Justwealth Review 2024

Justwealth Review
  • Fees
  • Portfolio Options
  • Safety
  • Customer Service
  • Platform
4

Justwealth Review Summary:

Since coming onto the financial investment scene in 2015, Justwealth has become one of Canada’s leading online portfolio management platforms. Justwealth specializes in robo advisor services that offer over 70 different portfolios for its clients.

Justwealth is committed to earning and saving investors money. It accomplishes this by offering a low annual management fee of 0.50% as well as a 0.25% ETF management fee. Compared to other robo advisor services, this is quite competitive, and it’s offered with impressive service to boot. Justwealth’s efforts have earned them an excellent reputation in the industry, as well as a number of fintech awards.

All of this does come with a bit of a catch, however, as the minimum account balance is higher than other popular robo advisors.in this Justwealth review we’ll present the fees, portfolio offerings, customer service quality, and to see how it compares to the other top Canadian robo advisors.

Pros

  • Several different account options
  • Many portfolio options
  • Access to financial planning
  • Education target date portfolios for RESPs
  • Promo for students
  • Personalized portfolio managers for every client
  • Tax-advantaged non-registered portfolios
  • Tiered bonus offer based on initial deposit – up to $500 in free cash!

Cons

  • There is no Justwealth app
  • Steep minimum investment of $5,000 to open an account (except for RESP)
  • The least aesthetically appealing platform

With no mobile app and a high minimum balance requirement, Justwealth isn’t our most recommended robo advisor.

See other, better Canadian Robo Advisors

Investors who are looking for a bit more of a sophisticated robo advisor service, and are willing to accept the $5,000 minimum balance for non-registered accounts will appreciate Justwealth’s offerings. One of its strengths is the sheer number of portfolios offered, which are 42 ETFs that have been expertly curated to meet any investor’s needs.

Justwealth Welcome Bonus

Justwealth currently offers this promo offer to MDJ’s readers. Anyone who signs up using our links, can enjoy the following cash bonus when opening a new account:

  • $50 for a deposit between $5,000 and $24,999
  • $100 for a deposit between $25,000 and $49,999
  • $225 for a deposit between $50,000 and $99,999
  • $500 for a deposit of $100,000 or more

Justwealth Fees

One of the biggest draws when it comes to robo advisors are the lower fees. You can save a ton of money in management fees by choosing a robo advisor compared to what you would pay a financial advisor. 

While this is true for all robo advisors, what I like about Justwealth’s fees is how easy they are to follow and understand. They have a tiered system (as many other robos do) that allow larger accounts to save on management fees. This is what Justwealth management fees look like:

  • Accounts under $500,000: 0.5% management fee
  • Accounts over $500,000: 0.4% management fee

That being said, Justwealth somewhat penalizes the small accounts by increasing the fees if your account isn’t big enough. For any accounts where the 0.5% management fee is under $4.99 per month, you will be charged a fee of $4.99 for all accounts except for RESP. The minimum for an RESP is $2.50 per month. Keep in mind this isn’t an added fee, it’s either the 0.5% if it’s over the minimum OR the $4.50 (or $2.50 for RESP). You won’t be charged both fees.

On top of the management fees, you will be charged the MERs for the ETFs. MER fees vary but with Justwealth the average is 0.25%. This means your fees will be around 0.65-0.75%. Not bad considering that most mutual funds charge 2.5% 

Note that right now, there is a special Justwealth promo for students and recent graduates. For a limited time, students who are enrolled in post-secondary education OR have graduated within the last 2 calendar years can benefit from a special deal which includes $0 management fees for 6 months, a minimum investment of $500 (it’s usually $5,000) and no minimum investment period. Justwealth has not indicated how long this promotion will last for so take advantage while you can.

JustWealth Review: Account Types

Justwealth offers the typical accounts that you would expect from a robo advisor. These are:

  • RRSP
  • Spousal RRSP
  • TFSA
  • Non-Registered account
  • RRIF
  • RESP
  • LIRA
  • LIF

*You can also open a US dollar account for some of these options. 

Right now, they are the only online investment manager in Canada that offers Education Target Date Portfolios. They are designed to grow with your child and automatically rebalance as the target date approaches. This means that by the time your child graduates, the money will be ready for them. Another perk of the Justwealth RESP is that there is no minimum requirement to open this type of account. 

