Check us before you call us.
Everything on this page can be verified from outside this website, which is the point of it. A small firm's claims are worth exactly what the public record behind them is worth, and the record is one search away.
The five registers that will tell youWhere the public record lives
Five public registersEverything above is a claim we make about ourselves, and a claim is worth what it can be checked against. These five registers are run by public bodies rather than by us. They are free, they open in a new tab, and they will tell you about MB Financial Advisory GmbH whatever we would prefer them to say.
- 01Zefix
The federal commercial register. Search the company name or the UID and it returns the legal entity, its seat, its stated purpose and who may sign for it.
Tells youThat the company exists, where it is seated, and who runs it
- 02GLEIF
The global register of Legal Entity Identifiers. Paste our LEI and it returns the legal name, the registered address, the entity status and the UID, from a source that has no relationship with us. It says nothing about whether we are authorised — anyone may obtain an LEI — but it settles who we are.
Tells youThat the legal entity exists and is the one named here
- 03FINMA register
The supervisor’s own list of authorised institutions and registered client advisers. If a firm tells you it is regulated and it is not in here under some heading, that is the answer.
Tells youOur regulatory status, and that we hold what we say we hold
- 04Client adviser register
Under FinSA, client advisers of unsupervised firms must be entered in a register run by a FINMA-approved registration body before they may act.
Tells youThat the person advising you is entitled to
- 05Ombudsman
Affiliation with a recognised ombudsman service is mandatory for financial service providers, and it is free for you to use. The service will confirm whether a firm is affiliated.
Tells youThat you have a free, independent route if we get it wrong
- Swiss business identification number
- CHE-255.744.022
- Legal Entity Identifier
- 5493000KLHRFKYWMVN13
Either one identifies the company. Neither is a licence, an authorisation or a supervisory approval — any company may hold both — so what they settle is who we are, not what we are permitted to do. That second question is answered above, and until it is settled here it is not answered at all.
How you are classified
Financial Services ActSwiss law sorts clients into categories, and the category decides how much protection you receive. Almost everyone reading this page is a retail client (Privatkunde), which is the most protective category and the default.
The categories matter because the duties owed to you scale with them: the information we must give, the suitability checks we must run before recommending anything, and the records we must keep. Moving out of the retail category reduces those duties. It is possible, it requires conditions to be met, and it is not something we would propose in order to make our own work lighter.
Your classification is confirmed in writing before any advice is given, together with what it means in practice. The full detail sits under Important information.
What regulation does not mean
A registration or a licence is a floor, not a guarantee. It confirms that a firm meets organisational and conduct requirements and is checked against them. It does not make an investment safe, and it does not mean anyone has approved a strategy for you.
The value of investments can fall as well as rise, and past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. Any firm presenting its regulatory standing as protection against loss has told you something about itself.
What it does give you is a verifiable record, a defined complaints route, and a body other than us that we answer to.
The conflict we have, stated plainly
We are paid a share of what your portfolio gains. That aligns us with you in the obvious way, and it creates one obvious risk in the other direction: an adviser paid on upside has a reason to prefer more risk than you would choose for yourself.
Three things hold that in place, and all three are structural rather than promised. Your risk limits are agreed in writing before any advice is given, and we advise inside them. You place every trade yourself, so no recommendation reaches your portfolio unless you put it there. And a high-water mark applies: a fall has to be recovered in full before we are paid anything again, so a loss cannot become a fee-earning opportunity.
Every term of the fee, with worked examples, is on the fees page.
The full treatment is in our conflicts of interest policy, and the numbers are on the fees page.
If something goes wrong
Raise it with us first. We commit to an acknowledgement and a resolution timeframe. If that does not settle it, the ombudsman is independent of this firm and the procedure is set out in full.