Investing with Descartes: my take on the Swiss robo-advisor

[Update – 28.08.2026: new scoring matrix + ratings]

When you start comparing ways to invest in Switzerland without managing everything yourself, the same alternatives quickly come up:

• VIAC Invest and finpension Invest let you build your own allocation from the funds offered.
• Selma builds a personal investment plan based on your financial situation and then manages it automatically.
• Alpian combines managed portfolios and a wealth advisor accessible by video.
• Swissquote Invest Easy offers four predefined strategies with adjustable cryptocurrency exposure.

And then there’s Descartes, an independent Swiss wealth manager that doesn’t sell in-house products and isn’t owned by any bank. The site is in French and German.

What does Descartes’ independence change in how the portfolio is built?

This review covers Descartes Invest, the self-directed investing offering. I went through Descartes’ entire user journey, from opening the account to choosing the strategy.

You choose your strategy, not your holdings

The questionnaire first assesses your investment horizon and financial situation. It also measures your “risk appetite” based on financial knowledge, experience, and expected returns.

You then get an equity allocation between 20% and 100%, and choose one of the three investment strategies.

CHF 10 to get started

You can deposit any amount into the account, even CHF 1. Descartes invests the money as soon as the balance reaches CHF 10.

To compare entry thresholds:

• VIAC Invest and finpension Invest start at CHF 1.
• Selma starts at CHF 2,000.
• Alpian Managed Essentials starts at CHF 2,000.
• Swissquote Invest Easy starts at CHF 500.

With CHF 10, Descartes lets you launch a first strategy before committing a larger amount.

To open a Descartes Invest account, there are four steps:

• Answer the risk-profile questionnaire.
• Choose an investment strategy and an equity allocation.
• Enter your personal details.
• Sign.

For an Invest account, you also have to go through an identity check handled by partner mesoneer, with a valid ID document (ID card or passport). Documents are checked in about 5 minutes. The signature itself uses a qualified electronic signature, valid for several years.

You also need to meet three conditions:

• Live in Switzerland.
• Not be a “politically exposed person”.
• Not be domiciled in the United States.

Descartes also automatically opens a bank account at Lienhardt & Partner Privatbank Zürich: that’s where the investments are made from. You receive your IBAN right away when opening, and can view it later in the client portal.

Once your risk profile is set, you choose one of the three investment strategies:

To understand: you need to distinguish between the investment strategy and the equity allocation because they have different roles. This allocation determines the share of equities in the portfolio (Descartes offers five levels, from 20% to 100% equities). The strategy then determines how Descartes will build this equity portion of the portfolio.

The “Passive” strategy

Descartes simply aims to track the performance of the markets it invests in, rather than picking individual companies to try to do better or reduce volatility.

To do this, Descartes uses Swisscanto index funds. Each fund invests in a large number of companies by tracking a benchmark index, i.e. a set of stocks used to represent a market. The SPI serves as a benchmark for the Swiss market and the MSCI World for large companies in developed countries.

The composition depends on the equity allocation chosen. Descartes distributes the equity portion across several markets, including Switzerland, developed countries and emerging markets. With less than 100% equities, the portfolio also contains other investments, including bonds. The strategy can also invest in gold.

This choice is directly reflected in the portfolio’s behavior. Passive follows market movements more closely: when stocks rise sharply, the portfolio benefits more. When they fall sharply, it also suffers more from the decline.

The “Minimum Risk” strategy

Unlike Passive, Minimum Risk seeks to reduce portfolio fluctuations. To do this, it uses funds from the Swiss asset manager OLZ, which does not replicate the weightings of a traditional global index: instead, it adjusts the weightings of the shares according to the risk they pose to the portfolio.

Stocks with large price swings get a smaller weight. OLZ also considers how stocks move relative to each other: if several companies tend to rise and fall at the same time, their weight is capped to avoid concentrating the same risk in multiple places.

This strategy guides the composition of the “equity portion” of the portfolio. Large US companies take up less space than in a traditional global index and Asia more. Descartes also hedges foreign currency investments when useful: if the dollar or EUR falls against CHF, this hedge limits the effect of this decline on the portfolio.

This way of distributing equities allows you to hold more of them without increasing portfolio risk in the same proportions. At a comparable risk level, the equity allocation can be about 25% higher than with a traditional index strategy. An allocation of 60% would rise to about 75%, for example.

The portfolio should follow the market’s strongest movements less. If the large companies that dominate the indices rise sharply, Minimum Risk may rise more slowly. During declines, the strategy aims to limit fluctuations more.

