Mandeville, Smart Money introduce WealthPort service

Vancouver-based Qtrade Financial Group is helping its financial services institution partners jump into the robo-advisor market with the launch of VirtualWealth on Thursday.

Specifically, VirtualWealth allows 150 financial services institutions that are partnered with Qtrade to offer clients an automated digital wealth-management platform on top of their current service offering.

“VirtualWealth extends our partners’ suite of seamlessly integrated wealth-management solutions and enhances their ability to meet the advice preferences of all their clients,” says Catherine Wood, Senior vice president and head of online brokerage and digital advice with Qtrade Financial Group, in a statement. “Investors who value a face-to-face relationship can have great advice from a qualified advisor. Those who want to self-manage some of their own investments can choose online brokerage. Now, robo-advice is another option in that broad continuum of wealth services.”

Clients can sign up for a VirtualWealth account by answering a set of questions online about their risk tolerance and financial goals. Based on their answers, clients’ investments will be placed in a portfolio of ETFs, which will be rebalanced automatically to the target asset allocation.

Read: Robo-advisors target the mass affluent

Like other robo-advisor platforms, VirtualWealth allows clients to track their progress toward investing goals or to contact a registered representative should they have a question regarding their accounts.

Says Wood: “It delivers the ease of use, convenience and personalized approach that investors now expect from digital services.”

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