Switzerland's first online ETF asset manager — since 2009
Sincera manages wealth exclusively through low-cost ETFs and uncorrelated asset classes. No active funds. No hidden commissions. No conflicts of interest.
Discover the investment process →"Minimising fees is the easiest way to enhance your investment return. Every basis point not paid in management fees goes straight into your overall return." — Christian Fillinger, PhD, Founder
Our Approach
Sincera was founded on a single conviction: most investors would do better with less. Less cost, less complexity, less emotion. The academic evidence is unambiguous.
01
CHF 100,000 in ETFs at 6% p.a. becomes CHF 179,000 over 10 years. The same sum in an active fund at 4.5% (after typical 1.5% TER premium) yields CHF 155,000. That's CHF 24,000 in fees you worked for.
02
Our research across 550 investors confirmed it: experts overwhelmingly prefer passive managed funds. Beating the index sustainably is not achievable by most active managers, and even less likely for retail investors.
03
Investment experts hold on average 12–13 products across uncorrelated asset classes. Shares, corporate bonds, commodities, real estate. Multiple currencies. Multiple markets. Risk distributed, not concentrated.
04
Four out of five experts in our research stated that emotions have no place in investing. Warren Buffett's diagnosis: "The enemies of your portfolio are excitement and expense." We remove both.
Reference Portfolios
Each Sincera Reference Portfolio is constructed from benchmark ETFs — physical replication, reputable issuers, lowest available TER. No proprietary products. No retrocessions. Your risk profile determines your allocation; the market does the rest.
Risk Profile 1
Risk Profile 2
Risk Profile 3
Risk Profile 4
Risk Profile 5
All portfolios rebalanced to maintain risk profile. Benchmark indices include EURO STOXX 50, MSCI World, SPI, Bloomberg Global Aggregate. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Sustainable Investing
Combine the cost efficiency and diversification of our reference portfolios with a rigorous, values-driven investment approach — screening by environmental, social, and governance criteria.
ESG is not a trade-off.
Long-term sustainability criteria correlate with superior corporate resilience.
Doctoral Research
Sincera's investment philosophy is not marketing copy. It is grounded in original doctoral research conducted at the University of Gloucestershire — surveying 550 private and professional investors across Switzerland to empirically identify what separates investment experts from the uninformed.
The Study
Exploring the Notions of Investment Expertise and Strategies
PhD Thesis, University of Gloucestershire, 2017.
Christian Fillinger
This study explores the differences in expertise and investment philosophies among private and professional investors. Using Dreyfus' five-stage adult skill acquisition model, it identifies investment experts and distils their behaviour into actionable recommendations for the ordinary investor.
Key Findings
Education predicts better decisions
Financial qualification and experience significantly correlate with informed choices — diversification, rebalancing, passive investing.
One in four private investors qualifies as expert
Professional status alone does not confer expertise. 24% of private investors exhibited expert characteristics. More than half of professional asset managers did not.
Passive investing wins — statistically
Experts preferred passive funds at 2:1 over active management. Asset allocation, investment duration, and TER ranked as the top three determinants of outperformance.
Expert expected return: ~7% p.a.
66% of experts target 4–8% annual return. Not 20%, not 50%. Realistic expectations and long-term thinking — average investment duration: 9.5 years.
16 Expert Recommendations for the General Investor
01
Invest time in learning how to preserve and grow wealth. Financial literacy is available — books, courses, papers. Ignore it and you will outsource your future to someone with different interests.
02
Banks sell products. Investment advisers earn commissions. Ask whether they'd recommend ETFs if the commission were identical. Get a second opinion — Sincera offers one for free.
03
Test any adviser: can they explain asset allocation, rebalancing, the TER of a passive fund, value investing, value averaging? If not, they are not an expert.
04
78% of identified experts confirmed: emotions have no place when investing. Greed in bull markets, paralysis in bear markets — both cost you money.
05
70% of experts invest for the long run. Average duration: 9.5 years. Compounding dividends, reduced volatility impact, and lower effective purchasing prices — all require time.
06
Experts hold 12–13 products on average across uncorrelated asset classes. Shares and an umbrella manufacturer, not shares in an umbrella and a raincoat firm. Low correlation is the goal.
