Selma 3a experiences and review 2024

Last update: 25.09.2024 09:24

Already had experience with Selma 3a? Selma is a product from a Swiss robo-advisor. It develops an automated and personalized investment strategy for you and supports you with expert advice on your investment plan. Selma uses a chatbot with artificial intelligence. Find out in the article whether Selma Pillar 3a is right for you.

Selma Finance AG is the company behind Selma 3a. The company was founded in 2017 and is based in the canton of Zurich. The four founders around CEO Patrik Schär are entrepreneurs with experience in the fields of finance, financial consulting, technology and UX design. Selma Finance is supported by partners who provide financial backing for the company’s growth. These include the venture capital arm of the Migros Group, Sparrow Ventures, and the TX Media Group.

In 2024, around 14,000 customers entrusted Selma with money for pillar 3a or private investments. Over 350 Google ratings with an average of 4.6 complete the picture.

The Selma pillar 3a is opened at the partner banks Saxo Bank (Switzerland) or the VZ Vermögenszentrum. Your money is also managed there. The digital financial assistant Selma then optimizes, buys and sells the investments. As soon as money arrives in the account, it is automatically invested.

An outstanding feature of Selma Pillar 3a is the chatbot, which asks you about your personal finances and life situation. Based on your answers, Selma creates a customized investment strategy. You will receive regular reports and updates on this and the performance of your investments. Selma also suggests how you can optimize your pension planning so that you can make informed decisions about your financial future.

Fun fact: the name “Selma” comes from the Celtic language and means “good prospects”. 🔭 So it’s a relatively good fit for your retirement provision.

Selma offers six investment strategies. These strategies allow equity allocations of between 15 and 97 percent. Below you will find these strategies as well as the share ratios and compositions.

These Selma pillar 3a investment strategies were developed by our partner VZ Vermögenszentrum. VZ also selects the best (ETF) products for the implementation of the investment strategy. Selma continuously monitors compliance with the bandwidths and carries out rebalancing in order to react to changes in the financial markets. The ETFs used by Selma are somewhat hidden, but can be found via a link on the website. Products from Swisscanto, UBS, Vanguard, Credit Suisse, iShares, i.e. renowned providers, are used.

The selection also includes products that invest according to ESG criteria. You can easily activate the option for sustainable investing and impact investing in your account. Investing strictly according to ESG criteria is currently only available for the investment account - ESG criteria are taken into account when selecting products for pillar 3a.

Selma Pillar 3a has a simple fee model consisting of a flat-rate management fee and product costs💵:

• Management fees: Selma charges an annual management fee of 0.68 % on the assets under management. This fee covers the costs of managing and optimizing the investment portfolios. The website advertises the 0.42 % fee somewhat sensationally - very few of us are likely to have the necessary small change of CHF 500,000 to invest.
• Product costs: In addition to the management fees, there are product costs for the underlying ETFs and index funds, which are generally between 0.15 % and 0.25 % per year.
  No additional fees: Selma does not charge any hidden costs such as deposit or withdrawal fees or custody fees.

An example: With an invested amount of CHF 10,000, the total annual costs (including product costs) amount to CHF 90 (0.90 %)

You can access the Selma platform via the mobile app. It allows you to easily register and manage your pension assets. Opening an account with Selma Pillar 3a is intuitive and user-friendly. Last but not least, your dialog with the Selma chatbot contributes to this. It is refreshing and guides you to your investment profile and the resulting investment portfolio, which Selma calls a "planet". The process comprises the following five steps:

1. Registration: Visit the Selma website or download the Selma app. Start the registration process by entering your e-mail address and a password.
2. Create a profile: Answer the chatbot Selma a few questions about your financial situation, your investment goals and your risk appetite. This information will help Selma to develop a customized investment strategy for you.
3. Verification: Verify your identity by uploading a valid ID document and proof of address.
4. Deposit: Transfer the desired amount to your new Selma pillar 3a account. Selma offers regular or one-off deposits.
5. Confirm your investment strategy: After verification and deposit, you will be shown your recommended investment strategy. You can check and confirm your strategy before Selma starts investing your money.

