Wealthsimple - Word of CAUTION! | Page 2 | Wealthsimple | Discussion forum

⬆️ I'm of the same mindset, great post.

mordko said

I thank WS for much needed innovation in the Canadian banking sector, but it seems like competitiors have leapt past them.

I now have most of my liquid net worth with WS. Most of it is in the form of investment accounts.

There are a lot of perks. No charges on anything, much faster transfers in and out vs competition, airport lounges, decent rates on chequing accounts, great cc for spending outside Canada, Strava, newspapers, etc. I also love the interface which a) gives me what I need fast and b) works (unlike TDDI which I find to be buggie and cumbersome). And I find my “relationship manager” at WS to be very competent and responsive. That was an issue at other FIs. Questrade… I generally like it but found it slow to move money in and out and the platform is not as good for my needs.

At Wealthsimple I can download all the dividends and purchases to my Google sheet for all of my umpteen accounts with just a few clicks monthly (so I can track ACB, overall growth, etc). At TDDI I had to manually click through each account which was slow and in the end more efficient to do manually which is error prone).

Have competitors leapt over them? Thats a matter of opinion, obviously. Wealthsimple holds 84 billion in assets (AUM). Thats strictly off-balance sheet client investments. Nearly double of what they had last year and still growing way, way faster than any competitor in Canada (including big 5). The range of services is expanding fast too (moving into mortgages, lines of credit, etc, etc). CIBC still has 4 times as much in assets but is growing at circa 10% per year rather than 90%.

Wealthsimple now serves 3 million Canadians vs half a million for EQ Bank. Number of users is growing very fast too. I think its very hard to argue that competitors have leapt past them.  

My only complaint so far re WS is its statements / reporting etc. The app is also not as intuitive as the big banks app in my mind.
The inability to download the statement in csv is big negative in my mind.

Great last post @mordko , your perspective is appreciated.

mordko said

You can download statements in CSV.

1. Log in on the web.
2. Go to Profile → Documents.
3. Click Request documents (top right).
4. Choose Holdings report (CSV).
5. Select the account(s) to include and click Download CSV.  

have u they change it recently ? Last time I picked csv, it only shows me transactions for the month, and not the holdings, which I want to upload into my custom excel sheet.

Norman1 said

mordko said
These weren’t “trust accounts” under a fiduciary regime like a lawyer’s IOLTA account (Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts). They were pooled accounts where Synapse controlled the ledger, and customers had only a contractual right, not a segregated, legally protected trust claim.

In Canada, when Wealthsimple holds deposits, it does so “in trust for clients” at multiple CDIC member banks. Those trust arrangements are explicitly recognized by CDIC rules. CDIC’s own materials clarify that deposits placed in trust can receive distinct insurance coverage per beneficiary.
…

No, Wealthsimple does not. There are no deposits and no trust arrangement.

Wealthsimple Payment is not chartered bank, not a credit union, not a mortgage investment corporation, or any other business in Canada allowed to accept retail deposits. Just like Synapse was not allowed to accept deposits.

Those in-trust accounts are not trusts. They are just a mechanism to multiply CDIC coverage, by declaring to the bank others (beneficiaries) who may have a claim against the account owner for those funds. The claims are against the account owner. Not against the bank issuing the account. The claims have nothing to do with the in-trust bank account. Just like those for-the-benefit-of accounts used by Synapse.

Retail Payment Activities Act doesn't matter yet. It won't be leaving its transition period until next week, September 8.  

“There are no deposits and no trust arrangement.”.

Incorrect. Wealthsimple clearly states that client funds are deposited in trust at CDIC-member banks: “ The funds you add to a chequing account (the “Funds”) are ultimately held securely in trust with a single or multiple members of the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (“CDIC”).” Are you saying WS is lying or just haven’t read the terms?

“ Claims are against the account owner, not the bank.” Incorrect. In a bank failure, CDIC insurance attaches to the deposit at the member bank and flows through to each beneficiary of a qualifying trust—so the insured claim is on the failed bank/CDIC, not on Wealthsimple.

“ Those in-trust accounts are not trusts. ” Yes they are in the CDIC/banking sense: they are legally recognized trust deposits. And thats the only sense that is relevant here. A deposit recorded at a CDIC-member bank “in trust for” clients is a trust deposit in CDIC’s terminology.

“Wealthsimple Payment is not chartered bank, not a credit union, not a mortgage investment corporation, or any other business in Canada allowed to accept retail deposits. “. It isn’t. It's acting as a broker.

They handle client funds through partner banks that legally accept deposits and invest them under CDIC-insured trust arrangements. It's like Wealthsimple (and TDDI/RBC Direct et al) when they handle stocks while not being an exchange and not issuing shares. As long as I accept the custody risk inherent in brokers handling my shares (which I do, above cipf coverage) it’s consistent to accept Wealthsimple handling my cash. My “custody risk exposure” for investment accounts is much larger, although both risks are very small.

This is getting way too complicated and messy. In these situations, I normally step back 15 yards and punt.

Question: Who owns Wealthsimple? Is it one of the major banks? Apologies if this question was previously raised and answered.

COIN said
This is getting way too complicated and messy. In these situations, I normally step back 15 yards and punt.

Question: Who owns Wealthsimple? Is it one of the major banks? Apologies if this question was previously raised and answered.  

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealthsimple

Norman1 said

COIN said
This is getting way too complicated and messy. In these situations, I normally step back 15 yards and punt.

Question: Who owns Wealthsimple? Is it one of the major banks? Apologies if this question was previously raised and answered.

Wealthsimple is owned by private investors. From multiple rounds of financing, there are over 30 different investors. Their largest investor is Power Corporation.

According to their 2025 Q2 report, Power and its subsidiaries own around 42% of Wealthsimple:

Wealthsimple
At June 30, 2025, Portage Ventures I, Power Financial and IGM collectively held, through a limited partnership controlled by Power Financial as well as direct investments, an undiluted equity interest in Wealthsimple of 54.2% (54.4% at December 31, 2024), representing a voting interest of 59.4% and a fully diluted equity interest of 42.2%. Wealthsimple, founded in 2014, is one of Canada’s fastest-growing financial technology companies, and provides simple digital tools for growing and managing money. …

Drake, his company DreamCrew, Ryan Reynolds, and Michael J. Fox were among the investors in a 2021 financing round.  

Not accurate. PowerCorp owns 54.2% not 42%.

In the future if every possible share gets issued, and PowerCorp does not buy any more then hypothetically their ownership could fall below majority (42.2%).

It's getting a bit ridiculous. Is this some kind of conflict of interest that keeps triggering disinformation on WS?

It's interesting that no comments are allowed in the Wealth Simple Breach thread.