As for other Justwealth accounts, the minimum amount to get started is a hefty $5,000. While this might be fine for someone transferring an account, it’s a large sum for anyone younger and just starting out. This is a big drawback in my eyes, especially when other robo advisors including Wealthsimple have no minimum requirement.  

Justwealth Portfolios

Justwealth portfolio options can be broken down into 4 main categories:

  • Starter Portfolios: For those getting into investing. These portfolios have a balanced asset allocation towards fixed income and equities. 
  • Growth Portfolios: More aggressive portfolios targeted towards growth. As such, there are both higher risk and reward factors.
  • Income Portfolios: Aim to provide a more reliable, stable income but with a secondary focus on growing your wealth.
  • Preservation Portfolios: The most secure investments. The goal is to protect your capital from risk and therefore there is limited growth.

Then, for these different categories, Justwealth can design 70 custom portfolios using a variety of ETFs offered by 9 different ETF providers. 

Your assigned portfolio is determined by a quick questionnaire that you will be asked to fill out when you get started with Justwealth. You’ll be asked about your goals and investment objectives and, from your answers, Justwealth will suggest a portfolio best designed to suit your needs. 

All Justwealth customers are assigned a Personal Portfolio Manager who will review your finances and recommend the best options for you. You can also take advantage of additional financial planning and investment advice by request. Note that for accounts larger than $1,000,000, Justwealth will prepare a custom portfolio for you.

Tax Efficient Accounts

The thing which Justwealth takes the most pride in, is their dedication to helping customers plan and maintain their non registered accounts for maximum tax gains. On their site, they promise that each client account will be managed separately by a “dedicated personal portfolio manager”, to ensure the most efficient tax planning possible.

This comes the most into play when transferring non-registered accounts, which as we all know can result in a tax hit due to capital gains. Justwealth promises to help you plan and execute this transfer in the most tax efficient manner. Here are the main benefits this services might give you:

  • Dedicated portfolio manager
  • Annual tax loss harvesting
  • Portfolio transition planning
  • Tax-efficient portfolio construction
  • Comprehensive tax reporting
  • Low portfolio turnover

While surely anyone can benefit from a dedicated advisor overseeing their portfolio, it’s of course most beneficial for those with larger accounts who have a lot of holdings outside their TFSA or RRSPs. Combined with Justwealth’s relatively high account minimum requirements, it means this company is overall more appealing to high end users.

Customer Service and Fiduciary Requirement 

If you have read any reviews with Justwealth’s team, you’ll notice that they emphasize the ‘fin’ over ‘tech’ when it comes to being a fintech company.

Justwealth takes your money very seriously. Now, this is true for most financial companies in Canada. After all, they need a good reputation to get business. 

So what does that mean? It means that when Justwealth assigns you a portfolio manager and team, that team is obligated to put YOU first. Not Justwealth, not anything that may benefit them, but you and your specific needs. Justwealth Portfolio Managers are registered with a provincial Securities Commission as an Advising Representative. This requires a high degree of qualifications, experience, and the duty to act with honesty, care, and in the best interest of your client. 

Of course it bears mentioning that all of our leading robo advisors are all Certified Portfolio Managers – which means that they too are held to the same fiduciary standard when it comes to putting your first.  It’s still a nice feature for Justwealth to focus on (especially compared to the lack of legal standards that your local mutual fund salesperson is held to).

Justwealth Platform Review

This is one area that Justwealth falls a bit short, especially compared to other robo advisor platforms. 

The site itself is quite basic, and doesn’t really reflect the sophistication of the services they offer. It’s functional, but definitely not sleek by any measure. The main purpose of the site is dedicated to one thing; getting you to sign up. You won’t find the bells and whistles that other sites have in terms of tools and education. 

Compared to Wealthsimple, Justwealth’s platform has some catching up to. Wealthsimple not only has an extremely well developed and aesthetically appealing site, but also a very highly rated app. You’ll also find that Wealthsimle has a much wider variety of educational articles and tools to help you learn as you invest. In addition, you won’t have access to useful features such as Roundup, a tool that allows you to easily invest your spare change, on Justwealth’s platform. 

If you do choose to invest with Justwealth, you will have to settle with its simplistic web-based version of the platform, as there is currently no mobile app available. 

How Does Justwealth Compare?

