Wealthsimple unveils advanced investing tools as it hits $100-billion milestone

Wealthsimple has unveiled a suite of products and services meant to give its customers more advanced investing options and tools at a lower cost.

A growing share of Canadians “are ‘nerding out’ on investing like never before”

These range from zero-commission options contracts and cheaper cryptocurrency trading to the ability to buy and sell gold, access direct indexing, mutual fund exchange, a portfolio featuring alternative investments, loans to help maximize RRSP contributions, and artificial intelligence (AI) stock research tools.

The announcements come as Wealthsimple reveals a major milestone: the Toronto FinTech firm has now surpassed $100 billion CAD in total assets under administration (AUA). Wealthsimple hit the milestone three years ahead of its original December 2028 target, after growing 37 percent since March 31.

Wealthsimple shared the news today from Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto, during the second product showcase in its new Wealthsimple Presents series, which it dubbed “For Nerds Only.” The inaugural edition, held earlier this year, saw Wealthsimple reveal a slew of banking products that included a credit card, instant line of credit, and expanded chequing account.

With many of those offerings available either now or very soon, Wealthsimple has shifted its attention to sharing the company’s vision for the future of investing. “We want to return to our roots and focus on our investing products,” Wealthsimple chief commercial officer Paul Teshima told BetaKit in an interview ahead of today’s event.

Wealthsimple started in 2014 as a robo-adviser. Many at the time saw Wealthsimple as a product only for beginners, early investors, and younger people. Since then, the company has broadened its investment capabilities and moved into other areas of money management, like banking. It has also wooed wealthier clients and more sophisticated traders as part of its quest to build “a full-service financial solution” for Canadians. Now, the 11-year-old company is profitable, caters to more than three million clients, holds over $100 billion in AUA, and is valued at more than $5 billion.

The FinTech firm still views investing as a core part of that vision, and Wealthsimple’s new and upcoming releases reflect recent feedback from retail investor customers. “What we’ve learned is that clients are actually more confident than ever in their own ability to manage their investments, and they’re getting more sophisticated,” Teshima said.

A recent survey of 1,000 Wealthsimple customers between the ages of 25 and 45, who possess over $50,000 in investable assets each, found that 92 percent feel confident managing their own portfolios, two-thirds think do-it-yourself investing is the best approach for them, and 69 percent possess above-average risk tolerance. “They’re embracing what we call their inner finance nerd,” Teshima claimed.

Wealthsimple vice-president and head of capital markets Tara Kennedy told BetaKit that a growing share of Canadians “are ‘nerding out’ on investing like never before” by seeking to leverage the strategies once reserved for institutional and wealthy investors.

But 79 percent of the Wealthsimple customers surveyed feel that slow-to-innovate Canadian financial institutions are holding them back from reaching their goals.

“Today’s retail investor is intentional, curious, and motivated,” Kennedy said. “Our latest updates give them the powerful, intuitive tools they need to seize every opportunity in the market.”

As Wealthsimple looks to once again level up its investment capabilities to meet that demand, Teshima argued that there are three fundamentals to a successful investing strategy: low fees, diversification, and leverage. Today’s announcements fall into those three categories.

As it looks to lower fees, Wealthsimple claims it is now the first and only brokerage in Canada to offer true zero-commission options contracts, after eliminating its per-contract fees. The company is also launching a new volume-based, discounted fee structure for crypto trading. These capabilities, which come in addition to the zero-commission stock and exchange-traded fund (ETF) trading that Wealthsimple already provides, are now available.

“We believe that we need to continue to innovate in the world of investing, and AI is going to be part of that.”

Later this year, Wealthsimple will let clients move accounts with mutual funds to its platform, cover the transfer fees, and charge lower fees. In early 2026, the company intends to launch Norbert’s Gambit, an oft-requested currency conversion technique to help clients skip high foreign exchange spreads.

Wealthsimple is betting these moves will help it both lure new clients and convince existing customers to bring more business to its platform. “What we’ve learned is, over time, as people start using our products more, they tend to consolidate more of their wealth and do more things with us,” Teshima said.

On the diversification front, the company has rolled out gold trading in Canadian dollars with no-cost storage and home delivery, as well as a direct indexing portfolio, which typically involves support from an advisor. It says this could help clients outperform market indexes by 0.5 percent annually through strategic tax-loss harvesting.

By the end of 2025, Wealthsimple also intends to provide more advanced option strategies and launch its Summit portfolio, an advanced offering for long-term investors with exposure to private equity and private credit.

With regard to leverage, Wealthsimple intends to roll out Retirement Accelerator low-interest loans to help investors maximize their registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) contributions in early 2026.

Thanks in part to its acquisition of Montréal’s Fey earlier this year, Wealthsimple also plans to roll out an AI-powered investment research and trading dashboard to help clients find relevant stocks, analyze performance, and summarize market drivers.

“We believe that we need to continue to innovate in the world of investing, and AI is going to be part of that,” Teshima said, noting that Wealthsimple’s clients have been asking for more in-depth research capabilities.

Teshima sees room for the company to leverage natural language processing and generative AI to enable that research, provided any such tools pass rigorous testing for accuracy and have the right safeguards in place. He noted that Wealthsimple has already been using AI for customer support after following a similar process, and is implementing both its own AI models and external options, while retaining control over customer data.

While many of these products appear geared towards more sophisticated investors seeking to gain a competitive edge through more complex and riskier trading strategies and financial instruments, Teshima said the company believes that “more than just a subset of Canadians” will be interested in them.

“We’re hoping that we’ll get a mix of people, both who today will start using the tools, and some people just want to learn so that maybe in the future, they want to take on some of these strategies,” Teshima said.

Disclosure: Wealthsimple vice-president of payments strategy and chief compliance officer, Hanna Zaidi, sits on BetaKit’s board of directors.

Feature image courtesy Wealthsimple.