Investing with True Wealth: my review of the customizable robo-advisor

A robo-advisor simplifies investing because you delegate part of the decision-making. The problem is that you often lose the ability to adapt your portfolio.

On this point, Swiss solutions do not all work the same way:

• findependent allows you to start with CHF 500 and charges no management or deposit fees on the first CHF 2,000.
• finpension Invest starts at CHF 1 and offers a lot of freedom to build your strategy from the available funds.
• Selma builds the portfolio based on your financial situation and risk profile, then leaves little room to modify the allocation yourself.
• Alpian manages the portfolio from CHF 2,000 and includes meetings with a wealth management advisor.

True Wealth sits between delegation and customization. The service proposes a diversified portfolio based on your risk profile, but you can then modify your allocation before delegating management.

You don’t choose every ETF or stock yourself. True Wealth retains control over the instruments used and then handles operations and portfolio monitoring.

The difference with a robo-advisor built around a few fixed strategies is significant: you delegate management without having to accept a fully predefined allocation.

CHF 8,500 to start investing

You must reach CHF 8,500 for True Wealth to start investing your taxable assets.

This is a significantly higher threshold than several competitors. True Wealth is not the most accessible solution if you want to start with a few hundred francs.

Its real value lies in being able to retain more control over portfolio construction while delegating its management.

True Wealth has a fairly rare feature: you choose the bank that will hold your assets, between Saxo Bank Switzerland and Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank (BLKB). I will explain later why this choice matters.

To open a True Wealth account for taxable assets, you must meet four conditions:

• be at least 18 years old;
• live and pay taxes in Switzerland;
• have a valid ID;
• not be considered a “US person”.

First, you fill out the registration form, then sign the management mandate and the custodian bank documents. To verify your identity online, you present an ID and take a selfie.

You then answer the risk questionnaire. True Wealth uses it to propose an initial allocation, which you can still adapt before confirming the strategy.

Once the account is open and the money deposited, True Wealth can start buying the planned investments to build the portfolio.

Multiple IBANs to deposit CHF, EUR, USD, or GBP

The “Payments” tab provides access to four personal IBANs in:

• CHF;
• EUR;
• USD;
• GBP.

If you already own euros or dollars, you can send them directly to the corresponding IBAN instead of converting them yourself into francs before the transfer.

You simply need to send the money from a bank account in your name.

For True Wealth to actually start investing taxable assets, you must reach CHF 8,500. After this initial investment, you can add smaller amounts.

Withdrawing part of your money without closing the account

You can request a withdrawal from the “Payments” tab.

If the account does not contain enough cash, True Wealth sells part of the investments to raise the requested amount, then sends the money to the reference bank account.

True Wealth does not charge additional fees for withdrawals.

However, you must maintain at least CHF 8,500 after the operation. To go below this amount, you must close the portfolio and sell all investments.

Withdrawals are only sent to a verified bank account in the holder’s name. If you want to use another account, it must be validated first.

There is no joint account

True Wealth does not allow opening a joint portfolio or giving power of attorney to another person.

The main barrier to opening is not the registration process, but the required amount: you must already have CHF 8,500 before you can actually use True Wealth to invest.

True Wealth doesn’t just ask you to choose between a few predefined portfolios.

With the risk questionnaire, True Wealth measures two things: the level of risk you psychologically accept and the level your financial situation actually allows you to take. True Wealth then proposes a diversified allocation that respects this limit.

But this is an initial proposal and it is not fixed. You can accept it as is or modify the breakdown before confirming your strategy.

You can modify asset classes and regions

True Wealth allows you to adjust the share dedicated to stocks, bonds, real estate, or commodities.

You can also go further in the breakdown. For stocks, for example, it is possible to increase or reduce exposure to Switzerland, the United States, or emerging markets.

This freedom can be useful if the proposed portfolio doesn’t quite match how you want to allocate your wealth:

If a large part of your second pillar already depends on the Swiss economy, you might prefer to give more space to foreign markets in your taxable assets. Or conversely, you can strengthen Switzerland if you wish to maintain that bias.

