2025 wasn’t an easy year. The war in Ukraine continued to rage and human suffering in Gaza persisted owing to the lack of a viable solution. On top of this, world politics faced profound political changes. The previous international order, with its institutions and reliability, has lost significant influence. Events are increasingly being shaped by a multipolar world, with the law of the strongest prevailing.
And political priorities are steadily turning inwards. The recent US strategy paper makes this crystal clear. “America First” means precisely that. Reliability is becoming scarce, international cooperation is dwindling and everyone’s looking to themselves first.
This makes Advent all the more welcome. Now, at the end of a turbulent year, it gives us a chance to take a break. It’s an opportunity to step away from the daily hustle and bustle, pause for a moment, regain our breath and spend time with the family. To reflect on what really counts. Not on what divides us, but on what we all share. With a focus not just on ourselves, but on others, on the community.
This reflection also gives us the perspective we need to assess the past year. From this standpoint, the situation looks encouraging. Despite all its troubles, 2025 was a successful year for investment. Our customer portfolios with a balanced risk profile and Swiss focus performed particularly well. With increases in value of around 10 percent, we achieved very good results and significantly outperformed most of our competitors.
We did this without taking excessive risks. For most of the time, we even held a lower US equity allocation than usual because we saw a greater risk of setbacks there, and continue to do so. Alongside this, the US dollar fell by over 10 percent against the Swiss franc, which put the strong US equity returns in local currency into sharp perspective for Swiss investors. Instead, we opted for a higher gold allocation and greater investment in emerging markets. Gold’s strong performance made a significant contribution to the results. Apart from these targeted adjustments, we kept with our long-term strategy and, despite the dynamic environment, didn’t make any hasty decisions.
We’ll remain equally level-headed in 2026, given that conditions for investment remain challenging. Geopolitical shifts can’t simply be reversed, equity market valuations are high by historical standards and the global economy is at risk of weakening even more. But as this year has shown, a clear, long-term strategy continues to prove its worth in times like these. And where there are risks, there are also opportunities.
With this in mind, we wish you a peaceful Advent and a confident look ahead to the New Year.
