Is Futureadvisor Available in Canada?

FutureAdvisor is a robo-advisor that manages portfolios through two popular brokerages, Fidelity and TD Ameritrade. Find out if it’s available in Canada below.

What is FutureAdvisor and is it available in Canada?

FutureAdvisor is a San Francisco-based robo-advisor that creates portfolios of low-cost index ETFs that are then held by two brokerages—Fidelity or TD Ameritrade. In addition to regular personal investment accounts, FutureAdvisor offers traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs, as well as joint accounts. If you already happen to have an investment account with Fidelity or TD Ameritrade, then FutureAdvisor simply adds to your existing account and includes its management services.

Founded in 2010, the platform offers free tools to help DIY investors design a portfolio that best reflects their goals. In addition to retirement planning tools, FutureAdvisor offers free, personalized account recommendations, which can be used on any account held at any broker. And while the free version of FutureAdvisor doesn’t offer complimentary tax-loss harvesting, it does rebalance your portfolio up to six times a year. The platform also offers investors access to a team of advisors who are accessible by email or phone. They also have a huge offering of articles and educational content to help you strengthen your investing game.

In comparison to other robo-advisors, FutureAdvisor has a high account minimum. You need $10,000 to get started. The company charges an annual fee of 0.50% of assets managed. And although FutureAdvisor bills itself as a tool to help you plan for retirement, it won’t help you after a certain point: They don’t accept new customers over the age of 68.

Canadians hoping to use FutureAdvisor will have to wait a bit longer, since currently the service is only available to U.S. residents and citizens.

An alternative investment manager in Canada

FutureAdvisor isn’t currently available in Canada, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t similar investment services Canadians can choose. There are many automated investing services available in Canada, and some may even have more features than FutureAdvisor.

Wealthsimple is an investment management service that combines smart technology with expert financial advice. We allow you to put your money in a managed portfolio (Wealthsimple Invest), do self-directed trading (Wealthsimple Trade) or put your money in a high-interest savings product (Wealthsimple Save).

Wealthsimple is anything but a fly-by-night startup; it’s Canada’s largest automated investing service. It’s received $265 million in investment from some of the world’s largest financial institutions in Canada and Europe. Wealthsimple boasts more than 150,000 clients and $5 billion of assets under management. Wealthsimple’s brokerage Wealthsimple Investments Inc., which handles all client trades, is a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF). CIPF is a program that insures all accounts up to one million dollars against member firms bankruptcy.

And Wealthsimple offers some cool products that other robo-advisors might not have. Wealthsimple’s Roundup feature allows you to invest your space change every time you use your debt card. Transactions are rounded up to the nearest dollar and the difference can be saved or invested. Wealthsimple Overflow allows you to invest or save any money over a certain amount in your current account.

We offer a variety of accounts including TFSAs, RRSPs, RESPs and more. Even if you’re not quite ready to start investing, if you have five spare minutes you can go to our two-time Webby-winning website and sign up for a Wealthsimple account to check our what we’re like.

Looking for a great place to invest? Get started with Wealthsimple. Regardless of their account balances, all Wealthsimple Invest clients receive state-of-the-art technology and unlimited human support for a remarkably reasonable management fee.