Advice, management or execution only: what service are you actually buying?
Clarify who makes decisions, what is assessed and how the provider is paid.
Three relationships, different responsibilities
An execution-only account, investment advice and portfolio management are not interchangeable. With execution, you normally decide and submit instructions. Advice involves recommendations within a defined scope. Management delegates decisions under an agreed mandate. The Swiss Financial Services Act distinguishes services and related checks. Read the service agreement before assuming the provider is monitoring your whole financial life or preventing every unsuitable choice you might make.
Ask what the assessment includes
For transaction-related advice, the analysis differs from advice considering the entire portfolio or discretionary management. Ask whether knowledge and experience, financial circumstances and investment objectives are assessed, and why. Provide accurate information about assets outside the account. A narrow service may not incorporate employer shares, property borrowing or an upcoming major expense. This does not make it inherently bad; it makes understanding its boundaries essential.
Authority and reporting belong together
If you delegate management, read permitted asset classes, leverage, concentration limits and restrictions. Establish how performance, costs and material changes will be reported. If you retain decisions, clarify how recommendations reach you and when they expire. A telephone suggestion is different from a documented ongoing plan. Ask who can place trades, change bank details and move money, and how instructions are authenticated.
Hypothetical comparison
Two investors each hold CHF 70,000. One wants to choose every investment and use a low-cost trading account. The other needs portfolio monitoring and delegates decisions. Their service costs should not be compared as if the deliverables were identical. Conversely, the managed investor should not pay for broad planning if the contract covers only a limited product range. The appropriate comparison aligns both responsibilities and risk exposure.
Remuneration and conflicts
Ask about direct fees, commissions, product-provider payments and business relationships. Understand whether the offer is independent in a contractual and economic sense, rather than relying on a marketing adjective. Check the relevant professional status and authorisation for the actual activity. A registration in one financial field does not by itself establish permission to carry out every other financial service, and no registration guarantees investment results.
Before agreeing to the mandate
Keep the agreement, tariff, product documents, complaint process and disclosures. Identify how to terminate the service and transfer assets, including any charges. Discuss what changes in your circumstances must be reported. Clearwise’s planning role should be stated precisely, with securities-specific advice referred to an appropriately qualified specialist when needed. The goal is a transparent relationship in which you know what you receive, who decides and what you pay.
Check the promised follow-up
An annual meeting, an online dashboard and continuous portfolio monitoring are different deliverables. Ask which events the provider will notice independently and which you must report. If you move country, have a child or take on debt, who initiates a new assessment? Record the answer in the mandate. A transparent service makes responsibility for these updates explicit, so the household does not assume an adviser is watching circumstances that the adviser has never been authorised or equipped to monitor.
Sources and further reading
Original Clearwise analysis. External reporting provides context; rules and contract terms must be verified with the competent authority or provider. Some press articles may require a subscription.
- Reference Federal Financial Services Act ↗
- Reference FINMA: Financial Services Act ↗
Apply this to your situation
Compare your actual documents and clarify what matters before making a commitment.
Request a free consultationGeneral guidance, not a binding quote or personalised legal, tax or investment advice. Examples are hypothetical and results are not guaranteed.
