same technology as Chat GPT.
You can do all operations for Selma on the web portal. They also have a mobile application that is limited to seeing your portfolio. You cannot change anything from the mobile application. However, the web portal is responsive, so you can use it on your phone or tablet.
Selma is available in French, English, and German!
For more detail, I have an in-depth review of Selma.
True Wealth
True Wealth became available in 2014 in Switzerland.
They are the most mature Robo-Advisor in Switzerland. In 2019, they had over 5000 customers and managedovern 290 million CHF assets. In 2021, the number went over 9000, and the assets under management went over 600 million CHF. It means that they are managing more than half a billion CHF! This is significantly more than Selma.
The main selling point of True Wealth is to have very low prices. They are the cheapest Robo-advisor currently available in Switzerland.
True Wealth is available in English, German, and French!
You can use the web portal or the mobile application to manage your investment account with True Wealth. The mobile application is fully featured (you can do everything from it).
I have an entire review of True Wealth if you want even more detail.
Investing Strategies
We start by comparing the investing strategies of Selma vs True Wealth.
Both Robo-advisors follow a very similar investing strategy. They invest directly in ETFs, all of which are passive and very cheap. Overall, they use ETFs of the same quality. This is a great strategy.
Both Robo-advisors let you invest in bonds, stocks, and real estate and provide good international diversification. True Wealth also offers access to natural resources (oil, gas, metals, etc.). But I do not think this makes a difference.
To suggest your portfolio, they will both ask you standard questions, such as:
- How long do you want to invest?
- How much do you want to withdraw?
- How risk-averse are you?
Based on your responses, they will generate a portfolio and invest your money in this portfolio.
So, talking only about the strategies, they both follow an excellent passive approach with ETFs.
There are a few differences in the execution. First, Selma is slightly easier to use than True Wealth. That is important if you are a beginner. True Wealth will be perfectly fine if you know a little about investing. But if you know nothing, Selma is a little easier to use.
Overall, Selma is more intuitive and user-friendly than True Wealth. Their interface is also more modern-looking, which should not matter much to investors.
Another difference is in the customization. Once you have answered the questions, you get your portfolio. With Selma, you cannot change your portfolio. With True Wealth, you can use an entirely different portfolio. For instance, if True Wealth proposes you invest in a portfolio with 80% stocks, you can change it to 99% or 60%. And you could even change the international part of your portfolio.
Customization is a great thing for experienced investors. However, it may not be great for beginner investors since they could change things without knowing what they are doing.
I still think that Selma should allow some level of customization. But for many people, not having the option may be better than using it poorly.
Overall, this would make True Wealth better for advanced (or at least knowledgeable) investors, while Selma would be better for beginner investors.
Sustainable investing
Both Robo-Advisors allow you to invest sustainably. If you want to invest sustainably with these Robo-advisors, we must compare Selma vs True Wealth and their sustainable investing options.
You can choose the investing universe when doing your portfolio in both cases. This will select in which ETFs the service will invest for you. If you use the standard universe, you will get standard ETFs. And if you get the sustainable universe, you will get sustainable ETFs.
Both Robo-advisors use Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) ETFs. These ETFs follow the same indexes but remove companies that are not socially responsible. For instance, they could remove companies exposed to oil or deforestation.
Overall, there is no difference in the sustainable strategy of these two strategies. So, if you want to be more sustainable, you can opt for these options.
Remember that these ETFs are not extremely strict and still contain companies many would not consider sustainable. If you want only companies that meet your values, you must choose another service (Inyova, for instance).
Minimums
Many people who want to start investing in the stock market with a Robo-advisor are afraid of investing too much. So, they need to be able to start investing with only a little money to get started. Each Robo-advisor has a minimum amount of money required to open an account. So, we compare Selma vs True Wealth regarding minimums to start investing.
To open an account at True Wealth, you will need 8500 CHF. This is not a small minimum.
You can open an account at Selma with as little as 2000 CHF. This is a great minimum, the best available in Switzerland.
So, if you want to start with little money, Selma will be more interesting than True Wealth. The minimum at Selma is more than four times lower than True Wealth’s.
Once again, this shows Selma’s potential for beginner investors, while True Wealth is more targeted at medium to advanced investors.
Fees – Selma vs True Wealth
If you are investing for the long term (and you should), investing fees are really important.
