Wealthsimple Review 2024

What is Wealthsimple?

Wealthsimple was founded back in 2014 by Michael Katchen, Brett Huneycutt and Rudy Adler. I gotta say that I really liked the company more in its first few years than in its current iteration.

For the first five years of its existence, Wealthsimple was solely focused on the product that is now known as Wealthsimple Managed Investing. Some people called this a “robo advisor,” others called it a “automated wealth manager” – whatever you wanted to call it, Wealthsimple’s first creation did the following:

• Took your money and efficiently invested in a portfolio of passively-managed index ETFs.
• Snagged very little of your money compared to Canada’s mutual fund industry.
• Gave investors an insanely-easy way of getting started in investing – and staying committed through an automated contribution every month.

Those three bullet points sound simple – but they’re not. 

And they are massively consequential for the average investor!

You can read more about what robo advisors are and what they do in our overall look at Canada’s Best Robo Advisors.

The problems started to come as more and more of Wealthsimple’s shares were sold to large Canadian financial companies. And then – surprise, surprise – these companies decided that they wanted to make a lot of money on their investment. 

That quest for more profit wasn’t going to come from the low-fee world of robo advisors. So, they shuffled robo advising to the side (calling it “Wealthsimple Managed Investing”) and then they started focusing on flashier stuff like crypto trading, private credit, private equity, and including precious metal investments in their portfolios. As they took their eye off the ball, they made some poor investment decisions, and have constantly tinkered with the makeup of their portfolios (as outlined by Ben Felix in the Globe and Mail).

In their quest for more profit they have strayed pretty far from their original focus on their robo advising platform.

Oh – and they also launched big expensive expansion plans in the UK and USA… before admitting failure and collapsing those operations.

Is Wealthsimple as Safe?

Yes – Wealthsimple is safe, and its protection against fraud and cyber attacks are as solid as any bank, robo advisor, or brokerage in Canada.

Obviously, as an online financial service company Wealthsimple takes safety and security extremely seriously. 

Wealthsimple uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption. TLS is the successor to Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption and is widely regarded as the gold standard for securing data transmitted over the internet. TLS encryption works by establishing a secure, encrypted connection between the user’s device and Wealthsimple’s servers. This means that any information sent from your device to Wealthsimple, such as personal details, login credentials, and financial transactions, is encrypted during transit. Even if intercepted, this data would be extremely difficult for unauthorized parties to decrypt and understand.

With features like two-factor authentication (2FA), the platform adds an extra layer of defense, making it exponentially harder for unwanted guests to access your account. It’s like having a double-locked door where the second key changes every time you want to enter. Moreover, Wealthsimple’s vigilance against fraud extends to constant monitoring and verification of transactions. 

In addition to these layers of Cybersecurity, Wealthsimple Invest customer accounts are also protected by the Canadian Investor Protection Fund up to $1 million. 

If you’re worried about the company as a whole you can rest easy knowing:

• Wealthsimple is owned by Power Corporation of Canada (one of the largest companies in Canada).
• Your assets are kept separate from Wealthsimple’s bank sheet. In other words, even if somehow, some way, Wealthsimple wanted to take your assets for their own use, that’s not possible.
• Finally, Wealthsimple falls under the purview of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), ensuring they play by the rules (even if those rules could probably be made a bit better).

Wealthsimple Investing Performance

A robo advisor service is one that essentially does all of the investing legwork work for you using the expertise of its team. It’s a purely passive investment strategy that you won’t have to spend any time at all managing. Some refer to this as “couch potato” investing.

Active investing, on the other hand, means that you would be the one buying, selling, rebalancing and managing it all. Stock picking for example would fit under the definition of active management.

If you want a more in-depth explanation of how robo advisors invest check out our main robo advisor article.

Now, while Wealthsimple has stated that they follow a passive investment strategy, they have constantly tinkered with their portfolios over the years (which isn’t passive at all). They have made several big mistakes, which has cost their investors, and led to them having by far the worst investment returns when it comes to Canada’s robos. Those mistakes were detailed in the Globe and Mail. They include:

• Having a massive exposure to long-duration bonds (which got crushed the last three years).
• Using complicated ETFs that specialize in exotic things like low-volatility and factor investing (as opposed to  basic index ETFs).
• Using gold exposure in ETFs (gold is not a good long-term investment).

All of these mistakes were somewhat preventable, as evidenced by the fact other robo advisors had much better (and more simple) asset allocation strategies. Here’s a comparison of the Wealthsimple investment returns compared to our #1 robo advisor at Justwealth over a 5 year period.