The “Minimum Risk BTC” strategy

Minimum Risk BTC uses the Minimum Risk construction and adds a bitcoin slice between 1% and 5%. This slice increases with the equity allocation: the higher it is, the more bitcoin weighs in the portfolio, up to 5%. Note that you can’t set this percentage yourself.

The equity portion still follows OLZ’s Minimum Risk method, without changing how stocks are selected and weighted.

Bitcoin induces much stronger variations on this portion of the portfolio. Even if the share is limited, its price can rise or fall quickly. Minimum Risk BTC retains Minimum Risk’s search for stability on equities, but adds exposure to bitcoin’s return potential (and the risk that comes with it).

Projection of an investment strategy (example)

Projections always simulate three scenarios: favorable, expected, and unfavorable.

Since 2026, Descartes has offered the Minimum Risk BTC strategy. The bitcoin slice ranges from 1% to 5% of the portfolio depending on your risk profile. You can’t choose this percentage yourself.

Descartes uses the iShares Bitcoin ETP, identified by the symbol IB1T and listed in CHF on the Swiss exchange SIX. This ETP is backed by bitcoins held offline. You don’t buy bitcoin directly: you hold a security whose value tracks its price. You don’t manage a digital wallet or private keys.

An ETP isn’t a separate fund like an ETF. It takes the form of a debt security backed by the bitcoins held in reserve. The risk isn’t only bitcoin price swings: an issue with the issuer, custodian, or collateral can also lead to a loss.

The 5% cap limits bitcoin’s weight, but it doesn’t make that slice safe. Bitcoin can lose a large part of its value in a short time. Minimum Risk BTC is an option if you accept that volatility without wanting to set the invested share yourself.

PostFinance also reserves 5% for cryptocurrencies in its Future axis. This share is distributed among five cryptocurrencies and the offering requires at least CHF 5,000. At Swissquote Invest Easy, Crypto Boost lets you go up to 25% and choose the dosage yourself.

The bitcoin share is small at Descartes and depends on the risk profile. To freely choose a higher exposure, Swissquote leaves more room.

To summarize management at Descartes, it’s: a strategy and an equity allocation. There’s nothing else to monitor after that.

Descartes Invest is the most obvious choice if:

• You want an independent manager, with no in-house products to push.
• You prefer choosing a strategy and an equity allocation, then letting Descartes manage the portfolio.
• You want a small, capped bitcoin exposure, without managing a digital wallet or private keys.
• You want to start small: CHF 10 is enough to launch a strategy.

After those two choices, Descartes selects the securities and rebalances the portfolio.

Descartes Invest gives you little leeway if:

• You want to pick your holdings one by one.
• You want to exclude certain sectors or certain companies.
• You want to set the bitcoin slice yourself or go above 5%.

VIAC Invest and finpension Invest let you fine-tune the split across the available funds and build your own strategy—not freely pick individual stocks. For that, you need a broker.

Digital wealth manager Inyova lets you choose the causes to support and the companies to exclude. Swissquote Invest Easy offers fully automated management, but an option lets you set crypto exposure yourself up to 25%.

Descartes’ three strategies include ESG criteria linked to the environment, social issues, and governance. You can neither change nor disable them.

In Minimum Risk, OLZ excludes companies rated “CCC” by MSCI, those involved in a major controversy, and those active in nuclear weapons, coal, or oil sands.

OLZ then allocates holdings based on their volatility and correlations. CO₂ emissions are also among the criteria used to build the portfolio.

The Passive strategy uses Swisscanto Responsible index funds. Swisscanto starts from a classic index, applies exclusions, removes the companies with the worst ESG scores, and reduces carbon intensity by at least 20% versus the benchmark index.

To precisely choose causes and companies to exclude, Inyova gives you more freedom. Digital wealth manager findependent uses ESG-filtered ETFs in its predefined portfolios for foreign equities. You can also build your own solution with the available ETFs, including several sustainable ETFs.

At Descartes Invest, fees depend on the strategy and the equity allocation.

Descartes and custodian bank Lienhardt first charge a fixed portion. The prices below are shown excluding VAT:

Fund costs, called the “TER”, are added on top of these fees. They’re already deducted from the fund value and vary with the equity allocation:

After adding VAT to Descartes’ and Lienhardt’s fees, recurring annual fees come to:

• Passive: between 0.86% and 0.90%.
• Minimum Risk: between 0.93% and 1.05%.
• Minimum Risk BTC: between 0.93% and 1.03%.

