ING FAQ
Hier finden Sie Antworten auf die häufigsten Fragen zu Scalable Capital
Account opening
Our service is aimed at persons residing in Germany. In addition, the following requirements must be met:
- You are over 18 years of age.
- You are not subject to US taxation (not a “US person” under US tax law).
- You have a current account that is kept at a credit institution based in the SEPA area.
- You will invest the minimum investment amount.
Please also note that the custodian bank only pays taxes for customers who are taxable in Germany. If you are subject to tax abroad, you must carry out the correct taxation of all securities transactions yourself.
Der Mindestanlagebetrag beträgt pro Portfolio 5.000 Euro.
Sollte Ihr Anlagevolumen einmal unter die Grenze von 5.000 Euro fallen sollte, müssen Sie kein Geld „nachschießen“. Teilauszahlungen, die den Anlagebetrag unter 5.000 Euro verringern würden, sind jedoch nicht möglich. In solch einem Fall müssten Sie Ihren Vertrag kündigen und sich Ihren gesamten Anlagebetrag auszahlen lassen.
As a regulated financial services institution, we are legally obliged to form a picture of your financial situation and other relevant circumstances. Only then are we allowed to recommend an investment strategy that is suitable for you.
At the beginning of the registration process, we will guide you through a questionnaire. Based on the information you provide, we assess which investment strategy best meets your investment objectives. Of course, we also check whether the risks associated with a particular investment strategy are financially viable for you and whether you understand these risks based on your knowledge and experience.
From this information, we determine your risk profile, recommend an investment strategy that is suitable, and implement it for you.
In the case of a securities account transfer to Scalable Wealth, all transferred securities are sold during the process and the resulting liquid funds are added to the existing portfolio in accordance with your chosen investment strategy.
This is due to the fact that a transfer of securities does not allow for the transfer of the securities history. As a result, our algorithm would not be able to work appropriately with the securities in accordance with your chosen investment strategy.
If you are interested in a transfer or have further questions, please feel free to contact our team at service@scalable.capital.
You can hold multiple portfolios with different investment strategies at Scalable Capital. You can add additional portfolios in the customer area under "Home". Please note that a new clearing account and securities account must be opened for each new portfolio and the minimum investment must be deposited.
Yes, if you already have a joint account with ING, you can use this as a reference account for a joint Scalable custody account. Please use our registration via ING for this.
Deposits and withdrawals
The reference account that you register with us must be a current account (payment transaction account) in your name at a credit institution located in the SEPA area.
The use of a overnight deposit account is not permitted. If your reference account is a joint account, you must ensure that you are registered as the beneficial owner.
Deposit
Via the item "Payments" you can instruct a one-time payment in the Scalable client area at any time, which will be debited from your reference account (current account) via SEPA direct debit.
Alternatively, you can also transfer the desired deposit to the clearing account belonging to the respective portfolio. You can find the IBAN in your web client area under "Profile" and "Products" or in the mailbox document "SEPA mandates" in the top right-hand corner.
Transfers to your clearing account have to be made from your deposited reference account. Payments from other accounts are not permitted and will be rejected by the custodian bank. The amount will be automatically transferred back to you.
Regardless of when a deposit to your clearing account is received by the custodian bank, the amount will be invested immediately, at the latest with the next adjustment of the portfolio in accordance with your investment strategy.
Withdrawal
Withdrawals can be instructed via the Scalable client area on our website or via our app.
To do so, click on the "Payments" item and select "Payout." Enter the desired withdrawal amount and click on "Don't park, withdraw anyway". Check the details and confirm the payout.
Then create appropriate liquidity by selling securities in your portfolio. We will carry this out for you as quickly as possible, usually no later than the next banking day. After the proceeds of the sale have been received, we will transfer the payment to your checking account. The value date on your checking account will generally take five to seven banking days.
Your deposited balance will be invested after it is credited to the clearing account, but no later than the next rebalancing of your portfolio.
You can create a savings plan from a monthly savings amount of 20 euros. You can set the savings plan either during the account opening or subsequently in your personal client area.