Portfolio Type	Justwealth	Wealthsimple
Moderate	5.18%	1.20%
Balanced	6.95%	3.60%
Aggressive	7.66%	5.70%

Wealthsimple Financial Advisors

Wealthsimple is a portfolio manager, and consequently has a legal fiduciary duty to provide you with financial advice that is in your best interest (even if it is counter to their commercial interest). This fact puts them one up on bank and credit union advisors.

The Wealthsimple website says that you can email questions at any time, and I have heard varying first hand accounts of how good that service is. Some people are very happy with the advice they get on specific questions, while others felt it left a lot to be desired. The company’s 1.5/5 star rating on TurstPilot.com shows that there is a lot to be desired when it comes to the company’s customer service.

Once you reach $100,000 in assets and can be moved to the “Wealthsimple Premium” category you get access to “financial check-ins with an advisor.” Once you get to the $500,000 mark you become a “Wealthsimple Generation” member, and at that point you get a dedicated financial advisor.

Notably, CI Direct and Justwealth provide you with dedicated financial advisors right from the first day you open an account with them.

Wealthsimple Invest Accounts

Wealthsimple invest offers Canadians the ability to easily put money into the following types of accounts:

• RRSP 
• TFSA 
• RESP 
• RRIF 
• LIRA 
• Personal
• Joint
• Corporate
• Cash Savings
• Joint Savings

No matter the size of your account, you’ll receive a free portfolio review of any non-Wealthsimple brokerage accounts, reap the benefits of automatic tax-loss harvesting (which aids in minimizing your tax liability), access to fractional share investing, options for making Socially Responsible Investments (SRIs), coverage of up to $150 in transfer fees for transfers over $5,000 to your Wealthsimple account from another investment account, and free money saving tools.

Wealthsimple Core vs Premium vs Generation

As you can see below, Wealthsimple Invest places you into one of three tiers – Core, Premium, Generation – based on the amount of money that you invest with them.

Feature/Service	Core	Premium	Generation
Assets Required	$1+	$100,000+	$500,000+
Management Fees	0.5%	0.4%	0.4%
Cash Account Interest	4%	4.5%	5%
Options Trading Fee	$2 USD/contract	$0.75 USD/contract	$0.75 USD/contract
Crypto Trading Fee	2%	1%	0.5%
Financial Advice	–	Financial check-ins	Dedicated financial advisor
USD Accounts	–	Included	Included

Wealthsimple Core

With Wealthsimple Core, you only need $1 to start, making it perfect for beginners. Your Core account will get you a personalized portfolio based on your responses to the initial assessment you’ll take part in when you sign up. After you choose your portfolio, you can literally set it and forget it with auto-investing. Wealthsimple will take care of the rebalancing, tax-loss harvesting, and dividend reinvestment too.

Don’t worry, they won’t leave you hanging if you have questions or want more advice as you go along, as you will have access to expert financial advice when you need it. You’ll get all of these features at a low 0.5% management fee.

Wealthsimple Premium

When your account reaches $100,000, you’ll move up into Wealthsimple Premium, which gives you everything the Core tier has and more. The great thing is, you won’t have to pay more to get the extras Premium offers, in fact, you’ll pay less at 0.4% in management fees.

At this level, you can really start to maximize your tax efficiency with tax-efficient funds in addition to tax-loss harvesting. You’ll also receive a free session with an experienced financial planner, helping you to create the investment strategy that is right for you.

On top of that, you’ll get 15% off Estate planning with Willful, so you can rest assured that your money will go where you want it to, no matter what happens. If you live in Ontario, you’ll also get a free 6 months of free health and wellness services with Medcan.

Wealthsimple Generation

With the top tier account, Wealthsimple Generation, account holders that have $500,000 or more in their account will get the gold standard in terms of features offered at a low 0.4% management fee. Investors with over $10 million in assets can access a further reduced fee of 0.2%

Generation features include a dedicated team of financial advisors that are only an email away, a personal financial report that breaks down your investment strategy and the potential rewards it could reap, personalized portfolios with bespoke asset allocations that maximize tax savings, and 15% off estate planning with Willful. Ontario residents will also receive 50% off Medcan’s Comprehensive Care Plan.

Additional Wealthsimple Features

Wealthsimple is a one stop financial shop. In addition to low-cost robo advisor services, Wealthsimple also offers free trading on its platform Wealthsimple Trade for DIY investors, as well as Wealthsimple Crypto for those keen on getting their foot into the cryptocurrency game.

For those looking for more traditional money management tools, Wealthsimple also offers Wealthsimple Cash account, a high interest savings account currently offering an eye-popping 4% interest rate (higher for Premium and Generation clients) as well as 1% cashback on their associated prepayment card.

