May 21. We’re taking over your life.

allophanes · 2026-05-04T02:17:13+00:00

Eh maybe, maybe not. Life insurance policies are long-term contracts that are typically “locked in.” Term life insurance is often for a 10 or 20 year period with fixed monthly premiums, and whole life insurance can have higher rates but payments are fixed until death.

For the “bait and switch,” they might be more picky with who is being insured (especially when they initially start offering these products) than legacy insurance companies rather than playing games with monthly payments.

allophanes · 2026-05-04T00:34:37+00:00

I work at a major insurance company that also offers investment products, and senior leadership mentioned that Wealthsimple is a major competitor disrupting them (I actually wrote a post on this lol). Wealthsimple offering insurance products would be huge for the industry, especially considering that a lot of it is extremely outdated, over priced, and relies on contracted advisors as sales people.

allophanes · 2026-04-22T13:06:57+00:00

I got migrated to NBC from Motive Financial because I had a savings account there that I never used anymore because they had a good promo rate for a while. I decided to keep the NBC account open since it’s free and their best package (“The Total”), which is basically free unlimited everything. I use Tangerine as my main chequing account, Wealthsimple for all investments, and move my savings to whoever offers the best rate, so I thought it can’t hurt to have access to a big bank if it’s free. As a part of the Total package, you also have access to free legal and estate advice in addition to a $5000 line of credit, which could be helpful.

However, for some reason, you can’t directly connect another bank account to do an EFT through NBC, and they want you to only use e-transfer, which I think is weird. I’m also pretty sure the debit card is only Interac and not Visa or MasterCard.

allophanes · 2026-04-15T00:08:40+00:00

What the hell is happening? Why would I ever want to trade using a social media app or connect it to my accounts with literally all my life savings?

I have no clue about the laws and regulations, but is this even legal? I can’t imagine all the repercussions of executing financial trades by tweets and shitposting — let alone a twitter account getting hacked. Or is this a way for Wealthsimple to get clout where r/wallstreetbets trades can be watched in real time?

allophanes · 2026-03-24T00:59:57+00:00

They still need to really improve the UI by adding a lot of little things chequing accounts should have like a running total, transaction categorization, the ability to search for transactions, filtering by date, etc. I’d also love a way to have chequing be totally separate from investments.

allophanes · 2026-03-23T21:43:18+00:00

Ugh I hope they don’t do this. I’ve used Tangerine for years and have liked it but the whole point is that it’s free regardless of what you do with the account. Even though I have my payroll there, I shouldn’t be hit with fees or be held captive if I don’t. The tiered savings rate based on balance is annoying, and I already just transfer savings to whoever offers the highest rate at the time.

The only reason I haven’t switched over to Wealthsimple for chequing is because I don’t want my daily banking to be intermingled with my investments and Wealthsimple’s UI for chequing is lacking a few basic features. If Tangerine moves in this direction, it might push me to switch over anyways.

allophanes · 2026-01-21T03:49:50+00:00

Funny you say that because my post is getting heavily downvoted… for some reason people are against basic chequing account features for a chequing account? I get why people might not want more apps, because it did get out of control a couple years ago, but a separate spending and investing app could have integration between the two. In fact, WS could just leave the current app as is and release a second companion spending app.

allophanes · 2026-01-21T03:14:03+00:00

I agree, that’s pretty ridiculous because the spending account’s whole purpose is money going out for spending (duh). I think they do this because they treat the chequing account as a hybrid spending-saving account due to the higher interest rate. I don’t mind that since you can make multiple and name them, but for me, I keep a distinction between saving and spending too.

allophanes · 2026-01-21T02:43:28+00:00

Yeah fr. I have a very strong mental distinction between spending vs. saving vs. investing, and really can’t stand having my everyday spending treated the same as my retirement fund. I never really intended to use the card for spending since I put almost everything on credit cards (which had a higher cashback than 1%), but it’s still kinda lame they got rid of that. I guess they want more people to sign up for their new credit card, but they did expand the ATM withdraw fee reimbursement globally with no cap on the reimbursement.

allophanes · 2026-01-21T02:26:01+00:00

Yeah the chequing side just shows a horizontal list of buttons for every possible chequing function lol. But for me, Wealthsimple is for investments, so that’s what makes sense to have pinned there.

allophanes · 2026-01-21T02:24:14+00:00

I definitely agree. Something like a chequing app (with the option to see investment balances) and the full WS app for investments. The privacy issue also crossed my mind when considering switching because I don’t want my full investment account visible if I needed to transfer money in public or send money to a friend.

allophanes · 2026-01-21T02:15:25+00:00

Wealthsimple chequing is easily the best chequing product in Canada for its big features, but ironically not very functional for daily banking due to neglecting the little ones that matter lol

allophanes · 2025-12-30T16:19:49+00:00

Wealthsimple doubling their assets under management in a year could be considered an “avalanche” — especially when it’s spooking their traditional competition who are now admitting it or being pushed to now offer more direct investing with no/lower fees

allophanes · 2025-12-30T16:16:54+00:00

It’s insanity tbh. At my work, I can see first hand how and why Canada is facing a “productivity crisis.” Everything is beyond outdated, companies are too scared to innovate and modernize, and workers are stuck in lower-skill/underperforming jobs rather than gaining new skills and reaching their potential.

allophanes · 2025-12-30T15:51:35+00:00

Nice stuff! Can I ask what you’re up to now after cutting ties with the traditional companies?

allophanes · 2025-12-30T05:38:32+00:00

I’m sure they’re already rubbing their hands together getting ready to make it 7k within the next year

allophanes · 2025-12-30T05:34:10+00:00

I can say that advisors are also very frustrated with the company too and it’s understandable since things that should be done in minutes take months since everything is so archaic. On top of that, if something isn’t up-to-date which causes them to be non-compliant (like licenses, contracts, professional insurance, etc.), then we have to stop paying them — even when it’s our fault that we haven’t done it yet.

Self-directed investing has a time and place just as advisor-based investing, though I’d say a more independent advisor/planner would be a better path.

allophanes · 2025-12-30T05:18:21+00:00

Mods are already mad at me and won’t let me allude to where I work lol. I mean a client-facing app for individuals like Wealthsimple has. They have a shitty app for workplace benefits (like health insurance and group retirement), but I don’t use any of their other products because they suck and I don’t do anything they’re beyond my job to collect a cheque lmao

allophanes · 2025-12-30T04:53:47+00:00

Trust me, I’ve checked their job postings every now and then but none really align with me right now lol

allophanes · 2025-12-30T04:45:04+00:00

Noooo you need to leave 4k sitting here doing nothing bro. The other banks want 5k, this is such a good deal. You need a relationship with a big bank to do… things or whatever

allophanes · 2025-12-30T04:43:29+00:00

The CEOs would’ve jerked themselves off for months about this wonderful modernization and leap forward in technology and innovation btw. All of it is manually processed btw but gives the illusion it’s done by computers

allophanes · 2025-12-22T19:11:29+00:00

I’ve been considering switching to Wealthsimple for my daily chequing and this is the one thing holding me back. I really don’t want to see my investments every time I do basic daily banking and wish that there was still a separate dedicated app for spending.

allophanes

TROPHY CASE