The direct debits for monthly savings plans are instructed by us on the first banking day of each month. Your reference account will be debited on the second or third banking day of the month and the amount will be credited to your portfolio at Scalable Capital on the following banking day.
Note: If you open the account with a monthly savings plan only, then the direct debit for the first savings installment will be instructed immediately after the account opening.
You can easily set up a monthly withdrawal plan in your Scalable account. To do so, open the "Savings Plan" section, select "Withdrawal Plan" there and then set the desired amount.
The withdrawal will be initiated on the first banking day of each month. The securities sales required for the withdrawal will be ordered automatically.
A withdrawal that would reduce the investment amount of your portfolio below the minimum investment amount is not possible. Instead, your monthly withdrawal plan will be deactivated.
You can view every single transaction and every securities event (such as distributions) both in the login area on our website and on your smartphone using our app. In addition, the custodian bank will provide you with a monthly account statement where you can view a summary of all transactions and key figures that have taken place.
Data protection is very important to us. We use modern IT infrastructure to ensure the security of your data. Your personal data (e.g. address, account data, financial circumstances) is transmitted in the course of registration as well as contract conclusion, and your data is always encrypted and stored in a data center in Germany.
Please refer to our privacy policy in this context.
To change your personal data, such as your address, reference account or phone number, please log in to your personal client area via our website or app.
You can change your data under "Profile". Please note that you will need access to your linked device to make the change.
If you are experiencing problems with 2FA but can still access your account, you can request a phone number change here. Please note that for security reasons only phone numbers from Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, France and the Netherlands can be stored in your Scalable account.
If you no longer have access to your account, if you want to change your master data (e.g. name) or if your securities account is held at ING, please contact our service team by email at service@scalable.capital, stating the exact change.
Investment Strategy
Scalable Capital is not an active asset manager in the conventional sense. We offer passive investment with active risk management. Within the various asset classes (e.g. equities or bonds), we invest exclusively in passive ETFs and, where applicable, ETCs that track a specific market at the lowest possible cost. The weighting of the various asset classes is carried out dynamically on the basis of our investment and risk management technology on the one hand - and strategically on the basis of the management of the equity quota in our sustainable strategies on the other - and is thus active in the strictest sense.
We thus only make adjustments to your portfolio if your portfolio weights deviate from the target weights (sustainable strategies). In this way, your investment risk is always controlled.
Unlike an active asset manager, we do not make portfolio reallocations based on opinions about the price performance of specific asset classes. An active asset manager selects individual stocks based on expected value growth (so-called stock picking). However, countless empirical studies show that this is not effective.
We use leading technology and the latest findings from capital market research and financial econometrics to manage portfolios. Unlike an active asset manager, we do not make portfolio reallocations based on subjective opinions about price developments of specific asset classes. Portfolio adjustments are essentially the result of deviations in the loss risks or target weights of the current portfolios from our clients' chosen risk category.
However, the actual trading, i.e., the execution of securities orders, takes place by a real investment team, which reviews and bundles the securities orders and finally passes them on to our trading bank.
In this way, we ensure that there is still a human control instance, which, however, does not actively intervene in portfolio management, but rather further develops, monitors and checks the system.
Even though we at Scalable Wealth attach great importance to selecting products according to sustainable criteria (Learn more on this in the Sustainability-related disclosures), the products available on the market currently generally do not yet fulfill the specified sustainability criteria according to EU regulation 2021/1253. This is due in particular to the fact that the fulfillment of sustainability preferences is usually unclear due to a lack of data. Scalable Capital will monitor the ongoing development of the availability and resilience of the data basis and, in the event of a corresponding positive finding, will reclassify the ESG (Environmental, Social und Governance) investment strategies within the framework of ESG preferences.
The investment strategy can be changed after registration.
We have determined suitable investment strategies for you based on your investment objectives, knowledge and experience and financial circumstances. If there have been any changes, you can carry out the suitability check again and adjust your investment strategy.
