Wealthsimple Invest is an automated investing service. We manage your investments for you using a personalized portfolio of low-fee exchange-traded funds.

What’s the difference between Invest and Wealthsimple’s other products? 

• Wealthsimple Cash is a peer-to-peer payment platform for instantly sending money to friends and family
• Wealthsimple Crypto is a simple and secure way to buy and sell cryptocurrencies through a personal (non-registered) account
• Wealthsimple Tax is an easy way to file your tax return online
• Wealthsimple Trade is a self-directed investment platform. You can buy and sell thousands of stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on major Canadian and U.S. exchanges. There are no trading commissions and no account minimums.

Get started with Wealthsimple Invest

Wealthsimple Invest offers a range of different accounts to suit your financial needs. You can open both registered and non-registered accounts.

Registered accounts
A registered account is an account that is registered with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) using your social insurance number (SIN). When you open a registered account, we’ll register it with the government on your behalf.

Registered accounts often have tax benefits, although they also come with certain restrictions, like contribution limits.

Non-registered accounts
A non-registered account is an account that is not registered with the government. With non-registered accounts, there are no contribution limit, no penalties, and no limits to how many you can open. However, you are taxed on every dollar you earn, including capital gains, interest, and dividends.

If you have one of these accounts at another financial institution and would like to transfer it to Wealthsimple, take a look at our guide to transferring your account.

Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA)

The tax-free savings account (TFSA) is designed to help you save and invest money without paying tax on the gains.

Although it is called a ‘savings’ account, a better name for it would be a ‘investment’ account since you can invest money in all kinds of investment products from within a TFSA. When you open a TFSA in Invest, we’ll automatically invest your funds for you based on your risk profile.

There is a limited amount you’re allowed to contribute to a TFSA each year.

The details

• You can open multiple TFSAs in Wealthsimple Invest.
• A TFSA must be held by one individual only. Each person has their own individual contribution limit, which cannot be combined with anyone else's.
• You can withdraw as much money as you like from a TFSA, however the amount you withdraw will not be added back to your total contribution room until the following calendar year.
• You can ask us to invest some of your TFSA in a ‘high-interest savings’ ETF if you plan to make a withdrawal within a shorter timeframe.
• You can designate beneficiaries and successor holders to your TFSA.
• There are penalties if you over-contribute to a TFSA.
• If you are a US citizen and are considering opening a TFSA, please note that the IRS considers TFSAs to be ‘foreign trusts’ and therefore any income earned in these accounts would be considered taxable on your US tax return.

Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP)

A registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) account is designed to help Canadians save for retirement.

The money you contribute to your RRSP is tax-deductible. This means you can subtract the amount you contribute from your income and pay less in income taxes.

Besides saving for retirement, you can also use funds from your RRSP to buy a home or even fund your education. When you open an RRSP in Wealthsimple Invest, we’ll automatically invest your funds for you based on your risk profile.

The details

• You can open multiple RRSPs in Wealthsimple Invest.
• You can ask us to invest some of your RRSP in a ‘high-interest savings’ ETF if you plan to make a withdrawal within a shorter timeframe.
• You can designate beneficiaries and successor holders to your RRSP.
• To avoid unnecessary taxes, you should convert your RRSP to an RRIF by December 31st of the year you turn 71.

Spousal RRSP

A spousal registered retirement savings plan (Spousal RRSP) is an RRSP that can help lighten the tax load for couples with a big income disparity.

It helps you pool your retirement savings, so that the higher-income earner doesn’t have a large pile of retirement savings in their RRSP while the lower-income earner has a small pile.

Your individual contribution limit remains the same whether you have an RRSP, a Spousal RRSP, or both.

Locked-in Retirement Account (LIRA)

If you have a pension from a former employer but are not retired, you’ll need a LIRA (or an LRSP). You can't contribute to a LIRA, but you can take advantage of Wealthsimple's investment strategy for the funds in your account.

The details

• You must convert your LIRA to a Life Income Fund (LIF) by the time you turn 71.

Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP)

A Registered Education Savings Plan lets you put money aside for a child's education. Contributing $2,500 per year will get you the full Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG). The CESG matches 20% of your contributions to an RESP up to a maximum of $500 per year. There are additional grants available for low to moderate income families and residents of certain provinces.

The details

• Anyone can open an RESP for a child.
• An individual can open an RESP, or you can open a joint family RESP with a spouse or common-law partner.
• You can contribute a lifetime maximum of $50,000 per child to your RESP.
• We’ll automatically waive the management fees for your RESP if you are eligible for the Canada Learning Bond grant for low income families.

Save

Wealthsimple Save is a savings account. It currently pays 0.5% interest.

A Save account is a good choice when you need to access your funds quickly. People often use it to save for a near-term purchase, or to build an emergency fund. A Save account is a non-registered account, so you’ll need to report the interest you earn each year in your tax filing.

The details

• There is no minimum deposit.
• There are no fees for deposits, withdrawals or holding money in the account.

Joint Save

A Joint Save account is the same as a Save account, except that multiple people can contribute and withdraw from the account.

When it’s tax season, either owner can report the interest earned in the account, or you can split the income evenly between the two owners.

