Will my portfolio composition change as a result of the transfer?
Your account assets will be transferred to Betterment in-kind. Upon arrival at Betterment, Betterment will maintain your portfolio allocation and your selected risk level. You will have the option to invest your account assets in accordance with your Wealthsimple portfolios for a period of 12 months, after which we may transfer all accounts to a Betterment portfolio. This treatment will apply to all taxable accounts, Traditional / Roth / SEP IRA accounts, and Save accounts. In addition, you will have the option to select any of Betterment’s portfolio offerings for your account at any time following the completion of your account transfer to Betterment. You can learn more about Betterment’s portfolio offerings here. Note that Betterment’s Tax Coordination feature is not available to customers for any period of time in which they remain invested in the Wealthsimple portfolio and its Tax Loss Harvesting+ feature will not function on Wealthsimple portfolios.
You may not be able to transfer securities which are not part of a standard Wealthsimple portfolio to Betterment in-kind, including, but not limited to, individual stocks. Such securities may need to be liquidated or transferred to a different custodian prior to the Transfer Date. If you are unsure whether any of your holdings are eligible to be transferred to Betterment in-kind, please contact Wealthsimple support.
What will happen to my joint taxable account?
Joint taxable accounts will receive the same treatment as individual taxable accounts: your assets will be transferred to Betterment in-kind, and you will have the option to have your account managed in accordance with your Wealthsimple portfolio allocation for a period of up to 12 months following the transfer. Betterment accounts will be created for each joint account owner.
Does Betterment offer a Halal portfolio option?
Betterment does not offer Halal portfolios at this time. However, we offer a range of SRI options - more information can be found here. Customers wishing to maintain Halal portfolios should work with Wealthsimple to transfer these accounts to a different custodian prior to the transfer date.
Will I be able to continue investing in my Wealthsimple portfolio for the initial 12-month period following the account transfer?
Yes, we will enable customers to continue investing in their Wealthsimple portfolios over the initial 12-month period. We anticipate that all accounts may be transitioned to a Betterment portfolio after this initial 12-month period. This will entail selling certain securities in your portfolio and purchasing others with the proceeds, which may result in the realization of taxable gains. In addition, any capital gains incurred from additional investments into Wealthsimple portfolios following the transfer may be subject to short-term capital gains tax.
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