# TrueWealth vs PostFinance self-directed ETF cost model

Use this reference when comparing keeping assets at TrueWealth vs moving most assets to PostFinance and letting FinanceManager/JARVIS provide portfolio-advisor recommendations.

## Durable lesson

Do **not** compare TrueWealth's 0.25–0.50% management fee against PostFinance custody/trading costs as if the trading pattern stays free. The economic result depends mainly on turnover and order bundling.

- If the user replicates TrueWealth's many small automatic rebalancing trades one-for-one at PostFinance, PostFinance courtage + Swiss stamp duty can exceed the saved TrueWealth management fee.
- If FinanceManager enforces low-turnover, threshold-based, bundled rebalancing, moving assets can be economically attractive.

## Workflow

1. Obtain the current TrueWealth transaction CSV from Google Drive or user upload.
2. Parse `date,type,currency,price,shares,amount,taxes,fees,isin,value,value currency,security name`.
3. Count only `Buy`/`Sell` rows for self-directed trading-cost simulation; dividends and FX rows are useful context but not ETF order count.
4. Compute historical orders/year over at least one full recent period, preferably 3–5 years.
5. Apply PostFinance online trading courtage tiers by order size and venue/currency.
6. Add Swiss stamp duty approximation:
   - Swiss/CH instruments: 0.075%
   - foreign instruments: 0.15%
7. Compare against saved TrueWealth management fee on the amount moved away from TrueWealth.
8. Include non-trading costs/benefits: Swiss e-tax statement, admin burden, behavioural/execution risk, one-time migration/liquidation/reinvestment friction, FX/spread, and portfolio-quality differences.
9. Recommend a strategy only after stating the break-even order count and the required trading discipline.

## Session-specific benchmark from 2026-06-30 CSV

For the user's TrueWealth CSV `TrueWealth-2026-06-30.csv`, the historical pattern was approximately:

- Period: 2017-11-10 to 2026-06-26.
- Rows: 874.
- Buy/Sell rows: 505 total; `Buy` 332, `Sell` 173.
- Full recent years 2021–2025: about 51.6 Buy/Sell orders per year.
- Recent years 2023–2025: about 57.0 Buy/Sell orders per year.
- Many orders were small; median order size over 2021–2025 was roughly CHF 700.

Applying current PostFinance online courtage tiers plus stamp duty approximately yielded:

- 2021–2025 historical 1:1 replication: about CHF 1'118/year variable trading cost.
- 2023–2025 historical 1:1 replication: about CHF 1'171/year variable trading cost.
- On moving about CHF 141'500 away from TrueWealth at 0.50% p.a., gross management-fee saving is about CHF 707.50/year.
- Therefore, one-for-one replication of TrueWealth trading frequency was negative by roughly CHF 400/year before extra admin/friction.

Illustrative low-turnover scenario for foreign ETF orders around CHF 2'000:

- Courtage roughly CHF/USD/EUR 30 plus about 0.15% stamp duty, so about CHF 33/order.
- 4 orders/year: roughly CHF 132 cost, attractive vs CHF 707.50 gross saving.
- 8 orders/year: roughly CHF 264 cost, still attractive.
- 12 orders/year: roughly CHF 396 cost, still positive but reduced.
- 24 orders/year: roughly CHF 792 cost, often worse than keeping TrueWealth.

## Recommended decision framing

Prefer a hybrid transition rather than a blind full migration:

- Keep TrueWealth at or near minimum allocation as a benchmark/strategy reference if the user wants to reduce fees.
- Move the bulk only if FinanceManager implements and enforces low-turnover rules: threshold bands, quarterly/monthly max review, new contributions first, and sales only when drift materially exceeds bands.
- Hard design target: keep ETF orders below roughly 8–12/year unless a strategy change justifies more.
- Always show a pre-trade cost estimate and `trade / do-not-trade` threshold before recommending PostFinance orders.

## PostFinance fee facts captured from current public page

At the time of this session, relevant online courtage examples were:

Swiss exchange/SIX:

- CHF 0–500: CHF 6
- CHF 501–1'000: CHF 12
- CHF 1'001–5'000: CHF 20
- CHF 5'001–10'000: CHF 30

Foreign exchanges such as NYSE/NASDAQ/Xetra:

- 0–500: approx. 15 in venue currency
- 501–1'000: approx. 20
- 1'001–5'000: approx. 30
- 5'001–10'000: approx. 35

Other relevant fees:

- Swiss stamp duty: 0.075% for Swiss securities, 0.15% for foreign securities.
- Tax statement was listed around CHF 97.30 per statement.

Treat public tariff pages as current-fact sources: re-check before giving a final recommendation.