To do so, log in to your client area and open the "Profile" section. Under the item "Products", then select "Change investment strategy", where you can carry out the suitability check again and adjust your investment strategy.
We would like to point out that in your interest, a change of investment strategy should really only be made if your circumstances have changed. For long-term wealth accumulation, it is important that you pursue your investment strategy consistently and do not allow yourself to be tempted into short-term action by daily events on the capital market.
Your portfolio is constantly monitored and if the weighting of the asset classes and ETFs no longer matches the target weighting of your chosen investment strategy, your portfolio is automatically adjusted. For example, if you choose an investment strategy with a 60 % equity allocation, 60 % of your investment amount will be invested in equities. If share prices rise sharply due to market movements, shares are sold and bonds are bought so that the target weighting of shares of 60 % is restored.
Depending on the investment strategy, risk is managed differently and accordingly your portfolio is adjusted differently depending on the investment strategy.
Distributions ( for example, from dividends or interest) from the ETFs we use are credited to your clearing account and automatically reinvested in accordance to your investment strategy.
Investment universe & ETF selection
Depending on the investment strategy, we invest for you with different focus in asset classes or thematic areas. The investment universe includes all major asset classes: Equities, government bonds, secured bonds (Pfandbriefe and covered bonds), corporate bonds, real estate, commodities and money market.
To realise your investment strategy, we invest exclusively in ETFs (exchange-traded funds or exchange-traded index funds), ETCs (exchange-traded commodities) or other ETPs (exchange-traded products), each of which also fits your preferences, investment objectives and other characteristics when considered individually. Eight asset classes with up to 8,700 individual securities from up to 80 countries are covered.
The ETFs are selected in an extensive, multi-stage process. The most important quantitative and qualitative selection criteria here are:
- Low costs
- High liquidity
- Low tracking error
- Appropriate diversification
- Safe replication methods.
Investing in the capital market comes with risks. We therefore advise you to keep an immediately available emergency reserve for unforeseen events which should cover all of your current expenses and obligations for at least six months.
There is no minimum holding period or minimum term. Our service can be cancelled at any time. We invest exclusively in ETFs with exchange day tradability to provide you with the best possible liquidity.
However, a longer investment horizon can be advantageous for the investment and reduce investment risks. Especially in the case of negative performance, a longer holding period increases the likelihood that the portfolio can recover.
Tax criteria are also taken into account when selecting ETFs. As we also explain here, the tax treatment of ETFs for private investors has been significantly simplified by the Investment Tax Act (InvStG) 2018. Domestic and foreign funds are now taxed according to the same system, so since the beginning of 2018, unlike under the old tax regime, foreign accumulating funds are now also used.
The tax burden is paid directly by the custodian bank. This means that there is no additional expense for private investors in the tax return.
If Scalable Capital identifies a more suitable ETF in an asset class, the exchange is carried out gradually for you. In contrast to a one-time sale of all old shares, an additional tax expense can be reduced in this way, if necessary.
Additional purchases in the event of further deposits or a higher target weighting of these asset classes are made exclusively in the new ETF, while sales always first reduce the holdings of the old product. The old fund is indicated to you by the marking "Phase-Out".
Should an ETF provider become insolvent, the assets managed by the ETF are protected from insolvency by their status as special assets. In the course of the insolvency proceedings, the insolvency estate as well as the claims of the creditors against this insolvency estate are determined and the creditors are served according to their claim. The assets managed by ETFs do not become part of the insolvency estate and are thus protected from access by the creditors of the investment company. Only the holders of the unit certificates of the ETFs are entitled to their pro rata share of the assets managed by the ETF.
Costs
The costs of the investment services consist of the remuneration of the wealth manager Scalable Capital and the transaction fee for the securities trading of the custodian bank and add up to 0.75 % p.a. until September 2022.
Since 1 October 2022, investment services fees are charged depending on the amount of the investment per portfolio.
