Descartes Minimum Risk 60

A 60/40 where the equity half is built on a factor model and the defensive half is cash.

Descartes Minimum Risk 60 ranks #57 among 82 3a investment funds in Switzerland. It's an actively-managed 60% equity strategy on OLZ Optimized ESG factor funds with a 40% Swisscanto money market sleeve, held in a personal securities account at Lienhardt & Partner Privatbank Zürich. The balanced version of OLZ's minimum-variance methodology in a 3a wrapper.

The Real Cost of Factor-Tilted 60/40

All-in cost is 0.70% (0.50% weighted TER plus 0.20% flat fee). On CHF 50,000 that's CHF 350 per year. Cheaper pure-digital 60% equity 3a strategies sit around 0.40-0.45% all-in, so you're paying about CHF 125-150 more annually for the OLZ factor methodology plus Lienhardt custody.

At the 60/40 tier the methodology matters: minimum-variance construction tends to outperform cap-weighted in down years and underperform in mega-cap melt-ups. If your priority is steadier ride through the next correction rather than maximum participation in the next rally, the methodology premium can be worth it.

What Actually Stands Out

The equity sleeve uses OLZ Optimized ESG factor funds (World ex CH, Switzerland, Emerging Market) totalling 60%, paired with 40% in Swisscanto Money Market Fund CHF FT. OLZ's factor selection systematically tilts toward lower-volatility and lower-correlation names rather than weighting by market cap.

Custody at Lienhardt & Partner Privatbank Zürich runs in your own personal securities account with weekly trading. The on-demand human advisor access through the Descartes platform is useful at this allocation: 60/40 is the classic tier for investors thinking about staggered withdrawal planning, and that's exactly the kind of conversation worth having with a person rather than a chatbot.

What Most Reviews Miss

The 40% defensive bucket is money market, not bonds. That's a Descartes-wide design choice. You lose the duration play a true bond sleeve would give in a falling-rate cycle, but you also avoid the rate-rise hit a long-duration bond fund would suffer. At 60/40 this matters more than at 80/20 because the defensive sleeve is doing more work.

The 5-year return of +5.60% lags Descartes Index 60 (+15.50%) substantially. Two effects compound here: the minimum-variance equity underweighting mega-cap winners, plus the money market sleeve missing any bond rally. The 10-year +20.00% is also well below the cap-weighted Index 60 path. The factor thesis is a multi-cycle bet, not a year-to-year one.

The Bottom Line

Descartes Minimum Risk 60 works if you want a factor-based 60/40 with active equity selection and a personal-depot structure. The recent performance gap versus cap-weighted alternatives is real. Compare against the cap-weighted leaders in our guide to the best 3a investment funds in Switzerland.

Verdict: A coherent balanced 3a for OLZ-methodology believers willing to give up some mega-cap upside for a smoother expected ride.