Does Wealthsimple hold my money directly?

Understandably folks have a bit of trepidation about entrusting their retirement savings with a company that hasn’t been around a decade, let alone a century. And even though we promise to have your best interests in mind, it’s important for you to know that even if Greta in accounting decided to become a Bond villain tomorrow, there’s no way she’d even be able to get her paws on your money.

The only money of yours we’re able to access are your (shockingly low) monthly fees. The rest is held by what’s called a custodian — a financial institution that has one job: to safeguard assets. The specific firm we work with is called Apex. The Apex guys are a pretty stoic bunch. They may not be the life of the party, but they’re all you could ever want in a custodian — they’re serious about the $30 billion in assets that they hold for the clients of Wealthsimple and more than 100 other financial institutions.

Long story short: your money is super safe with Apex. They’re a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a private corporation that regulates member brokerage firms and exchange markets. All FINRA members like Apex are also members of SIPC, the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, which insures investments up to $500,000 in the exceedingly rare case one of their members goes bankrupt.