Qtrade Investor earns first place in MoneySense annual review of online brokerages

VANCOUVER, B.C. and TORONTO, ON., August 4, 2020—Qtrade® Investor has reclaimed first place in the annual “Best Online Brokers” ranking from MoneySense.

This latest win is Qtrade Investor’s fourth major industry award in 2020, following earlier wins from The Globe and Mail and Surviscor. Qtrade’s award-winning history now spans 30 awards for excellence over 15 years.

The MoneySense review, now in its eighth year, assesses 12 Canadian online brokerages using hundreds of data points across a range of criteria, including user experience, customer service, fees, and market data.

Qtrade Investor earns top marks for its overall quality of user experience, industry-leading client service, and its role as a progressive industry influencer continually improving the service for investors.

In the critical category of user experience, Qtrade Investor wins “for its breadth of data, ease of both locating and using the information, strong trading experiences, easy-to-find usage policies and exceptionally good account management tools,” according to the review.

Qtrade was the runner up last year in the MoneySense rankings, following wins in 2018 and 2017.

“Value is hugely important to do-it-yourself investors, and our annual ranking recognizes that by including in our methodology not only cost per trade, but also value factors such as the user experience, customer service responsiveness and investment data provided,” said Sandra Martin, Editor-in-Chief of MoneySense. “Qtrade Investor earned this year’s top spot overall because its fees are competitive and matched with a superior user experience, including the addition of portfolio analytics tools, including ETF market analysis.”

“We continually invest in our platform to improve the user experience, with a focus on helping self-directed investors understand and manage their portfolios, and make informed decisions,” said Christine Zalzal, Senior Vice President, Head of Qtrade Investor and VirtualWealth® for Aviso Wealth, the parent company of Qtrade Investor. “The innovative enhancements we introduced this year include the most advanced risk analysis and portfolio-building technology in the Canadian online brokerage space.”

The latest enhancements provide self-directed investors with three new portfolio analytics tools:

Portfolio Creator™ allows investors to build an ETF portfolio customized to their investing preferences. Investors simply answer a short questionnaire to identify investing preferences, such as risk tolerance, sector preferences and global exposure. The suggested portfolios will show detailed weightings by asset class and sector, benchmarks and more. As well, each one will be automatically analyzed and scored with Portfolio Score.

Portfolio Simulator™ allows investors to test investing ideas by creating their own investment portfolio in simulator mode. They can compare portfolios, save, and change them later to fine-tune their investment strategy. Investors can even analyze simulated portfolios using Portfolio Score to see, at-a-glance, how well each is constructed on key factors such as downside protection, diversification, fees, and performance.

Portfolio Score™ provides investors with more confidence in their investment decisions. Investors can see how diversified a portfolio is, including risk exposure. Portfolio Score analyzes the securities in a Qtrade Investor self-directed account and grades the overall portfolio on five key dimensions: performance, downside protection, fees, income, and diversification.

“With more investors than ever interested in using an online brokerage, this industry recognition reinforces our dedication to innovation and to providing a leading-edge client experience so Canadians can make investing decisions with confidence,” said Bill Packham, CEO of Aviso Wealth.

According to MoneySense, its online broker ranking relies on customized analysis provided by Surviscor, a leading Canadian research and consulting firm specializing in the customer experiences of digital and direct financial services. Surviscor representatives completed a features and functionality questionnaire of nearly 4,000 questions for each firm in the survey, while performing hundreds of typical investor tasks on each individual online platform. They also analyzed the firms’ cost of services over 10 different investor profiles, and reviewed more than 160 service interactions over a 12-month period ending May 31, 2020. Each firm was assigned a score based on its ranking within the seven sections of review (5 points for 1st, 4 for 2nd, 3 for 3rd, 2 for 4th and 1 for 5th), and the overall score was the sum of the awarded sections.

About Qtrade Investor

Consistently ranked among Canada’s top online brokerages for the past 15 years, Qtrade Investor offers self-directed investors a robust and intuitive platform to achieve their financial goals. Part of Aviso Wealth, Qtrade Investor is a division of Credential Qtrade Securities Inc., Member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund. Visit qtrade.ca for more information.

About Aviso Wealth

Aviso Wealth is one of Canada’s largest independent wealth management firms with more than $70 billion in assets under management and administration. Aviso Wealth provides credit unions and institutional and retail wealth organizations with comprehensive, integrated wealth management services and solutions. Aviso Wealth is owned by the Credit Union Centrals, The Co-operators/CUMIS and Desjardins. Visit aviso.ca. for more information.

For further information:

Sean Kelly, Senior Communications Manager, Aviso Wealth, 778.328.7583, media@qtrade.ca.