Stamp duties may also be added to certain transactions made with funds registered abroad.

Descartes offers tiered pricing for larger amounts.

Quick look at competitors’ pricing ⚡️

At Selma, the range includes management fees and the average cost of products. Stamp duties and currency conversions may be added during transactions.

VIAC and finpension cost less than Descartes and allow you to fine-tune the allocation between funds. Price is not Descartes’ main argument. Its appeal comes from its independence, the Minimum Risk strategies and the accessibility of its team.

At Descartes, you handle opening and ongoing management yourself, from the web app. But as soon as you get stuck, there are several ways to reach them:

• chat
• phone
• scheduled video call
• in-person meeting (at Descartes’ offices in Zurich)

If you have common questions about retirement planning, investing or financial planning, you can also use Cogito, their AI chatbot. It can help you understand a topic, but it can make mistakes and doesn’t replace personalized financial advice.

You talk to the team, not a dedicated person.

By comparison, at Selma, you can ask questions to an AI (“Insight”) or to the expert team via chat and email. You can also book a call. At Alpian, you can book free meetings with a wealth advisor, even without using the investment solution.

If regular conversations with an advisor are an important criterion for you, Alpian offers the most complete human support of the three.

One last look to position Descartes Invest against the four other solutions:

These fees don’t cover the same services from one solution to another.

ESG

VIAC and finpension allow you to integrate sustainable funds into a personalized strategy. At Alpian, you have to choose the Sustainable plan. Swissquote offers its ESG solutions outside of Invest Easy.

Crypto

Descartes includes up to 5% bitcoin in a separate strategy, without letting you choose the percentage. Alpian reserves cryptocurrencies for the Global + Crypto plan. Swissquote Invest Easy gives you more room with Crypto Boost, which lets you go up to 25%.

Between independence and CHF 10 to get started (Descartes), rock-bottom fees (VIAC, finpension), human support (Alpian), or a 25% crypto cap (Swissquote), the right choice mostly depends on what you’re willing to manage yourself.

FINMA granted Descartes Finance SA the status of wealth manager under the Financial Institutions Act (FinIA). The body supervising Descartes is called OSFIN.

Descartes doesn’t hold your money or securities itself: Lienhardt & Partner Privatbank Zürich does, including custody of the securities and management of the custody account.

If Lienhardt goes bankrupt:

• You own the securities. They don’t enter the bankruptcy estate and you get them back.
• For the uninvested portion, deposit insurance covers up to CHF 100,000 per person per bank. This cap applies to all accounts held by the same person at Lienhardt.

Descartes doesn’t sell any in-house products and isn’t owned by any bank: it’s an independent wealth manager. This independence reduces conflicts of interest linked to selling its own products, but it doesn’t eliminate them all.

Descartes Invest delivers on its promise: independent management, no in-house products, with a small bitcoin slice built into one of the three strategies, without opening a wallet.

It’s a good option—independent and Swiss. That convenience comes with a price and a limit. The price: 0.86% to 1.05% per year, more expensive than VIAC or finpension. The limit: three fixed strategies, no DIY allocation, no dedicated advisor.

To choose Descartes, there are four trade-offs to make:

• Pay a bit more than VIAC or finpension, for management fully run by an independent player with no in-house products to push.
• Accept choosing between three predefined strategies (but varying with the allocation), so you don’t have to pick funds or rebalance the portfolio.
• Accept a bitcoin slice set by your profile between 1% and 5%, rather than choosing yourself up to 25% at Swissquote or 10% at Alpian.
• Give up a dedicated advisor, but still have access to the team via chat, phone, or by appointment.

It all depends on how involved you want to be. Descartes Invest is a good choice if you want to delegate to an independent manager. VIAC and finpension are cheaper and let you choose your portfolio allocation across the available funds. If you want regular conversations with an advisor, Alpian really goes further.

Also read

• Beginner’s guide to investing in the stock market in Switzerland in 2026
• Descartes vs Swissquote Invest Easy: the 2026 comparison
• Review and test of Selma investment (robo-advisor)
• True Wealth investment review and test (robo-advisor)
• Swissquote Invest Easy review and test
• Review and Test of Alpian Investment Trading
• Review and Test of Yuh Investment Trading
• Review and test of Neon Investment Trading

• Do you use Descartes Invest to delegate the management of your portfolio?
• Which strategy did you choose: Passive, Minimum Risk, or Minimum Risk BTC?
• Did the CHF 10 threshold and access to the team matter in your choice?

Share your feedback with all Neo’s friends 😈