The BMO (Bank of Montreal) branch at 2072 Queen St. East in Toronto's Beach neighbourhood.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Bank of Montreal has officially announced its robo-adviser service for Canadian investors.
BMO confirmed to the Globe and Mail earlier this fall that they would be entering the online advice space, but declined to provide further details on what the service would include.
The rollout of the anticipated site was announced on social media Thursday by the bank's marketing team, which said the platform was in response to the growing and changing needs of Canadian investors.
BMO SmartFolio, a division of the bank's investment brokerage BMO Nesbitt Burns, allows investors to open an account with a minimum of $5,000, and charges an advisory fee based on a percentage of account assets, which includes all trading costs. The website calculator shows a $5,000 account charging $60 in annual fees.
ETF management fees are in addition to the advisory fee and can range from 0.2 per cent and 0.35 per cent of the account.
The platform will consist of five constructed ETF portfolios – each containing an average of between six to 10 funds. Unlike the majority of the independent online portfolio managers in Canada - which include a mix of ETF products from various providers - BMO Smartfolios currently consist only of the bank's proprietary ETFs. Portfolio managers have the opportunity to add non-BMO ETFs to any portfolio if deemed appropriate to do so.
The launch of the platform comes on the heels of Canada's first amalgamation of online advice platforms. Wealthsimple Financial Inc. acquired Canadian Shareowner Investments Inc. earlier this month, bumping Wealthsimple's assets under management to $400-million.
BMO SmartFolio is currently open to select investors and will be open to all Canadians in early 2016.
BMO was unavailable for comment.