By Tony Dong, MSc, CETF on April 2, 2026 Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

Is Wealthsimple’s new direct indexing worth it?

By Tony Dong, MSc, CETF on April 2, 2026 Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

Wealthsimple's direct indexing brings a tax-saving investing strategy to a wider group of investors, but the number likely to benefit from it is still small.

Wealthsimple, the country’s largest and most aggressive fintech challenger to the big six banks, has been steadily rolling out new features over the past year, each aimed at giving retail investors access to tools that were once reserved for institutions or high-net-worth clients.

Back in December 2025, I looked at one of those launches: physical gold trading. The conclusion was “it depends.” If your goal is portfolio diversification, gold funds are still the more efficient option. If physically owning gold matters to you, then paying a fee to have it delivered could make sense.

Wealthsimple has not stopped there. One of its more recent additions is direct indexing, a phenomenon that has gained traction in the United States, particularly in advisor-managed accounts. It allows investors to replicate an index by holding the individual securities directly, rather than through an exchange-traded fund (ETF). 

Until recently in Canada, this has largely been out of reach for everyday investors, which makes its introduction on a retail-focused platform notable. At the same time, the list of available features continues to grow. Beyond gold and direct indexing, investors are being offered access to private equity, private credit, cryptocurrency, and portfolio lines of credit. 

But the pace of innovation raises a question: just because you can access these strategies, does that mean you should? Here is what you need to know about Wealthsimple’s direct indexing, how it works, and whether it makes sense for your portfolio.

What is direct indexing?

An index is not an investment you can buy; it’s a set of rules that determines which securities are included in a group and how much weight each one receives. You can track how an index has performed over time and do back tests but, on its own, it is just a mathematical construct.

To actually invest in an index, you need a vehicle that implements those rules. Traditionally, that has meant buying an index ETF or mutual fund. You give your money to a fund provider, and they go out and purchase the underlying securities. In return, you receive units of the fund, which represent a proportional stake in all the holdings.

Direct indexing takes a different approach. Instead of pooling your money with other investors inside a fund, your portfolio holds the individual stocks directly. With the help of technology, a provider builds and maintains a basket of securities in your account that mirrors a chosen index.

In practice, the experience is still hands-off. You are not manually buying hundreds of stocks yourself. You give your capital to the provider—in this case, Wealthsimple—and their system handles the trading, rebalancing, and ongoing........

© MoneySense