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Finder's rating: 4.2/5
★★★★★
$9.5
Standard brokerage fee
ASX, NASDAQ, NYSE
Available markets
Email, Live chat
Support
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Type of broker | |
---|---|
ASX products |
Shares |
Available markets |
ASX NASDAQ NYSE |
Standard brokerage | $9.5 |
Support |
Email Live chat |
SelfWealth is an award-winning low-cost online broker focused on Australian and US shares.
It's the type of broker that will largely appeal to buy-and-hold investors, especially those who are looking to invest larger amounts due to its flat fee structure.
While its basic account is more tailored towards seasoned investors, beginners will be able to use their premium account for 90 days which should help with the transition into investing thanks to features such as being able to copy successful traders.
The company also offers a range of data to help investors including buy and sell recommendations and financial comparisons.
On the downside, SelfWealth only allows investors to purchase shares in Australia and the US.
Established in 2012, SelfWealth is an Australian owned and operated company that offers easy access to the Australian share market via its convenient online platform. Known for its cheap, Australian share trading brokerage, the company was awarded Finder's 2019 Best Australian Share Trading Account.
In this SelfWealth review, we see it's trying to position itself in the market as more than just a share broker, also aiming to become a one-stop, online investment community. It offers a suite of online tools which helps to compare the performance of your investment portfolio with other investors of similar size.
Through the SelfWealth share trading platform, traders are able to access a number of features that make their experience unique. Compare some of these key features against other share trading platforms and weigh up which aspects are most meaningful to you.
Fees |
★★★★★ 3.9/5 |
|
Trading tools |
★★★★★ 2.7/5 |
It offers conditional orders as well as charting tools and watchlists. |
Research and education |
★★★★★ 4.8/5 |
SelfWealth doesn't offer educational courses but it does have news and analysis. |
Available securities |
★★★★★ 1.5/5 |
SelfWealth offers stocks and ETFs, it doesn't offer leveraged products such as CFDs, options or forex. |
Customer support |
★★★★★ 3.0/5 |
It offers email and live chat support services. |
SelfWealth is known for its flat-fee brokerage service. All Australian and US share market trades are just $9.50 per trade, regardless of trade size. This means that the type of trader you are, or the size of your account won't change your trading costs. There are also no extra commissions. When it comes to trading costs, you always know where you stand with SelfWealth.
Members of SelfWealth Premium can set up a target portfolio using the strategies of top investors. Members can also watch or follow portfolios of other members in the SelfWealth community. This is done anonymously with no personal member details shown, but instead monitors the performance of their portfolios. Members can watch as many other members as they want.
When you create your free SelfWealth share trading account, you'll be able to try out all of the features offered with SelfWealth Premium for the first 90 days, free. If you then decide that you'd like to keep using the features provided to SelfWealth Premium accounts, you can continue for $20 per month.
SelfWealth share trading won the Fintech Business of the Year award at the 2016 Optus My Business Awards for its easy-to-use online trading platform. It was also a Software Innovation award winner at the 2016 and 2017 Australian Business awards. More recently, it was awarded Finder's 2019 Best Share Trading Account for Australian equities.
If you choose to trade Australian shares with SelfWealth, you'll find that stock performance and unit prices are updated every 20 minutes using ASX price data. Members can also access specific, detailed market-sensitive and general company information on individual shares via the stock analysis tool which is powered by Thomson Reuters.
All client funds are held in ANZ bank accounts. This means when you sign up for a trading account with SelfWealth, you'll also automatically receive a cash account with ANZ to settle your trades through. That means in the event of insolvency on the part of SelfWealth, your funds will be safe as they are part of a closed trust at ANZ.
Australian CHESS sponsored shares are those that are registered with a share broker like SelfWealth. They're allocated a Holder Identification Number (HIN) by the broker. On the other hand, Issuer Sponsored Shares are managed by the issuer of those shares via the issuer's share registry. All Australian shares bought through SelfWealth are CHESS sponsored, and are executed and settled by OpenMarkets. Shares are legally and beneficially owned by the investor and not held under custody.
There is no minimum account balance required when opening a SelfWealth share trading account, nor is there an ongoing balance requirement that needs to be maintained. You are also not required to place a certain number of trades each month to avoid an account inactivity fee. Just keep in mind that trades on the ASX must be more than $500 in value in order to go through.
