Wealthsimple HISA | Wealthsimple | Discussion forum

I use wealthsimple for trading equities, doing my income tax, and have also taken advantage of the 4percent savings account. I have a good experience overall, i have had to call customer service when i was setting my trading account up, they were very helpful

I personally wouldn't recommend depositing more than 300K, because that's the extent of their CDIC protection.

Another benefit of having 100K or more combined in any of the WealthSimple accounts is moving to the Premium tier level. This entitles you to USD accounts ( must opt in ) without paying the 10.00 a month.

https://help.wealthsimple.com/hc/en-ca/articles/14557325627803

1nt2Save said

I have had an account with wealthsimple for a couple years now they have been great to deal with. Sometimes I think that orders do not get filled as good as with other brokers but they do not charge any commissions so it's fine with me since I use them for longer term holds. Instead of their savings account I buy the ETF's CASH or PSA they pay dividends based around the BoC rate 4.8-5% right now. You can buy and sell whenever you want just like any equity.  

I just read on RFD that Wealthsimple is offering dividend reinvestment, which should work even for HISA ETF's like CASH or PSA. This is useful to be able to avoid dealing with the monthly distributions, since fractional shares have to be a minimum of 1.00. You can enable it under
Profile > Account > choose the account and Enable

WS are not a CDIC member and thus the CDIC coverage they offer is really from the banks they keep your $ at/with according to their documentation (https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/magazine/cdic-cash-x3). So, I can only assume that if you're already maxed out CDIC-wise at the banks they use, those WS $ of yours are not necessarily covered ...

Norman1 said
According to their legal terms, the Wealthsimple Cash account balances are held by WealthSimple at CDIC members in trust for the account holders:

Wealthsimple Cash

Our Cash product is offered by Wealthsimple Investments Inc. (“WSII”), a member of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, and Wealthsimple Payments Inc., a FINTRAC registered money services business. The funds you add to a Cash account (the “Funds”) are ultimately held securely in trust with a single or multiple members of the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (“CDIC”). CDIC protects eligible deposits held at CDIC member institutions in case of a member institution’s failure. Wealthsimple Payments Inc. and WSII are not CDIC member institutions. Under the trust framework, CDIC insures eligible cash balances up to $100,000 per beneficiary, per member institution, provided certain disclosure rules are met. Coverage is free and automatic. Learn more about how CDIC protection works. Funds may be spread across multiple different CDIC members in order to extend the CDIC coverage to up to $300,000 in eligible deposits. Any interest earned on the Funds is owned by WSII. The Funds are settled with any CDIC member(s) one business day following the date that Funds are reflected in the Account.

That would make the Wealthsimple Cash balances separate deposits from any balances the account holders have directly with the same CDIC members.  

In my view, "per member institution" is key here since WS is not a member. So, in my view, if you are already at your max directly at TD, those $ you have at TD via WS are not covered

WS is a great rate, but the 3x CDIC is a bit worrying for me. If WS went belly up one day... laid off everyone, and unplugged the server... how would you go about getting the funds from CDIC, without knowing which of their partners your cash is invested with? It's for this reason I just have a small emergency fund with them instead of a large balance.

As I understand it, WS holds your money with a counterparty. So, we have 2 risks:

1. If a counterparty(ies) fails, you are protected by CDIC (up to 300k, they use 3 banks for such amounts).
2. If WS fails, your money is still yours, held by the counterparty. CIPF is there to cover the cost of administering the bankruptcy, etc.

Thats the theory…

There is no CDIC protection for the Wealthsimple Cash account holder because the funds are not deposited in the Cash account holder's name with a CDIC member.

The funds are ultimately deposited in the name of Wealthsimple Investments Inc. in trust. Any CDIC payouts would be sent to the trustee, Wealthsimple Investments.

The deposits are disclosed to be in trust for multiple clients. So, the CDIC coverage is multiplied and is not just $100,000 shared by all the Wealthsimple Cash account holders.

It really doesn't matter if a Wealthsimple Cash account holder also happens to have deposits with a CDIC member that Wealthsimple Investments has deposited funds from the Wealthsimple Cash accounts. Deposits Alice has personally with a CDIC member have separate coverage from any deposits Wealthsimple Investments has in trust for Alice with the same CDIC member.

Ive been thinking, WS save is starting to appear attractive as a cash storage account. The new ability to send interac email transfers at $5000 per 24 hrs/10k per week with a base savings rate of 4.5% for premium WS clients is better than simplii or Tangs base rates! I may use this if I dont get any new promo offers in the new year.

I doubt ill become a WS generational status member. The “free” WS trades concerns me as it executes trades potentially delayed versus questrade. Ie they are making money on the ask bid spreads on my transaction I suspect.

Anyone had issues moving money out of wealthsimple save? How is the customer service line access?
I use the WS trade platform and it has been smooth so far but have never withdrawn funds or had to contact them via the phone line.