finpension Sustainable 0

A sustainable bond fund, zero stocks and a flat 0.39% fee. The catch: it's still negative over ten years.

finpension Sustainable 0 ranks #92 among 122 3a investment funds in our comparison. It puts 99% into short- to medium-term Swiss franc bonds through a Swisscanto Responsible index fund, plus 1% cash. It suits savers who want no stocks and a sustainability focus, but a good 3a savings account beats it on the numbers.

Does the Sustainable Version Change the Numbers?

Barely. You pay the same flat 0.39% a year, all-in, as on every finpension strategy, or CHF 195 on CHF 50,000. Net of fees, Sustainable 0 is down 0.92% over one year, up 4.15% over three, down 1.12% over five and down 5.56% over ten. finpension Global 0 shows -0.88%, +4.04%, -1.22% and -5.66%, so the Responsible version is a hair ahead over three years and longer.

The bigger story is the fee itself. Short Swiss franc bonds yield little, and a 0.39% fee takes a large share of that. The best 3a savings account in our ranking pays 1.00% with no price risk, and over ten years even a 0.25% account would have beaten this strategy. Sustainability doesn't fix that math.

What Actually Stands Out

The single fund is the Swisscanto (CH) Index Bond Fund Total Market AAA-BBB 1-5 CHF Responsible (CH1529063518). It's the Responsible version of the bond fund behind Global 0, which tracks the SBI AAA-BBB 1-5Y index. Like all finpension funds, it's an institutional Swisscanto index fund reserved for pension money, with no stamp duty on purchases and sales and Swisscanto by Zürcher Kantonalbank as custodian.

Here's how it relates to its siblings. Global 0 and Switzerland 0 are identical to each other and use the standard version of that fund. Sustainable 0 is the only 0% strategy with a different fund, so it's very close but not identical. If sustainability matters to you, it's the one to pick among the three, at no extra cost.

What Most Reviews Miss

No stocks doesn't mean no risk. Bond prices move with interest rates, and there's no guaranteed interest. When rates rise, the bonds you already hold lose value, which is why the five- and ten-year figures are negative even after a positive three years. You can lose money here, and over ten years you did.

Two more details. The pension-only funds reclaim a large part of the foreign withholding tax on dividends, which helps finpension's equity strategies but barely applies to Swiss franc bonds. And this strategy sits in our 3a fund ranking, not with savings accounts, so it's scored on a scale built for growth. There are no custody, transaction or FX fees behind the 0.39%, at least.

The Bottom Line

finpension Sustainable 0 is a tidy, transparent product that's hard to justify for most savers. If you want zero equity risk, the best 3a savings accounts pay up to 1.00% without price swings. It makes sense as a parking spot for one portfolio inside an existing finpension setup, especially if your other portfolios are Sustainable too. Opening an account? Code RTEQJB adds a CHF 25 fee credit after CHF 1,000 in contributions within 12 months (enter it at sign-up or within 24 hours).

Verdict: The pick of finpension's three 0% strategies if you care about sustainability, but a top 3a savings account still does this job better.