When talking about passive investing on which these two Robo-advisors rely, fees are the only lever you have to increase your returns. So, we must compare the fees of Selma vs True Wealth.
First, we look at Selma. The base management fee is 0.68% per year on your assets. However, if you have more than 50’000 CHF, you will only pay 0.55%, and if you have more than 150’000 CHF, you will only pay 0.47%. Starting from 500’000 CHF, you will pay 0.42%. On top of that, you will pay the ETF fees, which can be between 0.15% and 0.25% per year, depending on your profile. We can take 0.20% as a good average for Selma.
Then, we look at True Wealth. The base management fee is 0.50% per year on your assets. If you have more than 500’000 CHF in your account, the fees can go down from 0.49% to 0.25% (at 8’000’000 CHF). You can find the details here. On top of that, you will pay the fees of the ETFs. On average, True Wealth estimates the ETFs fees to be about 0.18%.
So, we can compare the fees for some portfolio sizes:
- 40’000 CHF
- 352 CHF per year at Selma
- 272 CHF per year at True Wealth
- 100’000 CHF
- 750 CHF per year at Selma
- 680 CHF per year at True Wealth
- 200’000 CHF
- 1340 CHF per year at Selma
- 1360 CHF per year at True Wealth
- 1’000’000 CHF
- 6200 CHF per year at Selma
- 5700 CHF per year at True Wealth
Below 150’000 CHF, True Wealth will be cheaper than Selma. Then, between 150’000 CHF and 500’00 CHF, both will be at almost the same price, depending on your portfolio. Above 500’000 CHF, True Wealth has the potential to become significantly cheaper.
You will have to pay another fee that is slightly more complicated to estimate. In both cases, the custodian bank of the Robo-advisor has some foreign exchange fees.
For True Wealth, these fees are 0.10% and 0.25% for Selma. In the short term, this could make a significant difference if you invest heavily internationally. It should not make a substantial difference in the long term, but it is still a small advantage for True Wealth.
The Swiss Stamp Duty is not included in the fees in both cases. So, you must pay this one on top of the management fee. But it will be the same for both Robo-Advisors.
Overall, both of these Robo-Advisors have great prices. But in general, True Wealth is cheaper than Selma. The difference can be more or less significant depending on the amount of money you have invested.
Security – Selma vs True Wealth
We finish by looking at the security of Selma vs True Wealth.
First, we can look at what they are doing with your money. This is important since this will define what would happen in case of bankruptcy.
Both services do not store your money themselves. They use a custody bank for this. Selma uses SAXO Bank, and True Wealth uses SAXO or BLKB. So, if the Robo-Advisor goes bankrupt, your assets are safe in the custody bank.
If the custody bank goes bankrupt, your cash is protected by a Swiss deposit guarantee of up to 100’000 CHF. But you should not have that much cash on a Robo-Advisor. Your shares should also be safe outside of the bank’s balance sheets.
In terms of technical security, both companies are doing a good job. They are both open about security. And Selma and True Wealth allow you to use the second factor of authentication (2FA). This is very important, and I would strongly recommend it.
So, I feel that both services have the same level of security and safety.
Summary – Selma vs True Wealth
Here is a quick summary of the Selma vs True Wealth results.
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Perfect to get started
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Cheapest Swiss Robo-Advisor
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4.5
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4.0
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Great Robo-Advisor
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Very affordable
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Good
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Good
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- Beginner-Friendly
- Degressive Fees
- Great diversification
- A good strategy with ETF
- Little customization
- Outstanding fees
- Very customizable
- Great diversification
- A good strategy with ETF
- High minimums
- Not always easy to use
From this, we can draw a few conclusions.
From a price point of view, True Wealth is the cheapest option. It will be significantly cheaper than Selma for very small portfolios and very large portfolios. The difference is not significant for medium portfolios.
If you are a beginner investor, Selma will be more approachable. It is easier to use, and the minimum investment is significantly lower. I feel like the barrier of entry is lower on Selma Finance than on True Wealth.
However, more experienced investors could profit from the customization feature of True Wealth. Indeed, you can tune the portfolio to precisely what you want. However, this may not be great for beginner investors since it may do more harm than good.
For the rest of the features, Selma and True Wealth are fairly similar.