You can have multiple Joint Save accounts with different co-owners, or multiple accounts with the same co-owner.

Non-registered personal account

A non-registered personal account (or joint account) has no deposit limits or withdrawal restrictions. All the interest, dividends, and capital gains that you earn in a non-registered account will have an impact on your tax reporting.

People often use this type of account once they have hit their contribution limit in their RRSPs and or TFSAs.

The details

• When you open a non-registered account, we have to take a few extra steps to verify your identity as these accounts are not registered with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). We perform this extra step of verification to protect our clients' identities and for anti-money laundering (AML) purposes.

Business

You can open a Save account or a non-registered investment account under your business’s name.

Frequently asked questions

• Why is my SIN required to open an account with Wealthsimple?
  All registered accounts (such as a TFSA or RRSP) must be registered with the CRA. In order to register these accounts with the CRA, we require your SIN. Additionally, all non-registered accounts require that we verify your identity with a third-party credit reporting agency to follow FINTRAC identity verification rules, which also requires your SIN.
  
  
• Should I open a TFSA or an RRSP?
  If you’re not sure whether to contribute to a TFSA or an RRSP first, take a look at our guide: RRSP vs TFSA: What’s the Better Choice?
  
  
• Can I get further investment advice from Wealthsimple?
  If you’re not sure which account is right for you, consider reaching out to our team of fiduciary advisors for help. You can book time with us here.

Wealthsimple Invest is designed to help you achieve financial freedom by giving you easy, low-cost and transparent financial tools.

Every time you open an account, we’ll help you choose the right portfolio for your investment goals. In the background, we take care of the hard stuff like asset allocation, automatic rebalancing and tax management.

Wealthsimple Invest works based on the following principles -

1. Diversify your assets
2. Tune out the noise
3. Keep costs low

1. Diversify your assets

History shows that when you try to predict the future – by picking stocks, for example – rather than investing in a highly diversified way, you are more likely to underperform the market.

With Invest, we don’t try to time or predict the market, but instead hold assets that will perform well at different times. This style of investing results in smoother, more attractive returns over time.

Wealthsimple’s portfolios are designed by an expert team of investors who make sure your portfolio will be resilient across market environments and cycles. We diversify our portfolios across asset classes and geography and have a bias towards higher quality, more resilient assets.

2. Tune out the noise

When you sign up for Wealthsimple Invest, we’ll ask you about your investment experience, financial circumstances, what you're saving for, and when you need to access your funds.

This helps us customize your portfolio to your specific timeline and risk profile.

Our goal is to help you invest your funds in a way that maximizes your chances of making a positive return, while minimizing the chances that you’ll lose money by the time you need to access your funds.

This way, you can tune out the news headlines and weather any bad times knowing that you’ve taken on the right level of risk for your situation and have given yourself the right amount of time to bounce back from any losses.

3. Keep costs low

While most mutual funds in Canada charge more than 2% a year, Wealthsimple Invest charges between 0.4% - 0.5%. Over the course of many years, these fees can make a huge difference to your returns.

Wealthsimple Invest is so much cheaper than mutual funds because we frequently use ETFs to track entire genres of investments. Unlike mutual funds, we aren’t trying to guess individual winners in the stock or bond markets and so our portfolio managers don’t need to make large numbers of trades – and trading is what costs money.

We’ll always choose the right ETF for you given your tax situation, any embedded capital gains you may have, and your account type.

We aim to optimize for withholding taxes within a fund and provide you with the lowest total cost of ownership. For example, we use certain ETFs traded on US exchanges for RRSPs, but use Canadian-listed ETFs for TFSAs.

We also negotiate on your behalf with ETF providers to reduce your management expense ratio fees (MER).

You can transfer your existing investment account at another banking institution into one of Wealthsimple’s investment products. It generally takes 2 - 4 weeks to complete a transfer.

Set up your transfer

Transfer into Wealthsimple Invest
Wealthsimple Invest is our automated investing service that manages your investments for you. There are lots of different types of accounts you can transfer into Invest:

• Transfer a RRSP, TFSA or personal investment account into Invest
• Transfer an existing RESP
• Transfer a pension
• Transfer shares from an employee stock plan

Transfer into Wealthsimple Trade
Wealthsimple Trade is our commission-free trading service. It’s a good choice if you’re looking to actively manage your portfolio yourself.

• Transfer an RRSP, TFSA or personal investment account into Trade

Transfer timelines

Most transfers take 1 - 4 weeks to complete, although in some cases it can take up to 8 weeks if the transfer is more complex. Here are some of the things that extend transfer timelines –

The transfer method
An institution will transfer your funds to Wealthsimple as either an electronic funds transfer or as a cheque in the mail. An electronic funds transfer is typically much faster than a cheque in the mail.

Mis-matched information
When the information we have on file doesn’t match what your banking institution has, it can introduce a delay into the process. Common reasons for mis-matched information include:

• Information in your Wealthsimple account – like your account number, full name, SIN, residential address and date of birth – doesn’t match the information your bank has on file.
• Your digital signature is dramatically different from the signature your banking institution has on file.
• You’re transferring one account into a different type of account.