Wealthsimple Fees

As mentioned above, the account fees depend on what level of account you have, as well as the type of portfolio you end up with. Check out the key facts below.

• Core, holding up to $99,999: 0.5%
• Premium, holding more than $100,000: 0.4%
• Generation, holding above $500,000: 0.4% (0.2% for investors with over $10M in assets)

If you decide to go the robo advisor route, which is definitely a wise choice, there will be additional fees for each of the ETFs in your portfolio. The fees come in the form of MERs, or Management Expense Ratios. These fees are again straightforward and very low.

• Regular ETF MERs: Approximately 0.12-0.15% annually 
• Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) MERs: 0.21-0.23% annually

Wealthsimple Portfolio Options

Wealthsimple Invest has three portfolio options.  Within these three portfolios – called: Conservative, Balanced, and Growth – your money will actually be put into several ETFs. There are also Halal and SRI portfolios, which will discuss in just a second.

For now, we’ll look at the three main types of portfolios and how they have performed since inception.

Conservative Portfolio

With Wealthsimple’s Conservative Portfolio, your portfolio will be made up of approximately 35% equities and 62.50% bonds – with 2.50% gold allocation tossed in as well. This means you’ll be somewhat shielded from market volatility, but will likely experience slower growth. This is a good choice if you have a very low risk tolerance.

This portfolio has grown at an average annualized return of 1.20% since its inception on January 1st, 2016.

Balanced Portfolio

Wealthsimple Invest’s Balanced Portfolio is designed for both safety against volatility while providing a greater opportunity for growth. This portfolio is made up of 60% equities, 37% bonds, and 3% gold. This is suitable for investors with a medium risk tolerance.

This portfolio has grown at an average annualized return of 3.60% since its inception on January 1st, 2016.

Growth Portfolio

With Wealthsimple’s growth portfolio, the asset allocation heavily favors equities. The portfolio is made up of 80% equities, 17.5% bonds, and 3% gold. As there will likely be more market volatility experienced by investors in this portfolio, this is best suited for the investor with a higher risk tolerance, as well as a longer time horizon. 

This portfolio has grown at an average annualized return of 5.70% since its inception on January 1st, 2016.

Wealthsimple Socially Responsible and Halal Investing

Investors may also be interested to know that Wealthsimple offers Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) as well. Socially responsible investing is becoming more and more popular these days, especially among millennials. 

To clarify, socially responsible investing is a type of investing that allows you to put your money towards companies and businesses that align with your environmental and social values. A Wealthsimple SRI portfolio will include Wealthsimple’s own socially responsible ETFs:

• WSRI (US and Canadian stocks)
• WSRD (European, Asian, and Australian stocks)
• WSGB (Green and social bonds that provide fixed income while funding projects that further social and environmental causes)

As well as BMO’s Long Federal Bond Index ETF (ZFL) and the SPDR Gold Minishares Trust ETF (GLDM).

on top of socially responsible investing, Wealthsimple also offers Halal Investing. This portfolio is optimized for performance by using companies that align with Islamic law. This means no businesses that profit from gambling, weapons, tobacco, or other restricted industries.

Additionally, this type of investing will not include any businesses that obtain a significant percentage of their income from interest on loans. All investments are screened by a group of Shariah scholars to ensure that they are up to the expected standards. 

Wealthsimple RRSP Accounts and TFSA Accounts

Most Canadians are just looking for the easiest way to invest money within a registered account.  It is incredibly simple to open a Wealthsimple RRSP, TFSA, or RESP account. It can be done completely online, is almost instant, and after hooking up your chequing or savings account, you can conveniently set up an automatic contribution that puts your savings on autopilot.

No more worrying about RRSP season and last minute investment decisions.  Just a safe, simple, proven investment strategy that you can set and forget about until you’re ready to make a large-scale change.  While Wealthsimple obviously offers a wide variety of accounts, these three registered accounts represent the total investing activity for many Canadians, and are a main focus for Wealthsimple.  

If you have any questions about how the Wealthsimple RRSP or TFSA work, their online chat feature (or their old school phone assistance) will be able to efficiently answer any questions you might have about where to contribute or how to use the platform. 

About the only questions their first line of assistance might struggle with is in-depth niche topic help for something like investment trusts. (If you don’t know what an investment trust is, don’t be alarmed – it’s very unlikely that you’ll ever need to.)

Wealthsimple User Experience

To get started with Wealthsimple you can have an online, email, or phone discussion with an advisor to discuss what they think is the best option for you taking into consideration your goals and risk tolerance.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions, remember that the Wealthsimple representative you are speaking to is an advisor and while they may not be able to answer everything off their head (mainly when it comes down to the more detailed, complex questions), they will answer your questions with your best interests at hand. 

