I wonder why nobody is mentioning the traditional index funds, which you can buy directly and not on the stock exchange. There seem to be some available in Switzerland. I recently read a brochure from vermoegenszentrum.ch called “Eine Untersuchung der Unterschiede und Gemeinsamkeiten von ETF und Indexfonds”. There are fewer of them than ETFs and their TERs are slightly larger than by ETFs, but they have an advantage in terms of stamp duty in comparison to ETFs. Did anybody look into that in more detail?
partially i did, in terms of my pillar 3a that i have (recently without adding more funds) with VZ:
i doubt that unless i see a credible document that says so.
i could not find any advantages of index funds over ETFs, apart from some indexfonds that exist without an ETF counterpart, for example there is one on the SPI extra but no ETF.
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That’s true no stamp duty is applied to swiss index funds. However, swiss index fund has a higher TER and less favorable tax treaty than ETF based in the US or IE.
If you open an account with a non-Swiss broker like IB, no swiss stamp duty is applied on ETFs traded on the SIX. Moreover, ETFs can be bought by any broker, funds have more limitation (for example: having an account in the bank offering the fund).
Credit Suisse has opened some of their index funds formerly designed for pension funds to the public:
https://amfunds.credit-suisse.com/ch/de/retail/fund/search
a comparison of pros and cons of index funds vs. ETF here:
I do have shares of the CSIF total market Switzerland. The difference to CHSPI is tiny. However, if you want to invest into SMIM index, there are about two index funds but no ETF.
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No, two ETFs tracking the SMIM exist iShares SMIM (CH) and UBS ETF (CH) SMIM (CHF) A-dis
You’re right. I had a mixup. I mea the SPI Extra. If you like small caps.
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There were a few posts in other threads referring to CSS1 (CS med&small cap index fund) available at IB. It turns out one cannot buy it there. I got the following reply from the customer support:
Unfortunately, open-end funds on European exchanges are not available for trading with us.
The securities are only listed for position transfers.
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It is available on SwissQuote, but it’s not the 9.- flat fee (e.g., it costs CHF 30 for a 2–10k order).
CSS1 is available at Swissquote with the CHF 9 flat fee (and unlike ETFs there are no stock exchange fees or stamp duty tax).
However, you have to search for Equ-SwitzSmalAB. If you search for CSS1 you only find it at SIX where the fees are higher. Alternatively, you can also search by ISIN (CH0222624659) and then choose the category Fonds.
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I was able to buy them at IB a couple of years ago but since last year CSS1 is market NT (not tradable).
I can only sell.