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About Investing Hero

This page is also available in: Deutsch

I am Mr. IH. I write about money and investing in Switzerland, in English, for people who are starting from zero. Every platform on this site is one I have opened an account with and funded myself.

35,000+
readers helped so far
10+ yrs
living and investing in Switzerland
Own money
every review from a funded account
EN + DE
written in English, translated to German

Who is behind this site

I write under a pen name. I am a British expat, I have lived in Switzerland for over ten years, and I work in digital marketing by day. The site is operated through a Swiss GmbH, and the company details are in the disclaimer.

The pen name is not there to hide anything. It is there because I write publicly about my own finances, including the mistakes, and I would rather that not follow me around at work. What matters for you is not my name, it is whether the numbers on this site are right and whether I tell you when I am being paid. Both of those are things you can check.

Why this site exists

I arrived in Switzerland and could not find a straight answer to any money question in English. So I did what most people do, and handed the problem to an advisor.

My introduction to the Swiss pension system was an advisor who quietly wrapped a death and disability policy into my pillar 3a. It cost 20% of every contribution, on a contract with 35 years to run.

CHF 850+
taken every year
CHF 30,000
in fees over the term
CHF 117,000
the true cost, counting what that money would have earned at 7%

I found it. I cancelled it. Then I started writing this site so it does not happen to you.

That is still the job. Not stock tips, not getting rich, just the boring decisions that quietly cost or save people tens of thousands of francs over a working life.

How I test things

This is the part that separates this site from a comparison table someone assembled from press releases.

I open a real account and fund it

Every platform I review is one I have signed up to with my own money and used. The screenshots in the reviews come from those accounts, not from a media kit.

Fees come from the provider, dated

Every figure is taken from the provider’s own pricing page or fee schedule, never from another comparison site, and the page says when it was checked. For funds I use the key information document, because it is legally required to total the costs.

If a provider does not publish something, I say so

Several Swiss banks do not disclose enough for anyone to calculate what their pillar 3a actually costs. On my pages those entries say “not published” rather than carrying an estimate that looks authoritative.

I re-check, and only then change the date

Figures are reviewed twice a year and after any provider announcement. A date on this site only moves when the numbers underneath it have actually been verified again.

My rules

These are the operating principles. If I ever break one of them, you are entitled to hold it against everything else here.

  1. Readers before commissions. If the best answer earns me nothing, it still goes first.
  2. I tell you when you do not need the product. Most people do not need an advisor, a structured product, or a fifth account.
  3. Every affiliate relationship is disclosed on the page itself, not buried in the footer, and a link that earns nothing is never dressed up as one that does.
  4. No CFDs. I do not recommend or monetise them. Where I cover them, it is to explain why they are the wrong tool for almost everyone.
  5. No commission-paying products sold as advice. Insurance-linked pensions are the clearest example, and they are why this site exists.
  6. Figures are sourced and dated, and corrected in public when I get them wrong.
  7. No manufactured urgency. No countdowns, no fake scarcity, no “limited spots”.

How this site makes money

Openly, and worth understanding, because it is the thing most likely to bias a site like this one.

1

You read a review here and click through to the provider using a tracked link.

2

You open an account, decide for yourself whether you like it, and fund it if you do.

3

The provider confirms the account and pays me a commission. I never see your data, and it costs you nothing. In several cases you get a better deal than going direct, because the reader offer comes with it.

Not every provider pays me, and I link to plenty that do not. Where there is no arrangement, the page says so rather than implying otherwise. The commission never decides the ranking, which is why the cheapest option on my pillar 3a comparison is currently one of the ones that pays me least.

I am not a financial advisor

I hold no financial qualification and I am not licensed to give advice. Everything here is education and my own experience, written for a general audience. It is not personal financial advice and it cannot account for your situation.

Your circumstances, your canton and your tax position all change the right answer. For anything complex, and particularly for tax, pensions and inheritance, pay a qualified professional. It is usually cheap relative to the mistake.

Looking for a personal finance course?

There is a lot on this site for free, and for most people that is enough. But if you want it in order, with the workings shown and the decisions made step by step rather than article by article, I am building a course.

It is everything I wish someone had handed me when I arrived in Switzerland. Coming in 2027, and you can put your name down here to hear first and get a discount on the launch price.

Where to start

If you are new here, these are the pages worth your time first:

Start here if you want the whole picture in order.

Pillar 3a compared if you want the single highest-value decision available to most people in Switzerland.

Online brokers compared if you are ready to invest outside your pension.

Swiss taxes explained if the tax return is the thing keeping you up.

Stay ahead with Swiss financial insights

Swiss finance tips, fee changes and the latest provider comparisons, straight to your inbox. About one email a month, and you can leave with one click.

Got a question?

I read everything, and reader questions decide a lot of what gets written next. You can reach me through the contact page. I cannot answer questions about your personal situation, for the reasons above, but if something on the site is unclear or wrong I want to know.

Last reviewed: August 2026. This page is updated when how I work changes, not on a schedule.

Corrections. If you find an error, tell me and I will fix it and say what changed. In August 2026 I corrected a tax figure on eight pages after a reader-supplied official calculation showed a third-party source had it roughly double the true amount. That is the standard I want to be held to.