True Wealth still imposes two limits: the portfolio must remain sufficiently diversified and modifications must respect the risk range defined by the questionnaire.

You choose your allocation, but not all individual securities freely

Customization has a limit. You don’t have a broker’s catalog to select any stock or any ETF. True Wealth defines the investment universe from which the portfolio will be built.

You primarily act on the exposure you want to obtain: having more US stocks, fewer commodities, a different proportion of bonds, etc. True Wealth then chooses the instruments available in its catalog to apply this allocation.

This is a different kind of freedom than a broker’s. You decide more on the portfolio structure than with a fixed-strategy robo-advisor, but True Wealth retains control over the choice of available instruments.

True Wealth maintains the chosen allocation

Once the strategy is confirmed, market movements can gradually change the portfolio proportions. If one part becomes too heavy or loses too much weight, True Wealth buys or sells ETFs and index funds to return to the defined allocation.

New deposits also follow this breakdown. During a withdrawal, True Wealth sells investments proportionally to avoid unbalancing the strategy.

You can modify your allocation later if your preferences change. If it’s your financial situation or your ability to withstand a downturn that evolves, it’s better to simply retake the risk questionnaire. In that case, True Wealth proposes a new allocation adapted to the situation.

This is the main value of True Wealth in my eyes: you don’t have to choose every security yourself, but you keep enough latitude so that the portfolio doesn’t just look like one of a few imposed models.

True Wealth is especially interesting if you want to define your portfolio allocation, then delegate its management.

You keep control over the allocation, but you don’t have to choose every ETF, place orders, or monitor discrepancies in the portfolio yourself.

True Wealth is particularly suitable if:

• you want to be able to adjust the share of stocks, bonds, or certain regions;
• you don’t want to choose every security yourself;
• you prefer to let True Wealth manage buys, sells, and rebalancing;
• you already have at least CHF 8,500 to invest.

Customization mostly has value if you actually plan to use it. If you simply accept the proposed allocation without ever touching it, part of what distinguishes True Wealth becomes less important.

True Wealth offers less freedom if:

• you want to choose your ETFs or stocks precisely;
• you want to decide the timing of buys and sells yourself;
• you want to build your portfolio entirely;
• you prefer to start with a few hundred francs and gradually increase your investment.

The choice to make in summary: you choose the portfolio structure, but you let True Wealth handle its execution and monitoring.

If you want to invest more sustainably with True Wealth, you can choose the Sustainable universe instead of the Global universe.

True Wealth then replaces part of the classic indices with indices that apply ESG criteria and exclude certain sectors.

However, you don’t have control over every exclusion. You choose True Wealth’s Sustainable universe, not your own security-by-security ESG policy.

The funds used in the Sustainable universe cost slightly more on average than those in the Global universe.

If your priority is mainly to reduce fees, the Global universe is more interesting. If you want to integrate ESG criteria without building a sustainable portfolio yourself, the Sustainable option better meets that need.

True Wealth charges 0.50% per year up to CHF 500,000, then the rate gradually decreases for larger portfolios.

To this, you must add fund costs. With the Global universe, they are around 0.12% per year. On CHF 100,000 invested, you should expect about CHF 620 per year before stamp duty and potential exchange fees.

True Wealth is not a low-cost solution. The rate remains significantly higher than that of an ETF portfolio you would manage yourself with a broker.

What matters is what you actually do with the service:

• if you use customization, let True Wealth manage operations, and don’t want to handle rebalancing, the fees pay precisely for this delegation;
• if you simply accept the proposed allocation without ever touching it, part of the value of True Wealth becomes harder to justify.

The rate also becomes more favorable as wealth increases, since management fees decrease beyond CHF 500,000.

Finally, you should keep a small margin relative to the displayed rate: Swiss stamp duty and certain currency conversions can add one-off costs.

Key takeaway: True Wealth is mainly expensive if you compare it to self-management. It becomes more consistent if you actually use its customization and want to delegate all portfolio monitoring.