The fee varies as follows:
- 0.75 % p.a. for a portfolio value up to and including 100,000 euros
- 0.69 % p.a. for the portfolio value above 100,000 euros up to and including 500,000 euros
- 0.49 % p.a. for the portfolio value above 500,000 euros
Please note that the minimum fee for wealth management via ING is 75 euros p.a.
The calculation is made on a daily basis on the basis of the average client assets under management, and the asset manager and the custodian bank are invoiced separately on a monthly basis. The debit is made from your clearing account at the custodian bank. There are no further costs, e.g. for account and securities account management. There are also no hidden costs, front-end loads or other commissions. For details, please refer to our list of prices and services.
The costs of the financial instruments (ETFs) are shown individually here. You can select the costs for each individual investment strategy in the drop-down list. Due to changes in the weighting, fees and costs of the financial instruments as well as the exchange of financial instruments, the product costs are subject to fluctuations.
The costs mentioned are already included in the market prices and would therefore also be borne by investors who trade in securities themselves.
The costs for investment services are calculated in stages depending on the amount of the investment. The amount of the investment per portfolio is decisive. If you have investments in different portfolios, these will be considered separately for the management fee.
The management fees are calculated in the following stages:
- 0.75 % p.a. for the portfolio value up to and including 100,000 euros
- 0.69 % p.a. for the portfolio value above 100,000 euros and up to 500,000 euros
- 0.49 % p.a. for the portfolio value above 500,000 Euro
Please note that the minimum fee for wealth management via ING is 75 euros p.a.
Example 1:
You invest 650,000 euros in a portfolio.
The first 100,000 euros are charged a fee of 0.75 % p.a., the following 400,000 euros are charged a fee of 0.69 % p.a. and the 150,000 euros above that are charged a fee of 0.49% p.a.
Example 2:
You invest a total of 120,000 euros, 60,000 euros of which are invested in each portfolio.
A fee of 0.75 % p.a. is charged for both portfolios, as the investment value per portfolio is decisive.
The calculation is made on a daily basis on the basis of the average client assets under management, the settlement is made monthly separately for the asset manager and the custodian bank.
In the respective portfolio you can view your paid fees and taxes under the menu item "Performance". For a display of the absolute values, you must first change the display from percent to euro.
We believe that only a truly independent asset management company can act in the best interests of its clients. That is why we do not accept any hidden costs or issue surcharges. If we receive such inducements, we undertake under the asset management agreement to pay you these inducements.
We only accept non-monetary benefits if they improve the quality of asset management and do not conflict with our clients' interests. These are, for example, financial analyses, information material, training or technical services. We will, of course, disclose the acceptance of these types of inducements to you.
Reporting & Taxes
You will receive a quarterly report on the performance of your portfolio in your Scalable mailbox. The report includes an overview of performance, benchmark, trades made, distributions, and other metrics related to your portfolio.
In addition, at the end of each year, you will receive an annual account statement. This contains the holdings in your securities account, but not the assets in your clearing account.
You can obtain an overview of your portfolio, including cash holdings, in your personal client area. All relevant information about your account and securities account is provided there.
For the calculation of the percentage return, which is displayed in your personal client area, we use the time-weighted method. The time-weighted return is adjusted for deposits and withdrawals and thus allows a direct comparison with a benchmark or an alternative portfolio.
To calculate the time-weighted return, the entire investment period is broken down into different time periods. Whenever a deposit or withdrawal occurs, the return up to that point is calculated and a new period begins. To obtain the time-weighted return for the entire investment period, the returns of the individual periods are multiplicatively linked.
The time-weighted return shown in the account summary is adjusted for deposits and withdrawals. Therefore, your portfolio may have a positive or negative percentage return because the underlying portfolio has moved positively or negatively over time, but your absolute return may still be negative or positive. This occurs especially if the majority of your portfolio was deposited and invested at a relative market high or low.
Two extreme examples to illustrate:
You have an initial investment amount of 10,000 Euros invested with us. Subsequently, the market rises by 50% and your portfolio increases to a value of 15,000 euros. Now let's assume you were to deposit an additional 1,000,000 euros into your portfolio and the market immediately fell by 10%. In this case, your portfolio would lose over 100,000 Euros in value (significantly more than your initial gain of 5,000 Euros). Nevertheless, the percentage performance of your portfolio would be positive (50% increased and only 10% decreased).
