FAQ

Our Affinity Wealth Management team is located in our Affinity Advice Centre’s or over the phone through our Wealth Advisory Team. This team has access to the tools to guide you through your investment journey by offering mutual funds or guaranteed investment solutions.

If you have a more complex wealth planning and investment needs, you can feel confident in your financial future by partnering with an experienced professional through Affinity Financial Strategies who offers customized financial services such as personalized wealth strategies, a wide range of investment solutions, wealth protection planning, group benefits, pension plans for personal and business needs and more.

Our wealth experts can create a custom financial plan based on your specific needs, goals and stage of life. Your plan is designed to be flexible and can be adjusted as your priorities change over time.

Affinity advisors are more than just experienced and knowledgeable experts in their field. They care deeply about their clients and take the time to get to know you and your needs. They are socially conscious and care about making a difference in the local communities they live and work in. That’s the difference that working with a credit union can make!

Some types of investments have minimum requirements, but regardless of your initial investment size, we have solutions to get you started today. You might be surprised how quickly your savings can grow with regular contributions! Contact us at 1.866.272.2521 to discuss your options.

Assessing your risk tolerance is an important step in developing your financial plan. We’ll ask you a series of questions to determine how you feel about certain investment scenarios. The results of this questionnaire help us understand your aptitude to risk when it comes to your investments. This allows us to recommend the best possible investment plan, tailored just for you.

A diversified portfolio is putting your money into a mix of different investment types that have varying levels of risks and returns. The strategy behind this is similar to the expression ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket’. By spreading your money out, you can lower your overall risk level. Your advisor can help you determine what that will look like for your unique scenario.

Don’t wait! One of the great things about investing is earning interest on your money. With compound interest, your earnings are reinvested into your principal. Your principal grows and, as a result, earns you even more interest. That’s why it’s so important to start saving early – you can end up with a lot more money, even while making fewer or smaller contributions

Not at all! Qtrade Guided Portfolios is designed for first-time investors up to seasoned investors.

While Qtrade Guided Portfolios takes on a lot of the “investment knowledge” burden for you, you still need to know what your goals are and your risk level. The interactive questionnaire you’ll fill out when you sign up for your account will get you thinking about those important questions.

An ETF, or exchange-traded fund is a collection of investments (that includes stocks, bonds, foreign currency, gold, etc.) that are selected and managed by a fund manager. The investments are then divided up and sold to individual investors on exchanges.

When you open an account with Qtrade Guided Portfolios, you’ll be asked to fill out an interactive questionnaire that’ll put you in a well-diversified portfolio tailored to you, your goals, your risk tolerance and how much you’d like to invest.

With Qtrade Guided Portfolios, a single low management fee will be collected from your account every quarter. This fee covers professional portfolio management, trading fees and account reporting as well as support from a team of Qtrade Guided Portfolios representatives.

The management fee is calculated on the average daily value of your portfolio during the quarter at a blended annual rate based on the tiers set out below.

First $2,000 to $100,000: 0.6%
Next $400,000: 0.5%
Next $500,000: 0.4%
Above $1 million: 0.35%

You can take a look at Qtrade Guided Portfolios’ FAQs for more details on fees.

There is no minimum amount to open a Qtrade Guided Portfolios account. Once your cash balance reaches a minimum of $2,000, it’s automatically invested in the portfolio that is suited to your needs. Don’t stress if you don’t have that much to invest right now.

You can start with $0 and set up a scheduled Electronic Funds Transfers of at least $50. Once your account balance hits $2,000, your money will be.

Not at all! Qtrade Direct Investing is designed for all investors – whether you’re new to the game or a seasoned investor.

With Qtrade Direct Investing you simply have to be serious about taking control of your investments. Before you get started buying and selling stocks, bonds and other financial products yourself, you may want to learn a little about how the stock market works. You can learn the basics quickly but start investing gradually. You could begin with a small portfolio or transition a portion of your investments to an online account. Then, shift more of your investments online as you gain experience and confidence.

That’s the beauty of an online brokerage - you have control over your investments and can increase your knowledge over time as you use it.

With Qtrade Direct Investing, you get exceptional value, with $8.75 stock trades for everyone, regardless of your account value, and $6.95 stock trades for more active traders (150+ trades per quarter, and/or $500,000+ in assets per client ID). Plus, don’t pay any trading commissions when you buy and sell any of Qtrade’s 100+ free ETFs. The select list has been carefully curated to allow you to build a well-diversified portfolio or take specific positions in different markets.

No administration fee is charged if any of the following apply:

• You have at least $25,000 in assets as of the last business day of each calendar quarter
• You've completed at least two commission-generating equity or option trades during the immediately preceding calendar quarter
• You've completed at least eight commission-generating equity or option trades during the immediately preceding 12 months
• You add $100 or more to your account each month by recurring electronic funds contribution
• You are 18-30 years of age and add $50 or more each month to your account by recurring electronic funds contribution
• You have been a client of Qtrade Direct Investing for less than one calendar quarter

Otherwise, a $25 quarterly administration fee is charged for each client ID.

To read more about the pricing and fees associated with Qtrade Direct Investing, visit their website.

No! There is no account minimum, so you can open an account with any amount. The sooner you start, the more time you’ll have to reach your investing goals.

No, what Qtrade Direct Investing will do is give you access to the tools and resources to help you make well-informed decisions on what you want to invest in.

If you’re interested in finding out more about using a robo-advisor, where a well-diversified investment portfolio will be designed specifically for you based on an interactive questionnaire you complete, then check out details on Qtrade Guided Portfolios.