Tellco Vested Benefits Review 2026 – Pros & Cons
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(Disclosure: Some of the links below may be affiliate links)
Tellco is a Swiss bank that has been operating for more than 20 years in Switzerland (since 2002). They offer a vested benefits account that I have recently heard about and wanted to review.
In this review, we discuss Tellco vested benefits in detail, outlining its advantages and disadvantages. By the end of the article, you will know whether you should use Tellco for your vested benefits account.
| Total Fee | 0.60% to 1.0% |
|---|---|
| Maximum portfolios | 1 |
| Stock allocation | Up to 98% |
| Maximum foreign exposure | 100% |
| Maximum investment in cash | 100% |
| Investment Strategy | Funds and ETFs |
| Fund providers | Tellco and third-party providers |
| Languages | English, French, German, and Italian |
| Sustainable option | With custom portfolios |
| Mobile Application | No |
| Web Application | Yes |
| Custodian Bank | Tellco |
| Established | 2002 |
| Foundation’s domicile | Schwyz |
Tellco Vested Benefits
Tellco is a relatively small bank that has operated in Switzerland since 2002. They are managing more than 9 billion CHF in assets. At the start, they were mostly focused on private banking, but they now have multiple digital offerings, like their third pillar and vested benefits accounts.
Contrary to many solutions we have recently reviewed, Tellco Vested Benefits is available through a web portal, not through a mobile app. For some users, this will be an advantage, but for others, it will be a limitation. The web portal is based on ePlix, which is easy to use.
Tellco uses its own foundation, the Tellco Vested Benefits Foundation. The domicile is in Schwyz which is very interesting fiscally if you withdraw your vested benefits from abroad.
Tellco is managing 9 billion CHF (as of September 2025) across all business areas, but they do not disclose how much of that is in vested benefits. They have many services, so we can expect that only a small part is invested in vested benefits.
As a reminder, vested benefits accounts are used for people who are not employed anymore. These accounts store money that was previously in a pension fund.
Currently, Tellco has one foundation, so it is only possible to open one vested benefits account.
Investing Strategy
If you want to invest your vested benefits account, you have three main options:
- The use of the Tellco classic funds
- The use of the thematic funds
- The use of ETFs directly
In every case, you will have to keep 2% in cash in your portfolio. The 98% allocation can be allocated as you wish in the other categories.
We will cover each of them in detail.
Tellco classic funds
The default option is to use Tellco classic funds. There are four options with different percentages in equities:
- Tellco Classic Strategy 10 with 10% in equities.
- Tellco Classic Strategy 25 with 25% in equities.
- Tellco Classic Strategy 45 with 45% in equities.
- Tellco Classic Strategy 100 with up to 100% in equities.
The money not invested in equities is invested in bonds, real estate, and money markets.
These funds are funds of funds. If we read the fact sheets, we can see that these funds are composed of multiple funds from Tellco, Vanguard, SPDR, and others. At least some of these funds are ETFs, while others are mutual funds.
If we look at the Tellco Classic Strategy 100, we can see these components (as of September 25, 2025):
- 41.20% in Swiss stocks (through a Tellco fund)
- 15.63% in world stocks (through a Vanguard fund)
- 14.41% in world stocks (through an SPDR fund)
- 10.08% in thematic stocks (through a Tellco fund)
- 5.35% in emerging markets stocks (through a Vanguard fund)
This composition is quite interesting. It appears that there is no currency hedging, so we would have a foreign currency exposure of about 60% here. There is a significant bias towards Switzerland, but this is the case for all default strategies in Switzerland.
Overall, this is a good investing strategy, with up to 98% in stocks (accounting for the 2% in cash). I would prefer if they did not use funds from third-party funds because this can hide some of the fees since we have to pay the fees twice. And this also makes it inefficient for dividend withholding. But the composition of the fund is good.
Tellco thematic funds
The second option is to choose thematic funds.
Currently, there are six different thematic funds:
- Aging population (iShares Aging Population UCITS ETF)
- Automation & Robotics (iShares Automation & Robotics UCITS ETF)
- Healthcare innovation (iShares Healthcare Innovation UCITS ETF)
- Digitalization (iShares Digitalization UCITS ETF)
- Clean energy (iShares Global Clean Energy Transition UCITS ETF)
- Blockchain (Invesco CoinShares Global Blockchain UCITS ETF)
For people looking to invest based on a specific theme or value, these thematic funds are quite interesting. This time, they are not funds of funds but third-party ETFs from other providers (Invesco and iShares).
Ideally, retirement funds would be preferable over ETFs for better tax efficiency and for avoiding stamp duty.
It is worth noting that you can invest up to 98% in a single fund (2% stays in cash). So, if you want to have 98% in the digitalization theme, you can. The only exception is the Blockchain theme because the regulations of the vested benefits foundation limit it to 10%.
