Bank hopping is usually discussed as a banker’s career move. But clients hop too — and far less deliberately. A relationship manager leaves, the service slips, a fee schedule quietly changes, and suddenly you are wondering whether to move CHF 5 million somewhere else. This is the client’s side of the question: when switching your Swiss bank actually pays, when it costs you, and how to do it without losing money in the process.
Why clients move
In our experience the triggers cluster into five groups:
- Your adviser left. The single most common trigger — and the most emotionally driven decision. The relationship you valued was with a person, not an institution.
- Fees crept up or a “simplification” of the pricing model quietly repriced you.
- Service degraded after a merger, a reorganisation or a change in client segmentation.
- Cross-border policy changed and your residence country moved into a category the bank no longer serves.
- Concentration risk — you realised everything sits at one institution.
Only the last three are structural. The first two can often be fixed without moving anything, which is worth knowing before you start.
The case for staying put
Switching has real costs that rarely appear in the pitch from the bank courting you:
- Transfer fees: typically CHF 50–200 per position for securities transfers, sometimes waived by the receiving bank as an incentive. On a 40-line portfolio, that is not trivial.
- Non-transferable positions: structured products issued by the old bank, in-house funds and certain private market holdings often cannot move in kind. Selling them crystallises whatever spread and tax consequence comes with that.
- Onboarding time: a fresh KYC file, with the same source-of-wealth documentation you produced years ago. Expect two to twelve weeks depending on your profile.
- Loss of history: cost basis, performance track record and reporting continuity are frequently mangled in transfer.
- Credit lines tied to your portfolio may not be replicated on the same terms.
There is also a strategic argument for continuity. We made the case on the banker’s side in think twice before private banking hopping, and much of it applies symmetrically to clients: relationships that survive a market cycle tend to produce better advice than relationships that never see one.
The case for moving
Moving is usually right when the problem is structural rather than personal:
- Your all-in cost is materially above market. Independent research on Swiss discretionary mandates finds the most expensive mandates cost up to four times the cheapest. If you are paying above 2% all-in on a straightforward portfolio, you have a case — start with our fee analysis and the fee simulation.
- The product shelf is closed. If in-house funds dominate your portfolio, you are paying twice and the conflict is structural, not accidental.
- Your bank no longer wants your segment. Being at the bottom of a bank’s client pyramid is an expensive place to sit.
- Concentration. Everything at one institution is a single point of failure — reputational, operational and, at the margin, credit.
The option most clients never consider
You do not have to choose between staying and leaving. A third route exists: keep the custody, change the management. Your assets stay at the same bank, in your name; a FINMA-licensed independent wealth manager takes over the portfolio under a limited power of attorney, and the relationship is repapered as an external asset manager account.
What this achieves: no transfer of securities, no crystallised positions, no new custody onboarding of the assets themselves — but a new decision-maker, open architecture, and typically better custody pricing, because banks price EAM relationships institutionally. It is the setup behind a large share of Swiss private wealth, and it is explained in banks vs. EAMs and private banking alternatives in Switzerland.
The variant for larger portfolios is multibanking: two or three custodians, one manager, one consolidated report. It diversifies institutional risk and creates genuine pricing competition between your banks.
If you do move: a practical sequence
- Ask for a retention offer first. Banks reprice for clients who are visibly ready to leave far more readily than for clients who merely complain.
- Get the new relationship approved before you close anything. Onboarding can fail on cross-border policy grounds; do not leave yourself between banks.
- Request a full position list with cost basis from the outgoing bank, in writing.
- Identify non-transferable positions early and decide deliberately whether to sell, hold at the old bank, or wait for maturity.
- Negotiate transfer costs — the incoming bank will often absorb them.
- Move in tranches if the amount is large. It de-risks operational error and lets you test service before committing everything.
- Keep the old account open with a small balance until every corporate action, dividend and tax statement has cleared. Closing too fast creates paperwork you will chase for a year.
The tax and reporting angle
Moving assets between Swiss banks does not create a taxable event by itself, but selling non-transferable positions can. If you are resident outside Switzerland, both banks will report under the automatic exchange of information for the periods they held your assets, which is a common source of duplicated or missing year-end statements. Keep both institutions’ annual tax reports for the switching year — you will need them. Cross-border considerations are covered in typical cross-border rules.
FAQ
How long does a bank transfer of securities take in Switzerland?
Domestic transfers of liquid, exchange-listed positions typically settle within one to three weeks once both accounts are open. Funds, structured products and foreign-market positions take longer; illiquid holdings can take months.
Will I lose my performance history?
Usually yes, at the bank level. This is one of the underrated advantages of the independent manager model: the manager’s reporting spans custodians and survives a change of bank.
Should I follow my adviser to their new employer?
Sometimes — but check what you are actually following. If the adviser was the source of value, the move may be right. If the platform, custody quality or pricing at the new firm is worse, you are paying for loyalty. Judge the new setup on the same criteria you would apply to any provider, including the selection checklist we use.
General information, not investment or tax advice.