You have invested an initial amount of 10,000 Euros with us. Subsequently, the market crashes by 50% and your portfolio drops to a value of 5,000 Euros. Now let's assume you were to deposit an additional 1,000,000 euros into your portfolio and the market immediately rose by 10%. In this case, your portfolio would gain over 100,000 Euros in value (significantly more than your initial loss of 5,000 Euros). Nevertheless, the percentage performance of your portfolio would be negative (50% down and only 10% up).
Scalable Capital is an independent securities institution with the regulatory permission of the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht - BaFin) to provide securities services pursuant to section 15 of the Investment Firm Act (Wertpapierinstitutsgesetz - WpIG). In particular, Scalable Capital offers the service of financial portfolio management ("wealth management"). We are subject to supervision by the BaFin and the German Federal Bank (Deutsche Bundesbank).
BlackRock (Netherlands) B.V. is (indirectly) a minority shareholder in the parent company of the securities institution. In the context of wealth management, Scalable Capital makes the selection of ETFs for the investment universe as an operational decision exclusively on the basis of objective criteria aligned with client interests. There are therefore no economic incentives to favour certain ETFs, whether from BlackRock or another provider.
Call money: In the event of the insolvency of the partner bank, the cash in your clearing account is protected by the statutory deposit protection of the Compensation Scheme of German Banks (Entschädigungseinrichtung deutscher Banken - EdB) up to a deposit amount of 100,000 euros (Details on this at edb-banken.de/en) and beyond that by the German Deposit Protection Fund of Private Banks (Bundesverbands deutscher Banken - BdB). View further information on the scope of protection of the partner bank by the Deposit Protection Fund.
Securities: In the event of insolvency of the custodian bank, you have a claim to surrender of your securities. These do not fall into the insolvency estate and are therefore also protected.
As a securities institution, Scalable Capital is not authorised to take possession or ownership of your assets. Your assets are held in custody by our partner bank. In the event of an insolvency of Scalable Capital, the client assets will therefore not fall into the insolvency estate of Scalable Capital GmbH.
Furthermore, Scalable Capital GmbH is assigned to the German Compensatory Fund of Securities Trading Companies (Entschädigungseinrichtung der Wertpapierhandelsunternehmen - EdW). The EdW can pay compensation if an institution is no longer able to fulfil its "liabilities from securities transactions" towards its clients for reasons directly related to its financial situation (and the German Federal Financial
Supervisory Authority BaFin has determined the case for compensation).
At Scalable we want to ensure that your account is protected against any type of attack. Therefore, the Scalable Login utilises leading edge technology to scan the Web and track large security breaches that occur on third-party sites (unrelated to Scalable). If the Scalable Login identifies that any of our users’ credentials were part of such external breach it will notify you via your registered email and ask you to change your password.
To change your password, click on "Forgot your password?" under the input mask on the login page or on "Reset" in the Scalable client area in the menu item "Profile" in the section "Password".
After entering your email address, you will receive an email from us with a link to change your password.
Please note that in addition to the minimum requirements for the strength of your password, a maximum length of approx. 70 characters should not be exceeded. In case of a longer password, it will only be saved up to the maximum length mentioned above.
If you have made sure that the combination of your email address and password is correct, but you are still unable to log in, please check if you are using the correct login form for your custodian bank. For technical reasons, we use separate entry forms for clients with securities accounts at Baader Bank and ING Bank.
To switch between the login forms, click either "To ING login?" or "Not an ING customer?" on the login page. In the app, you have the option to enable or disable the ING login before opening the login page.
If your account does not hold any active portfolios, we will block it after a few months of inactivity for security reasons. A blocked account can be manually unlocked by our client service. In this case or in case of technical problems, please contact our client service at service@scalable.capital.