07
Long-term equity average: ~7%. Invest expecting 3–5% p.a. from a balanced portfolio. Chasing 20–50% returns requires extreme risk — and usually ends in loss.
08
Every basis point not paid in fees compounds into your return. CHF 100K at 6% vs 4.5% over 10 years: a CHF 24,000 difference. The maths are inescapable.
09
Know who you are. Investments that keep you awake at night are wrong for your profile, regardless of expected return. Risk tolerance and risk capacity are different things.
10
You are betting against analysts with Bloomberg terminals and direct access to company management. At best, your win-ratio is 50% — minus trading fees. That's a loss.
11
It is nearly impossible to identify a fund manager who outperforms their index consistently. Active funds cost more and almost never deliver on their promises in the long run.
12
Expert favourites: shares, corporate bonds, commodities, real estate, gold. Equities are the main return driver — but 10–50% maximum depending on your risk profile.
13
Switzerland, EU, USA, emerging markets. Mature and developing economies. Different currencies. Currency diversification through whole-market ETFs — not through high-yield bond speculation.
14
When asset class ratios drift from your target, rebalance. You will sell what overperformed and buy what underperformed — acting as a contrarian, against the herd, systematically.
15
Don't jump in and out. Trading costs compound. Inflation erodes uninvested cash by ~45% over 30 years at 2% p.a. The market rewards patience, not activity.
16
Reinvest dividends and coupons. Add surplus income periodically. Buy more when prices fall, less when rising. This is value averaging (Edleson, 1991) — arguably the most underrated concept in investing.
The Sincera Process
Based on the doctoral research and expert consensus, this is the process Sincera applies — and which any investor can follow.
How much can you comfortably invest from disposable income? What is the purpose — retirement, inheritance, freedom? Clarity here drives every subsequent decision.
Unless funds are needed for a near-term purchase, invest for more than 7 years. The longer, the better. Time reduces volatility and increases the power of compounding.
Risk tolerance (what swings can you emotionally withstand?) and risk capacity (what risk is required to achieve your goal?) are both necessary. Our risk profiler quantifies both.
Select asset classes with positive expected return and low mutual correlation — shares, government bonds, real estate, commodities, gold. Diversification is structural protection.
Switzerland, EU, USA, Australia/NZ, South East Asia, select emerging markets. CHF, EUR, GBP, USD, AUD. Currency diversification via whole-market ETFs is superior to currency bets.
Physical replication preferred over synthetic. Reputable issuer. Lowest available TER. Sufficient liquidity and AUM. Sincera screens and monitors these continuously.
Select an online bank with a sound business model, strong credit rating, and low trading costs. The custodian's fees are part of your total cost of investing.
Build your portfolio according to plan. Monitor monthly — or when significant market disruptions occur. The goal is discipline, not constant activity.
When ratios drift, rebalance. Reinvest all dividends and coupons. Add surplus income periodically — applying value averaging to grow portfolio value and level purchasing prices over time.
Research Findings
From 550 survey respondents, 35 were classified as investment experts using the Dreyfus model scoring system. Their profile — derived empirically, not anecdotally.
| Characteristic | Expert Profile (N=35) |
|---|---|
| Age | Average 42.7 years; 78% between 35 and 54 |
| Education | 86% highly educated (university degree, Swiss Federal Diploma, PhD) |
| Experience | Average 16 years investing; 62% more than 15 years |
| Income | Average CHF 202,000; 50% above CHF 200,000 |
| Diversification view | 76% state a well-diversified portfolio is paramount |
| Portfolio size | Average 13 products; 63% hold more than 12 positions |
| Investment duration | Average 9.5 years; 70% invest for more than 7 years |
| Active vs. passive | 57% prefer passive funds; only 32% active managed funds |
| Expected annual return | Average 7.2%; 66% expect 4–8% p.a. |
| Top asset classes | Shares (92%), Corporate bonds (73%), Commodities (61%), High yield bonds (56%), Real estate (56%) |
| Top outperformance factors | Asset class choice (94%), Product choice (91%), Investment duration (91%), TER (88%), Rebalancing (82%) |
| Top investment strategies | Asset allocation (77%), Value investing (71%), Fundamental analysis (71%), Dividend investing (63%) |
| Emotions in investing | 78% state emotions have no place when investing |
| Risk profile | 70% developed a formal risk profile |
Source: Fillinger, C. (2017). Exploring the Notions of Investment Expertise and Strategies. PhD Thesis, University of Gloucestershire.
