Canadian fintech company Wealthsimple is announcing new products and services that could bring it into bigger competition with the larger, traditional banks.

The company announced at a Calgary event that it’s launching accounts for kids and teenagers, along with systems that allow family members to control each other’s accounts with permission.

In an interview with CBC News, Wealthsimple senior director of product Danish Ajmeri said part of the company’s new push is to help “parents and kids build better ways of managing and saving money,” with account features that will include parents being able to pay their kids directly by topping up the bank’s interest rate paid to a child’s account.

It’s also planning to launch a U.S. dollar chequing account with no account fees, promising cross-border access to both American and Canadian payments by fall of 2026.

The company is also launching a feature where clients can designate someone else to control their investment accounts with permission.

“What we’ve learned and heard from clients is … [some] parents want their kids to manage their money on their behalf,” said Ajmeri.

“Today, they navigate all sorts of really insecure ways of doing that, whether that’s sharing their passwords or trying to call in and pretend to be your father or mother.”

The company said the feature to be able to designate someone else to take investment actions on behalf of a family member will be available by summer 2026.

That feature would need to be closely monitored, said Shannon Lee Simmons, a Toronto-based financial planner and chartered investment manager.

“Where’s the line, and where is the boundary around what they can and can’t do,” she said.

However, she suggested there could be an advantage to the concept, if properly secured.

“A lot of my clients who are the sandwich generation clients are taking care of their parents finances right now…. It is really difficult if parents forget a password,” she said.

“Let’s make sure it’s done properly so that nobody gets harmed.”

Wealthsimple’s Ajmeri said the company believes that unofficial and unsupported practices such as password sharing are less secure.

“Because [sharing access] is initiated from your account, you have full control over who has the ability to take action on your account,” said Ajmeri.

He also said security features such as passkey authentication are in place to maintain security, and that the company doesn’t consider a lack of physical branches a barrier to maintaining trust with clients.

In late 2025, the fintech reported a security breach that leaked some clients’ financial details, but at the time said no funds were stolen, with accounts remaining secure.

Targeting youth is welcome: financial planner

Opening up new financial products for young people is a welcome move to Simmons, who is the author of Making Bank, a guide that targets young readers with financial guidance.

“I like that parents are sort of in control of it, so that they can see it and they can support and it’s done through technology,” said Simmons. She pointed out that a financial relationship that starts young will persist into adulthood.

“Money is sticky, so if you were to open your first bank account at a bank, it’s likely that’s where you’ll probably open your first RRSP.”

Business accounts also being expanded

The fintech is also making a bigger push into the business market, with chequing account offerings being expanded to include credit card, U.S. dollar accounts and business lines of credit.

Some of these products will not be available until later in the fall, but the company said it intends to offer lower-cost products to small businesses than the traditional banks.

“Managing money in Canada has quietly become very expensive … monthly account fees, wire fees, FX fees, ATM fees, overdraft fees,” said Wealthsimple vice-president of payment strategy Hanna Zaidi.

However, the company has seen backlash on social media over promised products that some potential customers complained were not delivered as expected.

A recent increase to cryptocurrency trading fees was reversed within days. That came alongside a consumer credit card launch plagued by delays, with a lengthy waitlist despite active advertisements enticing new customers.

“We’ve been reading every comment that clients write, whether it’s on Reddit or Twitter or social media posts or emails or clients calling in,” said Zaidi.

“There is no playbook for what we’re doing and there’s no precedent for how quickly anybody has moved in financial services in Canada.”