Thanks! WealthSimple’s support for the donation of appreciated securities is not listed online, so this is very useful information for EAs to have as they evaluate investment options. Do they explicitly support this in the United States, and do they impose any restrictions on asset donations?
I reached out to WealthSimple. Their response was:
“We do indeed support the donation of specific assets to a charity of this choice. To my knowledge, we do not have limitations regarding the amount or charities accepted.
This feature is fairly manual. It requires a number of forms to be signed and is not fully supported in-product. However, we can definitely still process a request like this.”
This is great to hear. WealthSimple’s 0.5% annual fee is twice as high as Betterment’s and WealthFront’s. A DIY approach of investing in separate ETFs for asset classes and donating them when appreciated and selling them to harvest losses when depreciated would be more optimal, but WealthSimple looks like a functional choice for people that want to donate a lot of assets.
The Betterment page on donating stock (https://www.betterment.com/donating-stock/) now does not appear to limit the selection of charities. As such, Betterment appears to be a better choice for an EA that wants a managed investment option and wants to donate substantial amounts to registered charities because Betterment makes donating assets very easy within their user interface, has a low fee, and is well established.
Thanks! WealthSimple’s support for the donation of appreciated securities is not listed online, so this is very useful information for EAs to have as they evaluate investment options. Do they explicitly support this in the United States, and do they impose any restrictions on asset donations?
I reached out to WealthSimple. Their response was:
“We do indeed support the donation of specific assets to a charity of this choice. To my knowledge, we do not have limitations regarding the amount or charities accepted.
This feature is fairly manual. It requires a number of forms to be signed and is not fully supported in-product. However, we can definitely still process a request like this.”
This is great to hear. WealthSimple’s 0.5% annual fee is twice as high as Betterment’s and WealthFront’s. A DIY approach of investing in separate ETFs for asset classes and donating them when appreciated and selling them to harvest losses when depreciated would be more optimal, but WealthSimple looks like a functional choice for people that want to donate a lot of assets.
The Betterment page on donating stock (https://www.betterment.com/donating-stock/) now does not appear to limit the selection of charities. As such, Betterment appears to be a better choice for an EA that wants a managed investment option and wants to donate substantial amounts to registered charities because Betterment makes donating assets very easy within their user interface, has a low fee, and is well established.