Note: You can also view and cancel your pending transfers.

Tips for a successful transfer

• Make sure the information in your Wealthsimple account matches the information your bank has on file
  Double-check that your account number, full name, SIN, residential address and date of birth are up to -date. Ask your bank to update your details if the information doesn’t match. Alternatively, send us an email and we can amend the transfer form for you.
  
  
• Create the most accurate digital signature you can
  If you notice that the signature on your transfer form is drastically different from your regular signature, then it is possible that your financial institution may reject our request.
  
  
• Be aware of transfer fees from your institution
  Your institution may charge a transfer fee of up to $150, and this will be deducted from your account value. If there are insufficient funds to cover the transfer fee, then your bank may reject the transfer request.
  
  
• Make sure you’re transferring into the same type of account
  When transferring investment accounts, it is important that the account you have with your bank matches the investment account you have at Wealthsimple. For example: if you're transferring a Spousal RRSP, make sure you open a Spousal RRSP at Wealthsimple.

Wealthsimple Trade is a self-directed investment platform with two different kinds of accounts - Trade accounts and Crypto accounts.

• Trade accounts allow you to use our self-directed investment platform. You can buy and sell thousands of stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on major Canadian and U.S. exchanges. There are no trading commissions and no account minimums.
• Crypto accounts are a simple and secure way to buy and sell cryptocurrencies through a personal (non-registered) account

Get started with Wealthsimple Trade

1. Download the Wealthsimple Trade mobile app on the App Store or Google Play store
2. Set up your profile
3. Open an account
4. Make a deposit

Fees

The fee structure differs between standard Trade accounts and Crypto accounts. Click below to read more about fees for each account type —

• Fees associated with Trade accounts
• Fees associated with Crypto accounts

What’s the difference between Wealthsimple Trade and other Wealthsimple products?

• Wealthsimple Invest is an automated investing service that manages your investments for you using a personalized portfolio of low-fee exchange-traded funds
• Wealthsimple Cash is a peer-to-peer payment platform for instantly sending money to friends and family
• Wealthsimple Tax is an easy way to file your tax return online

Will Wealthsimple Trade offer me any advice on which assets to buy & sell?

Wealthsimple and Wealthsimple employees will not be able to offer Wealthsimple Trade clients any advice or recommendations around which assets to buy and sell (or the timing of when to buy or sell them). Wealthsimple Trade is an entirely self-directed platform, so clients are responsible for their investment activities.

If you're looking to learn more about the Trade platform or have some general questions, you can reach out to our support team for assistance. 

How does Wealthsimple protect my account?

We use state-of-the-art data encryption and two-factor authentication (2FA) to keep your accounts safe and secure.

Wealthsimple Trade is offered by Canadian ShareOwner Investments Inc. (ShareOwner). ShareOwner is a member of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada. Customer accounts held at ShareOwner are protected by CIPF in the event ShareOwner becomes insolvent.

You can currently buy or sell 34 different cryptocurrencies in Wealthsimple Crypto.

For more information about each token, including definitions, background and risk statements, take a look at the links below.

Wealthsimple Trade currently supports the following assets, as long as they meet our eligibility criteria (see below):

• Stocks (only common shares)
• ETFs
• Select cryptocurrencies 

Search for a stock or ETF

To search for a specific stock or ETF, follow the instructions below:

Eligibility criteria

A stock or ETF must meet our eligibility criteria to become available on Wealthsimple Trade.

When you search for an asset that is unavailable to trade, you'll see a brief message explaining why. Some of the reasons are as follows –

The security type is not supported
Only stocks and ETFs are supported on Wealthsimple Trade. Wealthsimple Trade does not support any other assets, including:

• Mutual Funds
• Preferred Shares
• Options
• Securities that trade Over-the-counter (OTC)
• Forwards & Futures
• Rights and Warrants
• Bonds
• Investment Savings Accounts & Money Markets
• Stocks & ETFs that trade on non-North American exchanges

This security isn’t listed on a supported exchange
Wealthsimple Trade currently supports stocks and ETFs trading on the following exchanges:

• Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX)
• TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV)
• New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)
• NASDAQ
• NEO
• Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE)
• BATS Exchange

If the security you're looking for is listed on another exchange or is traded over-the-counter (OTC) you will not be able to purchase it on the Trade platform. If the security is listed on both a US exchange and a Canadian exchange, we will only support the security listed on the Canadian exchange.

This security may not meet our settlement or average daily trading volume requirements
We only allow securities to be traded that settle with the Canadian Depository for Securities (CDS). We also impose minimum price and volume constraints for stocks traded on the platform.

The security is delisted, suspended, or halted
In most cases, orders can’t be submitted for securities that are delisted or suspended. Orders can be submitted for securities that are halted, however, they will not fill until trading resumes.

Request a new stock or ETF

If you'd like to request a stock or ETF that's not currently available on the Trade platform, you can add it to the feedback survey below:

Wealthsimple Trade Stock and ETF Request Form

While the form doesn't guarantee that we will add your requested securities to the platform, we'll monitor responses to help make the Trade experience better.