Questions, and the answers we give

A share of what your portfolio gains, and nothing else unless it is stated on the fees page. No gain, no share. If the portfolio fell first, it has to climb back past its previous high before we take a share again, so we are never paid twice for recovering the same ground.

In your own account, at your own broker or platform, in your own name, under your own login. We never hold it and never have the ability to move it. You place every trade yourself.

It is the right question, and it is why the answer is written down rather than promised. Your risk limits are agreed in advance and in writing, and we advise inside them. You also execute every trade, so nothing can happen to your portfolio that you did not personally do.

Our policy on third-party payments is published in full on the fees page as a written policy, not a case-by-case matter. It is the first question worth asking anyone advising you on investments, including us.

No. There is no size below which we will not talk to you, and that is stated on the fees page rather than discovered during a call.

You can take money out whenever you like — it is your account and we never touch it. Taking money out does not lower the mark your fee is measured from, so climbing back to a figure you have already reached costs you nothing. Money you pay in raises the mark by the amount you paid, because your own deposit is not something we made you.

It is the normal case here. English is this firm’s working language, and German terms appear alongside so you can match them to the paperwork your employer, bank and pension fund send you.

No. You hold the account and you execute. We tell you precisely what to do and why; the button is always yours. That is what keeps your money entirely under your own control.

Then you do not act on it, and we would rather hear why. A recommendation you cannot defend yourself is one you will abandon at the worst possible moment.

Our policy on third-party payments is published on the fees page in writing. It applies to every client and every instrument, not case by case.

No. A review is standalone work with its own fee. Plenty of people take the report and act on it themselves, which is a perfectly good outcome.

Statements and a holdings list. Read-only access is enough where your platform offers it. We never need the ability to transact.

Then it says so. That happens, and it is worth knowing rather than assuming.

Stated openly on the fees page. We would rather you knew before a call than during one.

You will get our reasoning and a written schedule, not a prediction. Nobody can tell you where markets go next, and any adviser implying otherwise has told you something about themselves.

You can. Investing puts capital at risk and a portfolio can be worth less than you put in. What we can do is make sure the risk you take is one you chose deliberately and can live with.

It might. A schedule is not a forecast; it is a way of acting on a decision you have already justified without needing to be right about timing. We say this before you start, not afterwards.

We can tell you what the concentration does to your risk, which is a different and far more answerable question. Anyone confidently valuing your employer in a first meeting deserves suspicion.

Substantially, and it is the first thing we establish. Blackout windows and vesting conditions shape the whole schedule.

It depends almost entirely on how many years remain before you need it, and on whether you would sell in a bad year. Both are specific to you, and neither is settled by a general rule.

No. It is attractive at a high marginal rate with a long enough runway, and wrong if you may need the capital, may leave Switzerland, or if the fund itself makes it unattractive.

We advise on investing, including money sitting inside pension structures. Legal and tax opinions come from qualified specialists, and we say clearly where that line falls.

No. We build portfolios that take tax into account and coordinate with a qualified tax adviser, often one you already use. Formal tax opinions come from them.

For a private investor, generally yes. But frequent trading can have you reclassified as a professional trader, at which point they are not. That is exactly why the boundary is worth watching.

The Swiss part applies while you are resident here. A second tax nexus elsewhere changes the picture, and that is cross-border work we flag at the first call.