Conclusion
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Perfect to get started
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Cheapest Swiss Robo-Advisor
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4.5
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4.5
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Overall, both Selma and True Wealth are excellent Swiss Robo-Advisors. For me, they are the two best Robo-Advisors available in Switzerland. It is difficult to tell which is best; they are similar and have strengths and weaknesses.
If you know very little about investing, want the simplest solution, and start with small amounts, Selma will be your best solution. They are easier to use, require no investing knowledge, and have a smaller minimum.
On the other hand, if you are ready to learn more about investing and invest more money directly, True Wealth is also an excellent alternative. It is cheaper than Selma and offers more customization abilities.
If you want more information and alternatives, read my article on Robo-Advisors in Switzerland.
Remember that I am not using Robo-advisors but investing directly in the stock market. This takes more time and learning but will save you a lot of fees. I have a guide on how to get started if you want to do the sesame.
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Hi „The poor Swiss“
Thanks a lot for the very informative post!
Do you also have information on total fees and possibilities when it comes to transferring money from Selma and TW to a Swiss bank account?
For example, if a user/customer decides to close its account on Selma or TW, or to sell a part of it‘s ETFs etc. and transfer that money to its personal bank account. What would those costs/fees be and do both „platforms“ enable to sell only parts of its investment?
Hi James,
Normally, this should be free on both platforms. It may take a few days/weeks until the funds are sold and settled but then you should be able to withdraw all the money to your Swiss bank account for free.
Biased opinion because I’ve only used Selma, but I’ve been a customer since 2017 and have kept on adding cash to my investment and pension/3A accounts because they deliver good results in general, great communication with their clients, and so far have been somewhat resilient during stock markets routs.
Hi Arnaud
Thanks for sharing your experience!
It’s indeed important to have good communication!
I invested with both. And I prefer Selma tbh. The overall service, communication and webpage is far better.
Thanks a lot for your feedback! It’s very good to know that!
I invested in selma already and am now thinking about investing more. Does it make sense to also invest on a second platform like true wealth or would you suggest to keep everything at one?
Hi Luca,
I would say it depend on you. If you are satisfied with Selma and like simplicity, you can continue with Selma only.
If you want to experiment, you could create a True Wealth account as well.
And if you are not satisfied (I would love to know why), you could try True Wealth and maybe move there later.
Overall, I don’t think that having two Robo-Advisors is a bad thing, it can make sense to distribute your risks.
Hey Mr TPS, is there any way to figure out how Selma and Truewealth performances compare ? I understand this is not straight forward given adjustments to client profiles. As well past performance is not a prediction of future performance, but this would be interesting… Thanks so much!
Hi Chris,
You can use a demo account to see the performance. But the performance will mostly depend on the portfolio they assign you minus the fees.
So, for an equivalent portfolio, TW will have slightly better performance since they have lower fees.
But it’s difficult to compare different portfolios.
I would think that for the same investor, both should provide similar returns.
I am a US citizen but a resident of Spain. Do I qualify to open accounts with either one of these tono investors ? Thank you
Hi Sandra,
No, both of these Robo-advisors only take on Swiss residents.
My only complaints with Selma are: for pillar 3a they don’t present the same information as the regular investment, and it is not possible to download the backlog of investments “Historical Chart” than to play in excel (in CSV for instance).
For instance, I like to consolidate my assets as day one of each month (similar to what you do). There is no way to have the value of pillar 3a on Selma, for a given date, like it is present on the historical chart for the investment.
Hi Gonçalo,
Thanks a lot for sharing. I was thinking that everything would be presented the same way. It’s interesting that my assumption was wrong!
Great post as always.
The thing that bothers me is that fees are guaranteed but returns are not guaranteed. Unless you are making 3-4x of the fees, it does not make sense.
Hi,
It’s true, fees are always there even when you get a year with -20%. This is why I personally invest myself, for much lower fees.
But investing with a cheap Robo-advisor like these two still beats investing with your bank or not investing at all.
What Software / Tool do you use for investing by yourself?
I use Interactive Brokers (review here).
Thanks for the review.
Just for your info, Selma has now a mobile app. It’s still very simple, you can only check your portfolio and that’s pretty much it !
Hi Rémi,
Thanks for the update, I have improved that in the article!