Wealthsimple has entered into a partnership with Grayhawk Investment Strategies, an independent wealth management firm, that will see the organizations working together to serve high-net-worth investors.
“A modern advice and service platform leveraging sophisticated technology is fundamental to delivering a great client experience.”
-CEO of Wealthsimple for Advisors
Through the partnership, Wealthsimple for Advisors, the FinTech’s automated management platform for financial planners, investment advisors, portfolio managers, and dealers, will provide Grayhawk’s team with its technology, as well as dealer and advisory services for Grayhawk clients. In return, Wealthsimple will offer Calgary-based Grayhawk’s investment strategies to advisors with high net worth clients through its own platform. According to Wealthsimple, this “strategic alliance will broaden the range of clients who have access to Grayhawk’s institutional-style investments.”
“We are disrupting the way successful families achieve intergenerational wealth transfer by combining a focus on building deep relationships with a best-in-class institutional quality portfolio,” said Michael Kaumeyer, president and CEO at Grayhawk. “We believe by partnering with Wealthsimple, we can deliver a digital experience to our families that will allow for a much better online experience, resulting in greater access and connection to the next generation as they clearly understand that space very well.”
Grayhawk, founded in 2015, focuses on offering “successful families” endowment-style investment portfolios that meet “intergenerational investment objectives.” The firm, which also has an office in Toronto, stated that is currently works with 30 families across Canada, and according to The Globe and Mail it handles $800-million in assets under management.
“Grayhawk provides a total portfolio solution that offers access to capabilities generally available to only large institutional investors,” Wealthsimple stated. “Through this alliance, Grayhawk and Wealthsimple are further broadening the range of clients who have access to these investments.”
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“A modern advice and service platform leveraging sophisticated technology is fundamental to delivering a great client experience – this is true for people of all ages and wealth levels,” said J-F Courville, CEO of Wealthsimple for Advisors. “This partnership highlights how this matters for someone with a portfolio of $50 million as much as it does for someone with a portfolio of $50,000.”
In May, Wealthsimple raised a $100 million investment round, led by Germany-based Allianz X. The round also saw participation from Power Financial Corp., which as of early May owned an 88.9 percent voting interest stake in Wealthsimple.
Wealthsimple CEO Michael Katchen told BetaKit after the raise that he wants to build Wealthsimple into a full stack financial service, noting that Wealthsimple would lean on its investment backend to further that goal. The wealth management platform also has plans to go public. Katchen, who has admitted that he’s “obsessed with” going public, did admit to BetaKit that an IPO is still a few years down the road, but pointed to a target of $20 billion in assets under administration (AUA) as the tipping point (the company recently announced $4.3 billion in AUA as of Q1 2019).
