Swiss limited qualified investor fund
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The L-QIF, available since 1 March 2024, is a collective investment scheme for qualified investors that requires no FINMA approval or supervision of the fund itself. The condition is that a FINMA-licensed fund management company administers it (for contractual funds) or a licensed manager of collective assets manages it (for the SICAV and limited partnership forms).1 The speed advantage over an approved fund is considerable. The structure fits a crypto fund whose investors are qualified and whose manager already holds a FinIA licence.
| Phase | Content | Duration | Official fees | Professional costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Structuring: legal form, fund management company or manager, custodian bank, investment policy | 3–6 weeks | None | CHF 20,000–50,000 |
| 2 | Negotiation with fund management company and custodian bank willing to take crypto | 4–12 weeks | None | Set-up fees charged by the fund management company CHF 30,000–80,000 |
| 3 | Fund documents: fund contract or articles, prospectus, investment regulations, risk management | 4–8 weeks | None | CHF 40,000–100,000 |
| 4 | Notification to FINMA of the L-QIF (register entry) | 2–4 weeks | None for the fund | — |
| 5 | Custody arrangements for digital assets with the custodian bank or its sub-custodian | 4–8 weeks | None | Custody fees by assets |
| 6 | Launch, first subscriptions, ongoing administration and audit | Ongoing | Annual FINMA levy via the fund management company | Administration and audit CHF 80,000–200,000 a year |
The bottleneck is step 2. Only a handful of Swiss fund management companies and custodian banks accept digital assets, and their capacity is limited. A manager that has a relationship with one of them can launch in four to six months. A manager starting from nothing should allow nine months and should expect the fund management company to impose its own due diligence on the manager and on the assets. The alternative route, an exchange-traded product on SIX, has different economics and is described in Part E, Chapter VI.
Notes
- CISA Art. 118a–118p, in force since 1 March 2024; Collective Investment Schemes Ordinance (CISO; KKV, SR 951.311), Art. 126a ff.; see Part E, Chapter VI and Part P, Chapter VI. ↩
For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of October 2026.