Whitebox review 2026

Whitebox charges a service fee of 0.95% p.a. for investments below €30,000. The scale then falls through 0.85%, 0.75%, 0.60% and 0.45% down to 0.35% p.a. from an investment of €500,000. The service fee includes transaction costs, asset management and account and depot management. Whitebox charges no performance fee. On top come external fund costs for the ETFs used, which Whitebox puts at an average of 0.21 to 0.24% p.a. For a depot below €30,000, total costs therefore come to around 1.18% p.a. – the highest figure in the entire rating field. Only with six-figure investment amounts does Whitebox become competitive. Scoring (17/32): The service fee of 0.95% p.a. at the entry level falls in the "≤ 1.00%" category and earns 4 out of 16 points. The fund costs of an average of around 0.225% p.a. are in the "≤ 0.35%" level and give 7 out of 10 points. Since transaction costs are included in the service fee and no performance fee applies, there are the full 6 points for other costs.

Whitebox offers ten risk levels, which are oriented among other things to the portfolio's equity share. There are also two strategy families: Whitebox Global is passively managed and diversified worldwide across economically strong regions, while Whitebox Value is an actively managed strategy that specifically targets undervalued regions and sectors with long-term growth potential and builds on the Morningstar methodology. The portfolios are broken down by asset class, region and sector in the customer area. Shares and bonds can be verified as the main asset classes; we could not confirm any systematic admixture of further asset classes beyond that. Automatic rebalancing takes place, but we found no specific publicly documented trigger rules. Scoring (19/25): For worldwide diversification across shares and bonds we award 7 out of 10 points. The ten risk levels with upstream profiling bring the full 8 points. For rebalancing, automatic implementation is verified, but documented rules are missing – for that there are 4 out of 7 points.

On performance, Whitebox is among the strongest providers in our rating. The provider shows development per strategy and risk level since launch: the Value strategy level 3 (defensive) reaches 42.18% since launch or an average of 3.59% p.a., and Value level 6 94.91% since launch. In the aggressive category, Whitebox led the market in calendar year 2025 with 14.56%. In addition, customers receive an asset management report every quarter. Disclosure before signing a contract is weaker: the detailed breakdown by asset class, region and sector as well as the depot holdings are available mainly in the customer area and in the app. We could not find a publicly accessible list of all funds used with ISINs. The costs are also documented in a scattered way: the fee scale is on an FAQ page, the external fund costs are named separately, and a combined total cost ratio is missing. Scoring (13/18): Performance per risk level over more than three years brings the full 8 points. Since only asset classes and regions, but not the individual funds with ISINs, are shown publicly, we award 3 out of 6 points. Because the costs are documented completely but spread over several pages and there is no total cost ratio at a glance, there are 2 out of 4 points.

Entry differs greatly by strategy: for the Global portfolios the minimum investment amount is just €25, but for the Value strategy €5,000. We assess the lowest verifiable entry variant but expressly state the high hurdle for the Value strategy. Savings plans also start from €25 a month. There is no minimum term, the depot can be cancelled at any time, and partial withdrawals are possible. A freely selectable savings plan rhythm is not documented. Scoring (13/15): The minimum investment of €25 in the Global strategies is clearly below €500 and brings the full 6 points. The savings plan from €25 meets the minimum instalment, but a freely selectable rhythm cannot be verified – for that there are 3 out of 5 points. Cancellation that is free at any time, with partial withdrawals, gives the full 4 points.

Account and depot management is handled by the BaFin-licensed flatexDEGIRO Bank SE, based in Frankfurt am Main. Whitebox itself runs the asset management under German supervision. This meets the highest level of our security criterion: a German custodian bank plus a German permit. An app is available both on the Apple App Store and on Google Play and shows portfolio allocation, depot holdings, a tabular performance list and the graphical development of assets; a web portal exists in parallel. Customer service can be reached by phone on a Freiburg number as well as by email and chat in German. Scoring (10/10): A German custodian bank (flatex Bank AG, Frankfurt) and German supervision give the full 5 points. An app for iOS and Android plus web portal bring the full 3 points. Phone advice in German gives the full 2 points.