The fee stack

A wealth-management offer may show one clean annual fee, but the real cost can include several layers: advisory or management fee, fund costs, custody, transaction charges, foreign exchange spread, and tax-reporting fees. Start by reviewing brokerage accounts for Swiss residents..

For a large portfolio, a small percentage difference is not small. A 0.8 percentage point annual cost gap on CHF 500'000 is CHF 4'000 per year before compounding.

This does not mean every wealth manager is bad. It means the value must be visible: planning, tax coordination, risk control, rebalancing, estate questions, and behavioural discipline.

Questions to ask before signing

Ask whether the adviser is independent, how they are paid, whether they receive retrocessions, and whether they will rebate them. Compare with a Swiss broker vs international broker analysis., whether they receive retrocessions, and whether they will rebate them. Ask for the full expected annual cost in CHF, not only percentages.

Ask how they handle US persons, UK-domiciled clients, EU moves, restricted fund access, or future relocation. Many expats have cross-border issues that a purely local portfolio pitch ignores.

Ask what happens if you leave Switzerland. Can the relationship continue? Will products still be suitable? Can assets be transferred easily?

When advice may be worth it

Advice can be worth paying for when the situation is complex: high income, multiple countries, business ownership, concentrated stock, pension assets, property, inheritance, or a spouse in another tax system. For expats with cross-border exposure, also assess currency risk.

Advice is less convincing when the service is mainly expensive fund selection wrapped in impressive language.

The practical benchmark is this: after the meeting, can you explain the plan, the risks, the fee stack, and the cross-border assumptions in plain English?

If the proposal needs jargon to sound convincing, slow down. A good adviser should be able to show what is being managed, what is being delegated, what remains your responsibility, and what would change if you relocate.

Ask for a one-page summary after the meeting. It should show the recommended portfolio, total annual cost, tax assumptions, and actions you must take yourself.

For expats with straightforward finances—a single salary, no business interests, and a long investment horizon—a self-directed brokerage account with low-cost diversified funds may be sufficient. The value of advice increases with the complexity of your situation, not with the size of your portfolio alone. A CHF 2 million portfolio in one ETF needs less ongoing management than CHF 500'000 spread across property, private equity, and three tax jurisdictions.

Hidden costs: retrocessions, custody chains, and FX spreads

Retrocessions are payments from product providers to the wealth manager or bank for distributing their funds. Under Swiss law, retrocessions generally belong to the client unless validly waived in writing. Ask whether your adviser receives them and whether they are rebated to your account or retained by the firm.

Custody chains can add a second fee layer. If your wealth manager uses a third-party custodian bank, you may be paying both the manager's advisory fee and the custodian's safekeeping charge. A clean proposal should separate these costs clearly. Ask: 'Who holds my assets and what do they charge?'

Foreign exchange spreads are another quiet cost. If your portfolio holds multi-currency assets and the manager converts CHF to USD or EUR for trades, the spread can silently erode returns. Ask for the FX pricing model: is it interbank plus a transparent markup, or is the cost embedded in an unfavourable exchange rate?

Transaction costs inside funds are separate from the TER. A fund with a 0.3% TER may have 0.5% in hidden trading costs from portfolio turnover. The total expense ratio and the portfolio turnover rate together give a better picture than TER alone. This is why passive index funds with low turnover often have lower total costs than actively managed alternatives with similar headline fees.

A disciplined question to ask is: 'Please show me every fee I will pay over the next twelve months, listed in CHF, including those paid to third parties.' If the answer is vague, the fee stack is probably larger than it appears. This request alone can reveal whether the relationship is built on transparency or marketing.