Individual investment strategy
The third strategy is to choose ETFs in your portfolio. You can choose from about 40 ETFs and funds in different categories:
- World stocks
- Swiss stocks
- World bonds
- Swiss bonds
- Stocks for the future (themes)
- World real estate
- Swiss real estate
- Stocks from emerging countries
This makes a wide range of options that should allow people to make a nice portfolio. For instance, I would probably do a portfolio that would mimic my own with:
- 85% SPDR MSCI World UCITS ETF
- 15% UBS ETF SPI
It is worth mentioning that once you do a custom strategy, you can mix third-party ETFs and funds from Tellco. Again, you must keep the 2% in cash.
Overall, I think this is a great option.
It is worth mentioning that it would be better to get funds rather than ETFs for tax efficiency and avoid stamp duties, but it is still good to be able to do a custom portfolio. Many vested benefits providers do not allow this freedom.
Another great thing is that there are very few limits on customization. You can do 100% in foreign currency exposure in the invested part, for instance. And you can even invest 100% in US stocks in the invested portion, for instance. This flexibility is great, as many other vested benefits accounts impose more restrictions.
Investing Fees
Generally, the most important factor when comparing multiple vested benefits solutions is the fees of the different accounts. The account itself is free; there is no account opening or closing fee.
The fees of Tellco Vested Benefits mostly depend on the type of investment chosen.
Tellco classic funds
If we use the Tellco classic funds, there is no custody fee. But, we have to pay the Total Expense Ratio (TER) of the fund itself. These funds have the given fees as of September 2025:
- 0.61% TER for Tellco Classic – Strategy 10
- 0.69% TER for Tellco Classic – Strategy 25
- 0.64% TER for Tellco Classic – Strategy 45
- 0.70% TER for Tellco Classic – Strategy 100
Since these funds are funds of funds, we must also consider the TER of these funds. Unfortunately, Tellco does not share the exact ISIN of the sub-funds, so it is difficult to know for sure. It will be at least a 0.10% extra fee, but it is likely more since some of the funds used will have a higher fee. Additionally, some of the sub-funds are ETFs, so we need to pay some stamp duty, but this should be fine in the long term.
None of these funds are efficient for foreign dividend withholding. In this case, we can assume a 60% foreign part, a 1.5% dividend yield, and a 15% dividend lost (assuming Ireland funds). This would give an extra 0.135% fee as an estimate.
So, finally, this gives us a fee of 0.935%, at least for the most aggressive strategy. This is a decent fee, but significantly higher than the best vested benefits accounts.
Tellco thematic funds
For the thematic funds, there is a custody fee of 0.20%. Then, we have to pay the TER of the funds themselves. Here are the fees for these funds as of September 2025:
- 0.40% for aging population (iShares Aging Population UCITS ETF)
- 0.40% for automation & robotics (iShares Automation & Robotics UCITS ETF)
- 0.40% for healthcare innovation (iShares Healthcare Innovation UCITS ETF)
- 0.40% for digitalization (iShares Digitalization UCITS ETF)
- 0.65% for clean energy (iShares Global Clean Energy Transition UCITS ETF)
- 0.65% for Blockchain (Invesco CoinShares Global Blockchain UCITS ETF)
So, most ETFs have a 0.40% TER, while Clean Energy and Blockchain have a 0.65% TER. Since they are all ETFs, we will also lose to Swiss stamp duty:
- 0.075% on each Swiss ETF when buying and again when selling
- 0.15% on each foreign ETF when buying and again when selling
And again, the dividend withholding is not efficient, so we lose about 0.15% extra (more foreign part in these funds) as an estimate.
So, this gives us a fee between 0.75% and 1.0%, depending on the ETF. This is already cheaper than the base Tellco funds, but it remains relatively expensive.
Individual investment strategy
Finally, for the third-party ETFs, we must pay a 0.35% custody fee. Again, we will pay stamp duty on each investment since they are ETFs. And again, we can estimate we will lose about 0.135% (with a diversified portfolio) since they are UCITS ETFs.
There are too many ETFs to list here, but we can mention the SPDR MSCI World UCITS ETF, which is an ETF covering the entire developed world with a TER of only 0.12% (as of September 2025). Another good example is the UBS SPI ETF that covers the Swiss Performance Index (SPI) and has a TER of only 0.10% (as of September 2025).
So, with a single world ETF, we would have a total fee of 0.605%. This is an excellent result. And this can go even lower with a cheaper ETF. Of course, we need to factor in the stamp duty on each transaction, but it is less important than the TER since you pay it only once.
