CI Direct Investing as an organisation is safe as it is a member of CIPF and IIROC. However, your investments are exposed to volatility risk, market risk, concentration risk etc.
What is CI Direct Investing?
If you are not an expert in investment markets, then you will have to reach out to a financial adviser, in order to manage your investment portfolio. However, the service fees of financial advisers are huge. A robot advisory is suitable to you, if you are a novice in investing, yet need a professionally managed investment portfolio. CI Direct Investing is one of the many robot-advisory platforms offered in Canada.
Pros of CI Direct Investing
• Low-cost portfolios
• Socially responsible investment portfolios
• Highly rated websites and apps
• Free financial advice
• Automatic re-balancing
• Variety of investment accounts
• If you transfer $25,000 or more from a different brokerage account, then transfer in fees is waived.
• Tax loss harvesting
Cons of CI Direct Investing
• $1,000 minimum balance
• Accounts that have an account balance lesser than $150,000 need to pay higher fees.
Is CI Direct Investing safe?
CI Direct Investing is supervised by IIROC - Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada. It is the pan Canadian regulatory body that oversees all the investment and trading organisation that offers debt and equity products. Since CI Direct Investing is supervised by IIROC, we believe that it is a righteous organisation.
It is a member of Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF). This organisation insures up to $100,000 of your funds in an account. For CIPF to meet your claim, CI Direct investing must have become insolvent, and it is not able to return your investments. Hence, it is safe to choose CI Direct Investing as an investment platform.
However, it is important to note that your funds are not insured against market volatility. As in, when you invest in growth assets such as shares, ETFs, mutual funds, the funds are not capital guaranteed. Similarly, your funds are not secured from inflation, liquidity risk, political risk, currency risk etc.