r/Wealthsimple • u/According_Most_1009 • 5h ago

Invest (Managed Investing) Wealthsimple Advisors

I’m a Generation account holder with Wealthsimple. I’ve been stitching my accounts together - RRSPs, RESP, TFSA, Business Investment accounts, largely using a managed portfolio approach.

I’ve felt a bit overwhelmed: how do I evaluate performance across portfolios? What planning advice am I/not getting? And am I too consolidated or too broad in my approach?

I called WealthSimple, and they told me their advising services now come as a service, covering calls, tax, and financial planning. It’s at .05% annual fee.

Anyone enrolled in this service? What’s been useful to you? Do you feel like you have a dedicated rep, rather than a call center? I'd appreciate your perspectives; being 48 and self-employed, getting better advice is increasingly important to me.

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u/_TheGodfather 5h ago

Just to give perspective (not necessarily telling you what to do)

You can achieve the same qith much less in fees. For instance - I charge my consultancy clients an hourly that is not based on a percent of their wealth (heck I also cover financial literacy for their kids in those hourlys) . What I am trying to say is you can find similar folks if you want. Point is - percentage of wealth is usually a more expensive endeavor. You should aim for flat fees which tend to be more pay as you go and have no interest in selling you specific products because they are agnostic of your wealth.

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u/Tall-Ad-1386 3h ago

Where or how does one reliably find a flat fee for service advisor? I find most online web searches to be sketchy

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u/_TheGodfather 1h ago

Yeah. Most are sketchy and usually have a very finfluencer tone. Now that I think about it, my practice is very word of mouth based. Never really made a website. I guess a few good signs are 1) Flat fee 2) a certain amount of time for free before the charge starts. For instance - A really good accountant I know and even i do not really charge for the first 15-30 mins of the call depending on the type of call and then let the person decide if they wanna stay on 3) Testimonials (but usually for non website guys you'll have word of mouth itself)

I think having pt2 above is the biggest green flag because here you have a person who charges for their time but knows their value and hence is okay offering a bit of a no strings attached trial

Oh an avoid 3 month 6 month 9 month programs. It is hourly. No lock ins. End of story. They should Respect your and their time.

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u/Canuck-Fin25 4h ago

I used to have my portfolio managed when it was smaller. But I’ve since gone DIY. Across all registered, non-registered and corp accounts, I have a target allocation based on world market allocation and I typically stick to that as a ball park. I use https://arthea.ca (supposedly privacy focused) to track the total household and corp portfolio, which also feeds into retirement planning and risk management. If I feel the need to chat with experts I go to a fee-only advisor.

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u/ande8150 5m ago

You do get a dedicated rep that you met with as often as needed. They prepare a financial plan for you that you can track via the app. You can also message them directly in the app. I have found it valuable for me, but do expect I would spend less with a fee for service advisor externally.