Yep. It happened. A new episode on the podcast.
Michael Katchen, CEO of WealthSimple, was kind enough to be my guest for the re-launch of the podcast and the episode is now available on iTunes (You have to click through to “view in iTunes”). You can also just use the embedded player or MP3 download down below to listen to it right away (you must be on this website to see it).
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Nice stuff Preet. Interesting to hear Michael’s answer on acquiring ShareOwner, more control over the entire brokerage value chain. Will be interesting to see where this goes, what version 2.0 might be in a few years.
Hope all is well my friend!
Mark
Hey Mark, thanks for stopping by!
Good interview with WS but you did not ask him about what is the future for CSO, besides it brokerage business. CSO has model portfolio business and advisory/non-discretionary business. With the acquisition, non-discretionary clients are being forced into discretionary accounts at WS. So opens up opportunities for others to pick up that business from mostly high net worth clients who are into low cost index-based ETF investing but do not want to give up control.
Also, the rationale for acquisition is not clear. Is Wealthsimple dumping Virtual Brokers? CSO’s trading costs may be low but they only buy/sell once a month and when US dividends are received they are first converted to Canadian and then again to USD to reinvest in US ETFs. How does all that fit in with WS’s philosophy.