Justwealth definitely has a few stand-out features including their portfolio options, personalized portfolio managers for each client, and their RESPs which offer education target date portfolios. But, how do they compare to the competition? Or, more specifically, how do they stand out to our top pick?

Justwealth

WealthSimple

Justwealth Logo
Wealthsimple

Management Fees

  • 0.5% for accounts under $500,000

  • 0.4% for accounts over $500,000

  • Minimum fee limit of $4.99/month  ($2.50 for RESP)

  • 0.5% for accounts under $100,000

  • 0.4% for accounts over $100,000

MERs

0.20% average
0.12% - 0.15% for standard ETFs and 0.21% - 0.23% for responsible options (SRIs)

ETFs

50 different ETFs from 9 different providers
13 different ETFs (10 standard, 2 SRI, 1 Halal)
SRI Options
Minimum Investment
$5,000 except for RESPs $500 for students
None
Portfolio Options
Over 70 different portfolios engineered to either grow your wealth, generate income, or preserve wealth
A choice of 9 portfolios (3 standard, 3 SRI, 3 Halal)
Account Types
RRSP, Spousal RRSP, TFSA, LIRA, RRIF, LIF, RESP, Non-registered
RRSP, Spousal RRSP, TFSA, LIRA, RRIF, LIF, RESP, Non-registered

Returns

3.25%-8.66% annualized growth

5.3-8.2% annualized growth

Bonus Perks/Features

All accounts: dedicated portfolio advisor, tax-loss harvesting

  • Wealthsimple Round-up

  • Wealthsimple Overflow

  • Wealthsimple Black:  Financial planning session , tax-loss harvesting, health insurance discount, 15% off will preparation.

  • Wealthsimple Generation: In-depth financial planning, dedicated team, personalized financial report, individualized portfolios, 50% off health insurance plan

Additional services

None

  • Wealthsimple Trade

  • Wealthsimple Tax

  • Wealthsimple Crypto

  • Wealthsimple Cash

Mobile App

Promo Offer

Between $50 and $500, depending on deposit

$50 sign-up bonus

Sign Up

When it comes to comparing Justwealth vs Wealthsimple you can quickly see that Wealthsimple comes out on top in terms of fees for accounts over $100,000. For standard MERs, Wealthsimple also seems to be on the lower side.

Another big difference between the two is the minimum deposit required to open an account. As I said earlier, the $5,000 requirement for Justwealth accounts (except for the RESP) is pretty hefty, and a big turn off when robos like Wealthsimple have no minimum deposits. 

Justwealth does come ahead when it comes to portfolio options and their absolute commitment to differentiating themselves through personalized 

We have a full, head to head comparison between Wealthsimple and Justwealth

Justwealth Review: FAQ

Justwealth Review: Final Verdict

Compared to robo advisor services like Wealthsimple, Justwealth has differentiated itself in a few ways, such as having a dedicated financial advisor for your account, a huge range of portfolios to choose from, and worry free tax efficiency. These are definitely some great advantages, for those who can afford it.

Justwealth’s high minimum account balance can be a big barrier for investors just starting out. If you can’t start investing, you can’t start building wealth, right? 

All things considered, Justwealth is a good option for some, but not for all. 

Wealthsimple on the other hand, can help you get started with no minimum balance requirement. Wealthsimple offers you a way to take advantage of robo advisor services much sooner in your investment journey when compared to Justwealth.

On top of that, it’s platform is so much more user friendly. Another added bonus is that Wealthsimple is supported by Power Financial, helping it to offer better offers and more platform options to its customers.

To learn more about how these top Canadian robo advisors compare, head over to our full Wealthsimple Review.

Hannah

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Bob
8 months ago

Interesting observation. Are you some kind of algorithm programming expert to know their algorithm that well to make that kind of comment, or an expert on custodian knowledge? Justwealth may not have the flashiest website, but I have not experienced any problems or errors and their performance is light years ahead of Wealthsimple and that is why I left Wealthsimple for Justwealth!

Anonymous
10 months ago

If you want real automation and advanced technology, Justwealth is NOT for you. Their systems are very outdated, including the algorithm they use to make portfolio recommendations. They and their custodian make constant mistakes, so you can expect to see charges, fees, withdrawals etc on your account that shouldn’t be there. They always get fixed, but they happen way too often. I switched to Wealthsimple and was truly baffled by how much easier and faster it was.