Affiliate Guidelines | Wealthsimple (2024)

Wealthsimple Affiliate Program

Welcome to the Wealthsimple Affiliate program! We are really excited to work together to help change how everyday Canadians invest their money, manage their spending, and file their taxes.

“Our mission, is to help everyone achieve financial freedom, no matter who they are or how much they have. We're reimagining what it means to manage your money by making simple, smart and affordable financial products for everyone.”

At Wealthsimple, whenever we need to make a decision, we put clients first. Because when it comes to their life, they’re the experts. Our goal is to empower clients to make the best decisions for themselves without making assumptions about their financial situation. We don’t know it all (and we don’t pretend to), we state the facts first and make it clear when we are offering an opinion. We ask you, as part of our Affiliate program, to do the same.

For example, if we are writing an article for our website:

• We would not say — Markets are at a three-week low. Which means it’s time to buy, buy, buy!

• We would say — Markets have been on a wild ride this month. Which has a lot of people wondering what the heck is going on. Well, for starters...

Content created by our Affiliates that promotes Wealthsimple products may be subject to review and oversight from a number of regulatory bodies, including: Ad Standards, the Competition Bureau, the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO), and securities regulators (e.g. the Ontario Securities Commission). Each of these bodies have their own regulatory requirements and guidelines and we strongly encourage you to familiarize yourself with them. Additionally, all of our Affiliates are required to follow our Affiliate Guidelines (below).

AFFILIATE GUIDELINES

Don’t make representations/claims that are false or misleading

• What if the claim is LITERALLY true? Something that is literally true but omits material information, or something that is technically true but is accompanied by a visual that creates a misleading general impression, may be considered misleading.

  • For example: If you claim that all Wealthsimple Self-directed Investing clients get unlimited free trades that is technically true (there are no fees charged on CAD trades and clients can make an unlimited number of CAD trades), but could be considered misleading because there are fx fees charged on US trades.

  • We think our products are a pretty good deal for customers, so we encourage you to be transparent about the limited fees we do charge when talking about Wealthsimple products.

• Make sure that you have confirmed any facts about Wealthsimple

  • For example: Wealthsimple is not a bank, so we can’t call it one.

Tell followers you’re a part of our affiliate program and that your opinions are your own ❤️

• Any partnership relationship, compensation, benefits and incentives, whether it is monetary or not, will need to be disclosed in a clear and upfront manner on ALL content.

  • When in doubt, spell it out — blanket disclosure somewhere on your page/site is not enough.

• When writing about Wealthsimple products please include the following language prominently either at the beginning or end of your piece:

  • Any opinions expressed in this content are solely my own and not the views or opinions of Wealthsimple. If you click on referral links in this piece and sign up for a Wealthsimple account I may receive a commission.

Only share an opinion if it’s genuine

• We hope that you love our products, but please make sure that anything you tell your followers about our products is your genuinely held opinion.

Avoid conduct that would reasonably be expected to reflect poorly on Wealthsimple and/or its affiliate program

Note: We periodically audit content posted by participants in our affiliate program. Failure to follow the Affiliate Guidelines may result in your removal from our affiliate program.

REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS AND GUIDELINES

Ad Standards

• The Influencer Marketing Disclosure Guidelines

• The Canadian Code of Advertising Standards

• Interpretation Guideline #5

Competition Bureau

• The Deceptive Marketing Practices Digest - Volume 1

• The Deceptive Marketing Practices Digest - Volume 4 - Influencer Marketing

CIRO

• CIRO Guidance Regarding Recommendations

Securities Commissions

• CSA/CIRO Guidance for Advertising Crypto Trading Platforms