Founder
Current Role
Group CEO & Founder, Capptoo Group
Co-Founder, Sincera Asset Management
Education
PhD — University of Gloucestershire
MBA — BGSB / QUT Brisbane
CAS Banking — Kalaidos University
Based in
Zürich, Switzerland
Sincera was not founded as a product. It was founded as a conviction — that most Swiss investors were paying too much, diversifying too little, and trusting the wrong people with their money.
Christian Fillinger spent 25 years across business consulting, finance, digital marketing, and entrepreneurship before founding Capptoo in 2017 and co-founding Sincera Asset Management in 2009 — Switzerland's first online asset manager focused exclusively on ETFs.
His doctoral research at the University of Gloucestershire — surveying 550 private and professional investors — gave empirical weight to what practitioners had long suspected: cost kills returns, passive beats active, and most retail investors are flying blind. That research is the intellectual backbone of Sincera's investment approach.
Prior career: Leading positions at Day Interactive, Oracle, gateB, IBM, prevero/Unit4. Co-founder of Oncology Compass (2021). Outside work: skydiving, scuba diving, yoga.
25+
Years in business & finance
550
Investors in doctoral study
2009
Sincera founded
Part of
Capptoo Group
Sincera Asset Management is part of the Capptoo Group — a Swiss technology and advisory collective. Group companies: Capptoo AG · Screver AG · Kiwano AG · Greetsy AG · Oncology Compass · CX Advisory · Fillinger.X · Sincera Asset Management.
FAQ
Define your financial goals, invest for more than seven years, and develop a formal risk profile. Then build a broadly diversified portfolio of low-cost ETFs across uncorrelated asset classes, hold it at a low-cost custodian bank, rebalance when allocations drift, and keep investing through value averaging. This is the empirically derived process Sincera applies.
Investment experts hold on average 12–13 products across uncorrelated asset classes: global equities, government and corporate bonds, real estate, commodities and gold — spread across multiple currencies and markets. The equity share depends on your risk profile: from 10% (capital preservation) to 90% (equity focus) in Sincera's five reference portfolios.
For most investors, yes. Doctoral research surveying 550 Swiss investors found that experts prefer passive funds two-to-one over active management, because consistently beating the index is rare and fees compound against you: CHF 100,000 at 6% p.a. grows to CHF 179,000 over ten years, but only to about CHF 155,000 after a typical 1.5% active-fund fee premium.
Investment experts expect about 7% per year from equities over the long term, and 66% of them target 4–8% overall. A balanced ETF portfolio should realistically be planned at 3–5% per year with an investment horizon above seven years. Promises of 20% or more require extreme risk and usually end in losses.
Sincera Asset Management, founded in 2009, is Switzerland's first online asset manager investing exclusively through low-cost ETFs. It is part of the Swiss Capptoo Group and was co-founded by Christian Fillinger, PhD, whose doctoral research on investment expertise underpins its evidence-based approach. Sincera uses no proprietary products and accepts no retrocessions.
Your risk profile combines risk tolerance (the fluctuations you can emotionally withstand) and risk capacity (the risk your goals require). Sincera's free online Risk Profiler quantifies both and maps you to one of five reference portfolios, from capital preservation to equity focus. Every potential client also receives a free, no-obligation portfolio analysis.
Answers reflect Sincera's investment philosophy and general research findings — they are not personalised investment advice.
Start Here
Sincera offers every potential client a free, no-obligation portfolio analysis. Submit your current portfolio structure and we will identify diversification gaps, hidden costs, and how we can improve your net return.
Request free portfolio analysis →Contact
Phone
+41 (0)44 515 45 45
Based in
Switzerland
Founded
2009 — Switzerland's first online ETF asset manager