Invisor investment management inc series#

For instance, at Nest Wealth, funds are held at NBCN Inc., a subsidiary of National Bank of Canada. Your assets are held in a brokerage account in your name at a chartered bank. In the event of a dispute, access to the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI ) is available. Every advising representative is also registered.

The robo-advisors are registered as Portfolio Managers which means they have a fiduciary duty. The Ontario Securities Commission regulates Robos in Ontario, for example. Robos are regulated by provincial securities commissions. Some firms may offer a SRI (Socially Responsible Investing) option. Some firms include other categories such as high-yield and real-return bonds, emerging market equities and REIT's (Real Estate Investment Trust). The basic investment categories are investment-grade government and corporate bonds and Canadian, U.S. Most keep the number of ETFs and funds down to seven or so. Typically, they use model portfolios consisting of a number of liquid ETFs, low cost mutual funds, other redeemable investment funds, or pooled funds or cash and cash equivalents. The online investment advisors operating in Canada today are generally not using complex products for their clients’ investments. The options for how an investor and the advisor communicate are typically by telephone, email, online messaging or SKYPE/video chats. Also, you can always initiate contact with your advisor. This is especially the case when the registered financial advisor notices inconsistencies in the way you have answered questions (e.g. The online investment advisor typically will also get in contact with you prior to completing this information-gathering process. The online investment advisor is responsible for establishing whether there is enough information about you to allow for suitable recommendations to be made. This includes determining things like your goals, risk tolerance, time horizon and level of desired liquidity. This information is meant to confirm your identity as well as to give the firm a good understanding of your investment profile and needs.

Invisor investment management inc series#

Through an interactive website, a series of questions are used to gather crucial information about you as a part of the Know Your Client (KYC) process. It’s not robotic: it’s a hybrid model where a human advisor uses online tools for efficiency but is required to meet all regulatory standards. This means the online advisor makes investment decisions on your behalf without your specific approval for each trade.

The online advice model available to Canadian investors provides discretionary portfolio management. If you invest $5000 initially and $1500 per annum for 25 years at 6% average return you get an ending balance of $102,256 after paying fees of $23,402! Robos can dramatically improve on that and there is reason to believe that many investors dissatisfied with the prevailing system of conflicted advice, unsuitable investments (sometimes even fraud) and high fees will embrace this new service. With an average MER of approximately 2.2 % the long term de-compounding of returns is astonishing. Another approach is DIY investors who use discount brokers, but that requires more personal attention and time.Īccording to independent research firm Morningstar and others, Canadian mutual fund fees rank among the highest in the world yet they are the investment of choice for millions of Canadians. There is also Tangerine's family of index funds. The closest competition comes from mutual fund wraps, low cost balanced funds and target date funds which are much more expensive. Today, robo-advice is seen simultaneously as a Fintech segment bound to benefit from an increasing regulatory emphasis on fiduciary standards, a challenger to the conventional advisory business and a vehicle to serve less affluent investors.Ĭurrent players in the Canadian robo-advisor space include Canadian ShareOwner, Idema Investments, Invisor, ModernAdvisor, Nest Wealth, Questrade's Portfolio IQ, Smart Money Capital Management, WealthBar and Wealthsimple with more expected over the next 12 months. Robos capitalize on the power of the internet and the use of very low cost products such as exchange-traded funds (ETF's) and algorithms for constructing optimal portfolios.The growing popularity of algorithm-based investment advice is changing the financial services landscape. Robo-advisors or fully automated online investment platforms, are springing up quickly, appealing mainly, but not exclusively, to less affluent or younger investors.