True Wealth does not offer a dedicated advisor to follow your wealth situation.

For practical questions, you can contact the team regarding the account, deposits, withdrawals, or platform operation.

True Wealth also helps you understand what you are doing. Its blog covers ETFs, diversification, risk, rebalancing, and taxation. Tools like ETF-Lookthrough also allow you to see more precisely what the portfolio contains.

ETF-Lookthrough: see what’s really in your ETFs

An ETF can contain hundreds or even thousands of securities. With ETF-Lookthrough, True Wealth allows you to look inside the portfolio and see the companies and bonds actually held through the ETFs.

You can also search for a specific company and see its weight in the overall portfolio. This is useful for spotting exposure you might not have necessarily seen by just looking at the ETF names.

This documentation is useful for investing independently, but it does not replace advice tailored to your personal situation.

True Wealth supports the use of the service and learning well, but not individual wealth decisions.

Orders of magnitude including management fees and product costs. The exact cost depends on the amount invested and the chosen strategy.

True Wealth is neither the cheapest nor the most accessible. Its main advantage is the freedom left to modify the allocation.

For the same amount, finpension Invest costs less. If you plan to accept the proposed portfolio without much modification, this price difference becomes hard to ignore.

With less than CHF 8,500, the question doesn’t even arise: you must choose another solution. And if you are mainly looking for human support, Alpian better meets that need.

True Wealth is especially interesting if you want to modify the portfolio breakdown yourself, then let the platform handle buys, sells, and rebalancing. You keep control over the portfolio structure without having to manage every operation.

This is precisely what distinguishes it from a cheaper but more standardized solution, or a more supported but less flexible service. To see which of these compromises suits you best, consult our comparison of robo-advisors in Switzerland.

True Wealth does not directly hold your securities. They are deposited in an account in your name with Saxo Bank Switzerland or Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank (BLKB).

If True Wealth goes bankrupt, you remain the owner of your ETFs and other investments held in the portfolio.

The same applies if the custodian bank encounters difficulties: the securities remain in your name.

And the money that is not invested?

Part of the portfolio may temporarily remain in cash, for example before a purchase.

For this money:

• at Saxo Bank Switzerland, deposits are protected up to CHF 100,000 by the Swiss deposit guarantee;
• at BLKB, the state guarantee of the Canton of Basel-Country provides additional protection.

The CHF 100,000 guarantee and the state guarantee only concern money that remains in cash in the account. They do not apply to ETFs, which remain in your name in both cases.

Saxo or BLKB: which protects better?

For securities, both work the same way: they remain in your name.

The difference is mainly on cash. BLKB provides additional protection thanks to the cantonal state guarantee.

The choice still deserves careful consideration from the start: to change custodian banks later, you must sell the portfolio and then reinvest it with the other bank.

For the security of investments, the most important point is that True Wealth manages the portfolio without owning your securities.

I find True Wealth convincing for the middle ground it occupies: more control than a fixed-strategy robo-advisor, much less work than a self-managed portfolio with a broker.

This freedom comes at a price. Under CHF 500,000, management and fund costs are around 0.62% per year with the Global universe. The minimum of CHF 8,500 also excludes small portfolios, and True Wealth does not offer personalized wealth advice.

The price gap with a solution like finpension Invest is justified mainly if customization really matters in your choice. If you just want to accept a standard allocation and delegate the rest, a cheaper solution may suffice.

For larger wealth, the degressive pricing gradually reduces this gap. In the end, I would choose True Wealth for its freedom of allocation and its automation, not because it is the cheapest.

Also read

• Beginner’s Guide to Investing in the Swiss Stock Market in 2026
• Selma Investment Review and Test (Robo-Advisor)
• Descartes Invest review and test (robo-advisor)
• Swissquote Invest Easy review and test
• Alpian Investment & Trading review and test

• Do you use True Wealth to delegate your portfolio management?
• Did you modify the proposed allocation or keep the initial strategy?
• Did the CHF 8,500 threshold and the choice between Saxo Bank Switzerland and BLKB matter in your decision?

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