In addition to the stamp duty, there is another transaction fee. Whenever we buy or sell third-party funds, there is a brokerage fee of 1% of the trade value. This fee is capped at 35 CHF per order, with a minimum of 10 CHF. For a vested benefits account, this is not so bad since you generally invest once and let it rest. And paying 35 CHF once is not bad. If you were to change your portfolio once, this could be costly.
Tellco vested benefits with third-party ETFs are quite competitive. I wish their default option would be cheaper, but the fact that they offer cheap third-party ETFs is encouraging.
Summary of fees
We can summarize all these fees together in a table (as of September 2025).
| Choice | Custody | TER | Other Costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tellco Classic funds | Included | 0.61% – 0.70% | TER of sub-funds; dividend withholding drag: 0.135% (est.) |
| Thematic ETFs | 0.20% | 0.40% – 0.65% | Swiss stamp duty on each transaction: 0.075%/0.15% (Swiss/foreign) |
| Third-party ETFs | 0.35% | Varies (e.g., 0.12% for world ETF) | Brokerage 1% (CHF 10–35 cap); Swiss stamp duty 0.075%/0.15% (Swiss/foreign) |
| Cash | 0% | 0% | Current interest rate: 0.20% |
Extra fees
There are also some other fees we should mention. Many vested benefits accounts have fees on withdrawal.
Tellco charges the following fees:
- If you withdraw to buy a house from Switzerland, this will cost 400 CHF.
- From abroad, this will cost 600 CHF.
- Pledging your vested benefits costs 200 CHF.
- If you withdraw to become self-employed, you will pay 200 CHF.
- If you move away from Switzerland, you will pay 600 CHF.
- If you do that within 6 months of opening your account, you will pay 1200 CHF.
Overall, these fees are about average. There are some cheaper alternatives, but there are also some more expensive alternatives. What matters is that you are aware of these fees and you are taking them into account for the future.
Vested benefits in cash
If you are not planning to stay in this vested benefits account for the long term, you can choose to hold your vested benefits in cash. In this case, you will not pay management fees. Currently, the interest rate of Tellco vested benefits is 0.20% (as of September 2025). This is a good rate given the state of the market.
Even if there are no management fees, we should not forget about the extra fees mentioned in the previous section. For instance, if you plan to leave Switzerland, this may not be great in the short term.
Overall, if you are retiring in the short to medium term, the Tellco vested benefits account is good. If you are planning to leave Switzerland or withdraw early, you should be careful about the extra fees.
Advanced custom strategies
By default, you can do custom strategies by using funds within the Tellco investment universe. However, if you reach 500,000 CHF in your vested benefits account, you will be able to do a custom strategy with all funds approved in Switzerland.
In this case, this opens the door to using many allowed retirement funds. However, you will not be able to pick them up directly yourself; you will work with an advisor to do the custom strategy.
In this case, there are other fees than the default strategy:
- 0% for funds from Tellco
- 0.20% for thematic funds
- 0.50% for third-party funds
This is an interesting offer since this opens the door to a lot of customization that is not possible within the default Tellco vested benefits. However, at half a million, this option is only available to very wealthy people.
Life Insurance
Tellco also has an interesting feature with a life insurance component. The good thing about this is that it is free and integrated. Every user of Tellco vested benefits can profit from this.
For each 10,000 CHF invested in your vested benefits account, you get coverage of:
- 2,500 CHF if you are younger than 35 years old
- 2,000 CHF if you are younger than 45 years old
- 1,500 CHF if you are younger than 55 years old
- 1,000 CHF if you are younger than 65 years old
Since vested benefits stop at retirement, the life insurance packet also stops at retirement. For instance, if a 37-year-old had 150,000 in a vested benefits account, he would get 30,000 CHF coverage. This is a very decent amount.
You will receive this amount in the case of death and disability (70% disability). This is great because some providers make you choose, but Tellco vested benefits cover both cases.
The life insurance policy is coming from Generali.
Is Tellco Vested Benefits safe?
Whenever we think about entrusting some money to a service, we should ask ourselves whether that service is safe.
The Tellco Vested Benefits Foundation is registered in Switzerland and obeys the second pillar framework. The Tellco bank itself is regulated by FINMA. The foundation itself is separated from Tellco so that in case of a Tellco’s bankruptcy, the foundation would find another manager for the fund.
The service has existed for more than 20 years now (founded in 2002). This is a good sign for longevity and for the future of the company.
Overall, Tellco vested benefits should be as safe as all other vested benefits accounts. And it appears to be here for the long term.
Alternatives
We also must look at how Tellco vested benefits compare with other vested benefits solutions. You should never use the first solution you find; instead, you should compare it with other alternatives first.
Tellco Vested Benefits vs Finpension Vested Benefits
Finpension Vested Benefits is the best account in Switzerland.
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- Invest 99% in stocks
Finpension vested benefits is a great vested benefits account, so we can compare these two interesting and quite different products.
