Wealthsimple Review – A Chat with CEO Michael Katchen
Summary: We love robo-advisors, and lots of other investors do too. But admittedly, robo-advisors are missing that personal touch some investors prefer. We found the best of both worlds in Wealthsimple. This is our Wealthsimple review along with a chat with CEO Michael Katchen.<br> Ancestry and Investing<br> Michael joined 1000 Memories soon after the company was founded in 2010. It was a site that allowed people to organize and share old family photos and memories and to create family trees. in 2013 the company was sold to Ancestry.com.<br> When the business was sold, Michael’s coworkers came to him for advice on how to invest the money. He had been investing for years and believed that managing your own money was possible and pretty straightforward. He shared his method with his friends.<br> It wasn’t quite easy enough for them. They wanted someone else to do the work of investing for them. With a small pool of ready-made customers, Michael decided to start the Canadian fintech company <a href="https://www.listenmoneymatters.com/go/wealthsimple/" rel="noopener">Wealthsimple</a>. He set out to create a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/11/easy-investing-tips-for-millennials-from-wealthsimples-co-founder.html">Vanguard for millennials</a> and make investing simple and straightforward.<br> <a href="https://www.listenmoneymatters.com/go/wealthsimple/"></a><br> The Human Component<br> The whole point of Robo-advisors is to take humans largely out of the process. Most don’t offer tailored investing advice. Wealthsimple does offer that. The company is a hybrid of traditional financial advisors and <a href="https://www.listenmoneymatters.com/acorns-vs-betterment-vs-wealthfront/">Robo-advisors</a>.<br> The more money you have invested with Wealthsimple, the more services you can access but anyone with an account can call and have their financial questions answered.<br> <a href="https://www.listenmoneymatters.com/go/wealthsimple/"></a><br> Take the Emotion Out of Investing<br> Investors are often their own worst enemies. The market falls and people panic and start selling. Buy and hold always wins when it comes to investing. Ignorance helps stoke the fear that causes investors to make poor decisions.<br> Wealthsimple combats that by teaching their clients the basics of <a href="https://www.listenmoneymatters.com/investment-strategy/">good investing</a>; start investing early, contribute to your investment accounts regularly, and make sure your investments are diversified.<br> When investors are successful, the company they invest with is successful too, so Wealthsimple wants to help create educated, successful investors who make decisions based on information and not based on fear.<br> Wealthsimple Review<br> As Michael explained, educating customers is a critical component of Wealthsimple’s business. And that is evident all over the site.<br> Right on the front page is a slider you can play with to see how much your money will grow when you start with $X and invest $X each month. You can set up an auto-deposit every month, so you don’t even have to think about investing, it just happens.<br> <a href="https://www.listenmoneymatters.com/go/wealthsimple/"></a><br> Fees<br> The fees are right on the front page too, so you don’t have to hunt around for them as you do with some other investment companies. There are two tiers, and you can see what features come with each. For those investing between $0-100,000, the fee is 0.5%. If you have less than $5,000 invested, the first year is free. For those with accounts higher than $100,000, you can open a Wealthsimple black account it’s 0.4%.<br> To qualify for unlimited personal advice at <a href="https://www.listenmoneymatters.com/go/betterment-review-link/">Betterment</a>, there is a $250,000 account minimum, and the fee is 0.50%.<br> Portfolio Type<br> The educating continues on the Details page.