The entire process is digital and usually only takes a few minutes. Selma attaches great importance to intuitive and fast account opening to give users a smooth start to their pension investments.

Selma 3a offers several advantages over traditional pension solutions:

• Convenient onboarding: the chatbot works with you to develop a suitable investment strategy that matches your personal financial goals and risk profile.
• Transparent costs: With a clear fee structure (0.68 % management fee plus product costs) and no hidden fees, cost transparency is high.
• Consideration of total assets: Selma charges an all-in-one fee for your total assets in pillar 3a and your private investments. So if you have both accounts with Selma, you save on fees. The fee decreases if you invest more - pillar 3a and private investments are added together.
• At eye level: Selma is refreshingly different. The fresh, simple and direct language without financial jargon and numerous emojis also appeals to people who know little about finance. The transparency in the further development of the product on a public Trello board https://trello.com/b/Q4hb4Ywu/selma-roadmap, to which you can also provide input, also fits in well with this.
• Financial advice and tips: The monthly fee includes not only the management of your investments, but also access to Selma AI via app and questions about your investment plan to Selma's expert crew in chat to find personalized answers to your financial challenges.

In our experience, Selma 3a is an interesting alternative for newcomers to the world of investments who are looking for a modern and efficient solution for their pension investments and at the same time do not want to do without personal expert advice.

Although Selma 3a offers many advantages, our Selma 3a experience also shows some disadvantages:

• Only one 3a account: You can only open and manage one pillar 3a account with Selma. It is not possible to have several pillar 3a accounts with Selma. This restriction is relevant with regard to a staggered, tax-optimized withdrawal.
• Fee level: The fees include financial advice. This is why they are above the market average for (typically smaller) pillar 3a assets at 0.68 % + product costs.
• Minimum investment amount: Pillar 3a requires a minimum investment amount of CHF 500. This is significantly higher than with other digital pillar 3a providers, where you start with just one franc. The minimum investment of CHF 2,000 for private investments in pillar 3b is also higher with Selma than with other providers. Selma is obviously aiming for profitable customers right from the start.

The security of Selma Pillar 3a is guaranteed by several measures:

• Regulation: Selma is a licensed independent asset manager regulated and supervised by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) 🏛️.
• Custodian banks: Your assets are held at Saxo Bank or VZ Depotbank, which are also regulated in Switzerland. The bank accounts and securities are held in your name. Your investments and cash from your investment account are held at Saxo Bank (Switzerland) Ltd and the investments and cash from your Selma pillar 3a account are held at VZ Depotbank AG. If something were to happen to Selma or a partner bank, the securities would be returned to you.
• Encryption: All data transmissions are secured using modern encryption technologies (SSL encryption and HTTPS connections, two-factor authentication) to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of user data.

In this way, Selma ensures that users' funds are well protected and securely managed.

We have summarized the key features of the Selma 3a for you below.

Our Selma 3a experience shows that the product differs from other 3a securities solutions. This is because Selma makes a special effort to introduce newcomers to saving and investing (for example with the learning platform) and to take a holistic approach to asset accumulation. To this end, Selma combines budgeting, pension planning and investing in one platform, which sets it apart from competitors such as finpension, frankly, VIAC or Truewealth. However, the added value also comes at a premium compared to these providers, which may put some people off. But the transparent cost structure, support with financial planning and focus on sustainable investments make Selma a modern and responsible choice for people who are new to retirement planning.

1. / *: Only redeemable for frankly new customers when opening their first account within 48 hours. There is no all-in fee for cash. Code cannot be combined with other voucher codes. Valid until 31.12.2024. Information on the competition at frankly.ch/gws. ↩︎