The strategy is slightly different. Finpension vested benefits rely on retirement-grade funds, while Tellco relies on ETFs mostly. The difference will be in efficiency, with no stamp duty for finpension and higher tax efficiency.
Both products allow a high level of customization, and both have the same tax domicile.
Finpension has an advantage for fees. You can get a portfolio with a 0.49% fee, while Tellco would cost 0.60%. This can be significant in the long term.
An advantage of Tellco is that you get life insurance benefits, while finpension does not offer any such advantages.
One advantage of Finpension is that they have two vested benefits foundations. This means you can directly split your pension fund in two when switching to Finpension.
A significant advantage of Tellco is that you do not pay fees if you hold it in cash. On the other hand, with finpension, you will pay the 0.49% on the entire amount (not only the invested part).
Overall, these two products are excellent. Finpension will be cheaper than Tellco, but the difference is not that big. On the other hand, you may get life insurance for free with Tellco.
Tellco Vested Benefits vs VIAC Vested Benefits
Another very interesting vested benefits account is VIAC vested benefits.
Again, VIAC vested benefits offers funds instead of ETFs, saving on stamp duty and on dividend taxes.
VIAC is domiciled in Basel, while Tellco is domiciled in Schwyz. This domicile means Tellco is slightly better when withdrawing from abroad.
VIAC is cheaper than Tellco vested benefits. VIAC will cost about 0.46% per year, while Tellco would cost 0.60%. This will be significant in the long term.
Interestingly, Tellco is more flexible for the investment. Indeed, you can get up to 100% foreign currency exposure in the invested part. VIAC is limited to 60%, forcing you into hedging if you want to avoid a home bias.
Both solutions have a life insurance bonus. With VIAC you always get 2,500 for 10,000 invested, while the amount is variable per age with Tellco. Unless you are younger than 35, you will get higher benefits with VIAC. However, the Tellco life insurance is for both death and disability, while you need to choose between both with VIAC.
Both accounts are free if you invest fully in cash.
Overall, both products are good. VIAC is cheaper than Tellco. Tellco is also more flexible with foreign currency exposure. And Tellco has both disability and death benefits, while VIAC only has either one.
For more information, you can read our review of VIAC vested benefits.
Tellco Vested Benefits FAQ
How many Tellco vested benefits accounts can I have?
You can have only one account since there is a single Tellco vested benefits foundation.
Who is Tellco vested benefits good for?
Tellco vested benefits is great if you want to invest aggressively in a custom portfolio of ETFs. It is also great if you keep the vested benefits in cash.
Who is Tellco vested benefits not good for?
The Tellco vested benefits account is not great if you want to invest in retirement funds (rather than ETFs) to maximize efficiency.
Do you get insurance with Tellco?
Yes, you get life insurance with Tellco, covering death and disability. You will get coverage based on your assets and age.
Tellco vested benefits Summary
Tellco Review. We analyze the Tellco Vested Benefits foundation. Are their fees low enough to compete with VIAC and Finpension?
4.5
Tellco vested benefits Pros
Let's summarize the main advantages of Tellco vested benefits:
- Up to 98% in stocks!
- Decent fees
- Good choice of third-party ETFs
- Good customization of portfolios
- Much freedom in portfolios
- Life insurance for death and disability
Tellco vested benefits Cons
Let's summarize the main disadvantages of Tellco vested benefits:
- Default funds are rather expensive
- Use of ETFs (less efficient)
Conclusion
Overall, Tellco vested benefits is a good product. They offer decent fees, with very flexible portfolios and even life insurance included. It is quite impressive to see that level of customization and flexibility from a traditional bank. I am glad to see that not only digital services can improve.
On the other hand, it is not perfect. If Tellco were to replace ETFs with retirement funds, it would become the best vested benefits account available. Using ETFs means adding Swiss stamp duty on each transaction. And it also means we lose some money each year to dividend withholding.
It is a great vested benefits account, but it is not the best vested benefits account at this time. Currently, the best vested benefits account I am aware of is the finpension vested benefits account.
What about you? What do you think of Tellco vested benefits?
More reading
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For Finpension benefits, how long is long enough? Mine are at UBS as I am not working at the moment and want to move them.
I would say 5+ years at least. Basically, if you are planning to work again, you should not invest your vested benefits.
Hi baptise . Very good summary. I am actually looking to leave switzerland so am planning to move my vested benefits account to one based in Canton Schwyz. As well as Tellco and Finpension I had been advised about Liberty ? – have you ever looked at their offering ?
Thanks , and keep up the good work with the blog . I have already used your advise to open up a broker account with IB , and moved my 3rd pillars to finpension
Hi Niall,
I looked a little into it a while back and I was not impressed. For me, Finpension remains the best option if you are going to invest the vested benefits money.