Introducing: Wealthsimple Work

We think investing should be intelligent, low-fee, and incredibly easy, whether it’s through your employer or on your own. But for a long time, it just wasn’t. Here’s a story about that.

A few years ago, when we founded Wealthsimple, we started putting together what we hoped would be the best, most thoughtful and efficient benefits package for our employees. After all, we’re a tech company, and the competition for the best and the brightest is stiff. We did our due diligence on all the group retirement plans out there, and the truth is... we weren’t so impressed. There wasn’t a single option that met our standards (which are admittedly pretty high). What we found instead were huge management fees, a predisposition for mutual funds (which also carry high fees) and an army of advisors who can often be more motivated by their commissions than what’s in your best financial interests.

But what probably offended us the most was that they were all clunky. Terrible user interfaces; big, complicated reams of paperwork that no regular person could wade through. (We’re pretty picky when it comes to UX and other nerdy stuff like that, we’re sure you understand.)

So we did what any self-respecting financial technology company that specializes in building sophisticated yet incredibly simple to use, low-fee financial products would do: we built our own. We’ve been using it for over five years now. And now it’s available to any Canadian employer interested in lower fees and really awesome UX-es. (And yes, we’ll give you $1,000 if your employer signs up with us. We’ll get to that later.)

What makes it great? Here are a few highlights:

• It uses the same low-cost, diversified portfolios that our Wealthsimple Invest clients enjoy, tailored to each investor’s individual financial goals.

• Clients can choose among our standard portfolios, our Socially Responsible Investing portfolios, or our Halal Investing portfolio.

• Low fees. Group retirement plans typically carry fees in the 1.5-2.5% range, while Wealthsimple charges a management fee of 0.4-0.5%, and the ETFs that make up our portfolio carry low fees too.

• Access to our advisors — who aren’t on commission and have a fiduciary responsibility to give you advice that’s in your best interest, not ours — is available on-demand.

• A delightfully simple digital experience: sign up entirely online, check and adjust your contributions with a few swipes, and see how your investments are doing and never have to deal with a bunch of printed material delivered by mail once a quarter that you can’t understand anyway (unless you work for a mutual fund).

And now the fun part: make some money for switching.

Most financial companies have salespeople, but we think our customers can call, schmooze, and cajole with the best of them – and we'd rather pay you anyway. We’re asking you, our satisfied clients and certified experts on what it’s like to use us, to be our evangelists. If you let your workplace know about Wealthsimple Work and they become customers, you get the sales commission — we’ll plop $1,000 into a non-registered Wealthsimple account. Here’s how to do it:

1. Send the email below to your Human Resources, Finance, and Executive leaders at your organization. (They are typically the people who make group retirement plan decisions.)

2. Copy and paste the email template, but make it your own. Tell them why you love Wealthsimple.

3. Talk to your colleagues and coworkers. Share this information about the difference a Group RRSP with Wealthsimple could make with your organization.

4. Get your commission fee for your successful referral!

Email Template:

Hi!

I’ve been chatting with a few other coworkers about an awesome potential benefit for employees. It's a Group RRSP by Wealthsimple. It’s basically a way for us to contribute pre-tax dollars to a provider that offers a great digital experience and low fees that make it easier to grow our retirement savings.

I know this is your area of expertise, but we would be really excited to move onto the Wealthsimple platform. If you are interested, check them out at get.wealthsimple.com/work to arrange a consultation.

Thanks,

[NAME]

Read the terms and conditions of the Wealthsimple Work $1,000 Employee Promotion here.

Written By

Wealthsimple

Wealthsimple uses technology and smart, friendly humans to help you grow and manage your money. Invest, save, trade, and even do your taxes in a better, simpler way.