LHV vs Lightyear
Key takeaways
 | ||
|---|---|---|
Currency conversion (FX) | 0.35% | ~1% |
Monthly fee | Free | 0.01% per month plus VAT |
ETFs - per order | Free | 0.5% on buys 0.14% on sells (€5 min) |
US stocks - per order | $1 max | 0.5% on buys 0.14% on sells (€5 min) |
EU stocks - per order | 1€ | 0.5% on buys 0.14% on sells (€5 min) |
UK stocks - per order | £1 | 0.5% on buys 0.14% on sells (€5 min) |
Pricing information displayed refers to the Kasvukonto product. Data sourced from lhv.ee, and correct as of 22nd October 2025. For the most up to date information, please visit their website.
An additional fee of €25 applies when transactions are made offline via LHV client service. The monthly account fee does not apply to customers under 26 years old. LHV funds can be purchased without execution fees.
This projection assumes ETF investing in home currency only (i.e. no single stock investments). LHV's own proprietary funds (which are free of charge and only available to LHV customers) are excluded. We've also assumed that the Kasvukonto account is 1+ year old and that you are over 26 years old, meaning you pay the management fee (which is discounted for the first 12 months).
Trading fee: Fund purchases in the Kasvukonto are charged at 0.5% for a purchase transaction. Account fee: An ongoing management fee of 0.01% per month (plus VAT) is charged on the total portfolio value. See LHV's full terms and conditions.
Exit fees for LHV Kasvukonto
€25.00
2 months to recoup
Is it safer to invest through Lightyear or LHV?
For investment services, Lightyear and Estonian banks are regulated identically — with investments covered up to the same amount in both.
Lightyear is a regulated investment firm, (under EFSA) and is strictly regulated in how we handle and protect your assets. Customers’ cash and investments always sit separately to our own and are held by authorised custodians. There’s no way for creditors - in the unlikely event of anything happening to Lightyear - to get hold of the investments or cash that you hold with us.
Lightyear’s customers’ assets are held with our global partners — mainly in the Netherlands, Ireland and US.
How much more expensive is LHV?
Compared to LHV, Lightyear offers global investing at significantly lower transaction fees, plus a ~3x smaller currency conversion fee. On top of that, we don't charge a monthly account fee.
If you buy two ETFs every month, at a total of 200€ invested per month, LHV's fees would end up costing you at least 116€ over 5 years. On Lightyear, the same strategy would cost you nothing — ETFs have zero execution fees and we don't charge an account fee.
Where does LHV’s 1% currency conversion fee come from?
Good question. LHV doesn’t show its currency conversion fee anywhere in the process. What they do is that they mark up the live exchange rate, giving you a worse rate, so they could make profit on it without you realising.
The ~1% we calculated from our own investments with LHV.
How can Lightyear offer investing for that much less cost?
Investing doesn’t need to be expensive. Local banks continue to charge high fees simply because they’ve not yet been forced to lower them. Our mission is to bring the best quality investing to every European at a fraction of the cost.
We can do this by building technology that scales. We’re building for 500 million people across Europe, whilst Estonian banks build for a million. The technology we’re building allows us to cut middle-men, bringing extra costs to customers, from processes. The stronger our tech and infrastructure, the more we can pass on cheaper pricing it brings us, to our users.