For security reasons, we conduct the login process to your personal client area via web browser. This guarantees a higher security standard when logging in and reduces the risk of falling victim to a phishing or fraud attempt.
The login to your Scalable client area is always done via a secure subdomain. If you have your securities account at Baader Bank, please use secure.scalable.capital/login, if you have your securities account at ING, you can log in via ing-secure.scalable.capital/login.
Due to security reasons, we offer separate login forms for each custodian bank. This means you have to select the custodian bank for your account in the login process in order to successfully login. If you have accounts at both Baader Bank and ING Bank, it is therefore necessary to log out and log in again using the login form of the other bank.
The function of switching between your Baader Bank and ING accounts within your personal client area can therefore no longer be offered.
Referral Program
If you use our wealth management, you can recommend it to your friend(s) and receive a reward.
You will find the invitation link for the Refer-a-Friend program directly in your Scalable profile, after logging in to the app and on the web. You can share it with your friends via email, SMS, WhatsApp, or other messenger services.
You will receive 50 euros for a successful referral of our wealth management product as a thank you.
You can find the invitation link for the Refer-a-Friend program directly in your Scalable profile, after logging in to the app and on the web. You can share it with your friends via email, SMS, WhatsApp, or other messenger services.
First, share the invitation link with your friends.
After the referred person has successfully opened a wealth management portfolio through your link and paid in the minimum investment amount, you will receive your bonus. The referred person must remain a client of the wealth management portfolio for at least six months after successfully opening a wealth management portfolio.
You are entitled to receive a maximum of 10 rewards of 50 euros each as a thank you for the referral of the wealth management product, while the number of recommendations is unlimited.
The reward may be withheld in the event of any attempt to manipulate the referral program, such as broadcasting/distributing on public/private media (e.g. public websites, telegram, etc.).
You must ensure that your friends agree to receive the referral invitation.
The reward entitlement will lapse if the minimum investment amount is not paid in by the referred person and if the referred person does not remain a client of a wealth management portfolio (with an investment of at least the minimum investment amount) for at least six months after the successful opening of the wealth management portfolio.
Cancellation
You can request a cancellation via your personal client area. To do so, open the menu item "Profile". The "Products" submenu takes you to a list of your portfolios. Via the button "Cancel portfolio" you can order the cancellation for the corresponding portfolio.
We will then sell the securities in your portfolio. Pending transactions will be brought to settlement beforehand. We will carry this out for you as quickly as possible, usually on the next banking day at the latest. Please note that even on trading days, same-day execution cannot be guaranteed.
We will then instruct the custodian bank to transfer your credit balance to the current account on deposit and close the account and securities account. The value date on your current account is usually within 6 to 9 banking days after the value date of the sales.
If you have your securities account management at ING, you have the additional option to cancel only the wealth management (keep securities). If you choose this option, ING will convert your Scalable securities account into a Direct securities account and your Scalable account into an Extra account. The securities will not be sold and will remain in the direct securities account. Your cash balance remains in the Extra account (after deduction of outstanding compensation claims).
After your cancellation, you can still log in to your personal area and retrieve documents in your mailbox. There you will receive important documents, such as your annual tax certificate. However, if necessary, access to your personal area can also be deactivated. To do so, please send us an email at service@scalable.capital.
Cancellation is free of charge and possible at any time.
In case of a termination of Scalable Wealth, the managed securities account will be closed.
However, a transfer of the securities or ETFs held at the time of termination into a securities account of another provider is possible.
If you are interested in a transfer or have further questions, please contact our team at service@scalable.capital.
There are risks associated with investing. The value of your investment may fall or rise. Losses of the capital invested may occur. Past performance, simulations or forecasts are not a reliable indicator of future performance. Please refer to our risk information.
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SCALABLE CAPITAL
INFORMATION
Scalable Capital GmbH
Seitzstraße 8e, 80538 Munich | T: +49 89 380 380 67
Responsible supervision: BaFin, Deutsche Bundesbank
Copyright © Scalable Capital GmbH | All rights reserved.