Investors and traders can place an order to buy shares at a particular price, and allocate a "good until end date" setting to the order. This allows you to set and forget, as the trade will only be placed when the market hits your target buy price. This means there's no need to check the price daily for shares you're wanting to buy and takes some of the stress away from trying to get filled at a price that is right for your particular strategy.
SelfWealth provides complete access to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), offering investors and traders access to:
When it comes to trading international shares, SelfWealth says it will be supported sometime in the future. If this is a priority of yours, then use our guide to compare international share trading accounts.
There are a number of account types to choose between. Take a look below and decide which is best suited to you and what you're trying to achieve from trading.
If you're looking for account or trading support from SelfWealth, then there are a number of avenues that you can take:
There is no phone support available, but there is a postal address listed on SelfWealth's contact us page. An interesting medium for an online share trading broker.
One of the key features spoken about at the top of this review is the fact that SelfWealth offers flat-fee, cheap brokerage costs of just $9.50 per trade, no matter the size.
Paying for shares through a SelfWealth share trading account is made simple. Just keep in mind that as per standard ASX processes, it takes up to 2 business days for funds to be settled and available to be withdrawn from your cash account.
All funds are held in a SelfWealth trust account, within an ANZ bank account. In accordance with regulatory requirements, SelfWealth is not entitled to withdraw any amounts from your cash balance in the trust account, except in accordance with a direction from you.
February 26, 2020
Can I trade commodities with the self wealth app?
February 27, 2020
Hi Jo,
Thank you for contacting Finder.
Currently, with the SelfWealth App you may only trade stocks/ shares available in the Australian share market. You may not trade commodities using this platform.
I hope this helps.
Cheers,
Ash
October 28, 2019
is there a fee involved in transferring my existing shares with my current broker to selfWealth ?
October 30, 2019
Hi Sandy,
Thanks for your comment and I hope you are well.
No, there are no fees involved in transferring your existing shares to Self Wealth. To proceed, you’ll need to complete a broker to broker transfer form. They are available on the Self Wealth platform. Click the trading account menu option on the bottom left-documents-the forms tab to access all forms.
Hope this helps!
Best,
Nikki
October 14, 2019
Hi,
Am I able to transfer my shares from Commsec to my account once it is open?
Patrick
October 15, 2019
Hi Patrick,
Thank you for getting in touch with Finder.
If you consider transferring shares from Commsec to SelfWealth, yes that is possible. Please note that transfers take 1-2 business days.
I hope this helps.
Thank you and have a wonderful day!
Cheers,
Jeni
August 13, 2019
Hi, lets say at a point of transfer of 50k funds from my account are now held in a SelfWealth trust account and they go into liquidation ;
1. are my funds 100% safe to return in their entirety ?
2. how would I go about getting all the funds back?
3. how long would this process generally take?
August 16, 2019
Hi Paolo,
Thanks for getting in touch! If SelfWealth were to go into liquidation, your funds would still be safe as they are part of a closed trust at ANZ. Liquidators won’t be able to access your funds. If this were to happen, it would be a simple matter of contacting ANZ and organizing for your funds to be transferred into your personal account. While I can’t give you exact details on how simple or fast this would be – it shouldn’t be any more complicated than any other bank transfer.
Hope this helps. Feel free to reach out to us again for further assistance.
Best,
Nikki
July 8, 2019
Just have a question regarding risks.
1. If you were to invest 300k in one company and if those shares were stable and Self Wealth was to go bankrupt. What would happen to your shares ?
2. Also was the 250K backed by the government in reference talking only in regards to the Anz account you will have to create to deposit funds ?
July 13, 2019
Hi Jake,
Thank you for visiting Finder.
SelfWealth registers shares using CHESS. That means if SelfWealth were to go bankrupt your shares remain safely stored and you could take your HIN and holdings and transfer them to another broker.
The Australian Government has guaranteed deposits of up to $250,000 in all major banks and registered deposit-taking institutions (ADIs). You can read more about the Australian Government Guarantee Scheme. However yes, only the money deposited into a bank’s cash account is protected. Once funds are transferred into a trading account or used to purchase shares, the funds are no longer afforded the government guarantee. In addition, in the event of insolvency on the part of SelfWealth, your funds will be safe as they are part of a closed trust at ANZ. Liquidators won’t be able to access your funds.
Cheers!
Joanne