After getting started, you can execute everything through their site or through the Wealthsimple mobile app.

Wealthsimple Mobile App

Speaking of the Wealthsimple App, it’s actually pretty amazing. Launched in December of 2014, it was the first app of its kind; an app designed with the specific goal of making investing easier.

In 2019, Wealthsimple launched a separate Trade app for self-directed trading, but in 2022 they combined their Invest and Trade apps into a single Wealthsimple app yet again. (Want to know the differences between Wealthsimple Trade and Wealthsimple Invest? we’ve got all the details on our Wealthsimple Trade Review if you are keen to learn more about how they compare.)

Wealthsimple describes their app as having a ‘financial advisor in your pocket’. The app allows you to get in touch with your wealth concierge at the tap of a finger, plus you can easily add funds, keep an eye on your asset allocation, and view your performance. 

On top of creating an easy and streamlined app, Wealthsimple also prioritizes privacy in their app. They go above the simple ‘create a password’ and allow users to use either  a biometric login like FaceID or TouchID or set a unique 4 digit passcode (for iPhone) or lock pattern (for Android).

Currently the Wealthsimple app is  rated a 4.5 on the Google Play store and a 4.6 on the Apple App store. Wealthsimple is constantly updating their app to try and improve functionality, which is great, but as with most apps, it can sometimes get buggy as a result.

How To Sign Up With Wealthsimple?

Just like the name indicates, signing up for an account on Wealthsimple is…simple. In just a few minutes, you’ll be set up, logged in, and ready to start building your investment fund.

First, make sure you qualify for a Wealthsimple Invest account (must be a Canadian citizen, Canadian resident, or have a Canadian visa, meet the age requirements of your province, etc.). If you meet the requirements, head over to the sign up page and fill in the required information.

Once you are logged in, you will provide a few more personal details as well as complete a questionnaire so your robo advisors can understand what portfolio allocation would be best for you. 

Once your plan of action has been chosen, you’ll need to choose the account type, registered, non-registered, or transfer from another account.

Finally, you will choose whether or not to set up automatic contributions. 

That’s it! You can make your first purchase and start seeing your wealth grow.

Is Wealthsimple the Best Robo Advisor? Our Expert Comparison

We are definitely spoilt for choice when it comes to selecting online brokerages, or even robo-advisor services, so it’s really important that we understand what makes each one unique. Here are some of Wealthsimple’s distinct selling points that are definitely worth considering when making the choice that is best for you and your situation.

• Wealthsimple’s sign up and portfolio creation process is comprehensive yet quick. You can set your risk tolerance right off the bat, ensuring the asset mix is just right for you.
• You won’t pay trading fees, only low management fees.
• There’s no account minimum.
• Wealthsimple offers a range of socially responsible and Halal portfolios.
• Wealthsimple’s advanced technology combined with its financial experts makes it one of the most reputable robo advisor services in the game. 
• Wealthsimple makes investing super easy, so you can basically set it and forget it.
• Automatic rebalancing is a big plus. You won’t have to worry about buying and selling to make sure your portfolio has a healthy balance of holdings. It’s all done for you.

By now you are well aware of the many benefits of using Wealthsimple as your robo advisor, but no great review would be complete without a comparison chart. Let’s see how Wealthsimple stands up to the best Robo advisor in Canada – Justwealth:

You can click on the links in the chart above to read our detailed reviews of Wealthsimple’s main competitors, or visit our best Canadian robo advisors page for a more in-depth comparison and see why we rank Wealthsimple at the top.

Wealthsimple Review – FAQ

Wealthsimple Review: Summary

First it was just “Wealthsimple” – the whole company was a robo advisor.

Then it was “Wealthsimple Invest” – and the focus shifted.

Now it’s “Wealthsimple Managed Investing” – and it’s clearly becoming an afterthought for the company.

Gone are the days of simple, straightforward value proposition centered around index investing. Now it’s all about cross-selling crypto, getting payment-for-order flow through their discount brokerage account, trying to sell you a mortgage, etc.

It’s pretty clear that chasing profits has radically changed the company. Wealthsimple is at risk of becoming a mediocre jack-of-all-trades, master of none.

If you want a better robo advisor, I’d check out our Justwealth Review. If you want a better DIY online brokerage, see our Qtrade Review. Wealthsimple is still the best at creating beautiful websites, excellent marketing campaigns, and easy-to-navigate apps. I think Wealthsimple Tax adds value to the platform.

But the new focus on adding weird assets like gold, private credit, private equity, and especially cryptocurrency – have really undercut the original promise the company had. The asset allocation issues in their managed portfolio are simply too big an issue to ignore, and consequently they have slid down our Canadian robo advisor list.