Is Merrill Edge Available in Canada?

Merrill Edge is an online brokerage and trading platform combining Merrill Lynch’s investing tools with Bank of America’s platform. Find out if it’s available for Canadian investors below.

What is Merrill Edge and is it available in Canada?

Merrill Edge is an online brokerage platform that merged Bank of America’s online investing platform with Merrill Lynch’s research and investing tools to create a one-stop-shop online brokerage.

Merrill Edge was launched in 2010, two years after Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch, in order to streamline the investing process and give investors access to research, investing guidance, and tools. A mobile app followed in 2011, allowing for a low-cost, easily accessible online investing platform that customers can use on the go. In addition to being a trading and investing platform, Merrill Edge offers pre-designed portfolios, which makes it a robo-advisor.

At $2.95 per trade, commissions are a bit higher than those of other online-trading platforms—although free trades are available to investors who qualify for the company’s Preferred Rewards program. And since Merrill Edge is part of Bank of America, clients have access to customer support at various Bank of America locations. Ultimately, the platform is particularly useful to investors who already have a Bank of America account.

Canadian investors hoping to use Merrill Edge will have to look for other alternatives because Merrill Edge is only available to U.S. customers.

An alternative investment manager in Canada

Merrill Edge 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 here, some may even have more features than Merrill Edge.

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, anyone with five spare minutes 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.