Private markets, minus the million-dollar door
The Wealthsimple Private Market Fund puts private equity, private credit, and private infrastructure in one fund — starting at $10,000. It's built to diversify the portfolio you already have, not replace it.
For decades, the same investments quietly powered the portfolios of pension funds, university endowments, and the very wealthy — and almost nobody else could get in. Private markets. The companies and assets that never trade on a public exchange.
You've probably read about the returns. You may have assumed the door was closed to you, because you weren't an accredited investor, or because you weren't willing to lock your money away for years to find out.
We built the Wealthsimple Private Market fund to change that.
The Private Market fund gives you exposure to three private asset classes — private equity, private credit, and private infrastructure — in a single, professionally managed fund. You can invest with a minimum of $10,000, hold it in a TFSA, RRSP, or non-registered account, and redeem monthly. It's designed to sit alongside your existing investments as a deliberate private-markets sleeve — not to take over your whole portfolio.
What are private markets, anyway?
Private markets are investments in companies and assets that aren't listed on a public stock exchange. Instead of buying a share of a public company through your brokerage, you're investing in private businesses, private lending, and physical infrastructure through professionally managed funds.
Here's the part that surprises people: most of the economy is private. If you only own public stocks and bonds, you're investing in a thin slice of what's actually out there.That's the case for private markets in one sentence: they let you own a piece of the much larger economy that public investors never touch.
Why hold private markets at all?
The honest answer is diversification. Private equity, private credit, and private infrastructure tend to behave differently than public stocks — and differently from each other. They don't all rise and fall on the same headlines on the same day.
That's the entire point of holding different asset classes: when one zigs, another may zag, and the overall ride gets steadier. Institutional investors have leaned on private markets for exactly this reason for a long time. It's a tried-and-tested strategy — not a new bet.
What's new is that you can now access it without $1 million and an advisor relationship that has previously gated these holdings from everyday investors.
If you want to go deeper before deciding, we've built a resource centre that walks through what private markets are, how they work, and who they're really for.
How the Private Market Fund works
The Private Market Fund is a single fund that diversifies across three private asset classes at once:
- Private equity — ownership stakes in private companies.
- Private credit — lending to private companies, where the fund earns interest.
- Private infrastructure — physical assets like energy, transport, data centres, and utilities.
Most alternative products give you just one of these — private equity or private credit. This fund holds all three, so you're diversified within private markets, not concentrated in a single corner of it.
It's actively managed. Wealthsimple selects and oversees the underlying institutional managers — this isn't a passive index product. The fund draws on multiple institutional-grade partners vetted by our investment research team.
What this means for you
Say you've already built a solid portfolio — a TFSA and RRSP, a mix of stocks and bonds, an emergency fund in place. You've read about private markets and wished you could add them, but the minimums and the accredited-investor bar shut you out.
Now you can put $10,000 into the Private Market Fund and hold it in the account you already use. The rest of your portfolio doesn't change. You're not handing over full management or switching strategies — you're adding one deliberate piece. Think of it as a standalone investment you control, sitting next to everything you already own.
How much do you need, and who is it for?
The Private Market Fund has two thresholds:
- $50,000 in total liquid assets to qualify.
- $10,000 minimum to invest in the fund itself.
That second number is a fraction of the traditional private-markets minimum, which has historically been $1 million or more.
We also built in a guardrail you'd normally get from an advisor: your maximum investment in the fund is capped relative to your total assets, so the private-markets piece stays appropriately sized within your broader portfolio. It's diversification by design, not a green light to over-concentrate.
It's available in TFSA, RRSP, and non-registered accounts.
Getting your money out: monthly redemption windows
The Private Market Fund offers monthly redemption windows, with settlement within 60 days depending on timing. There's no initial lock-in period and no fees for early redemption.
That's more flexible than many private-market products, which often limit you to quarterly or annual windows. But there are two things to understand up front. First, this is monthly liquidity, not daily — you can't sell on a Tuesday afternoon and have the cash that night the way you might with a public stock. Second, that liquidity isn't guaranteed. As with all private asset funds, we reserve the right to cap or suspend redemptions — for example, in periods of market stress. It's an unlikely scenario, but it's one you should know about going in.
What it costs
The fund charges a 1.00% management fee on your Private Market Fund balance, plus embedded fees from the underlying managers.
Worth being straight about: that's higher than a Wealthsimple Classic or ETF portfolio. But that's the wrong comparison. The right benchmark isn't public-market ETFs — it's other private market products. To get access to them at the big banks, you'd be paying an advisor a percentage of all of your assets under management — and you'd need a million-dollar minimum, too.
The risks and trade-offs (read this part)
Private markets aren't for everyone, and we'd rather you walk in clear-eyed. Here's what you're accepting in exchange for the return potential:
- Reduced liquidity. Redemptions are monthly with up to 60-day settlement — not daily. And that liquidity isn't guaranteed: as with all private asset funds, we reserve the right to cap or suspend redemptions, for example in periods of market stress. If there's any chance you'll need this money within weeks, this isn't the right home for it.
- A longer time horizon. The fund is built for investors with a 3+ year horizon. The return profile isn't suited to near-term withdrawals.
- Less frequent pricing. Private assets aren't valued daily the way public stocks are, and prices don't move minute to minute. That's the illiquidity premium — you accept reduced liquidity for long-term return potential.
- Manager selection matters more here. In public markets, the gap between a good and bad fund manager is usually modest. In private markets, it's enormous — the spread between the best and worst performing funds can run to double-digit annual returns, and you can't easily switch out of a poor performer the way you can sell a public stock. That's a big part of what you're paying us for: vetting institutional managers and getting access to ones most individual investors can't reach.
- Leverage. Private investing often uses leverage — borrowed money to help finance investments. Leverage can boost returns, but it cuts both ways: it amplifies losses when investments underperform, and companies carrying too much debt can face financial distress or, in severe cases, bankruptcy.
- Less transparency. Private companies don't face the same disclosure and reporting rules as public ones. You'll get periodic updates and fund-level reports, but visibility into the underlying companies and their day-to-day operations is limited. That can make it harder to assess risk and track performance than it is with public investments.
- Higher fees than public-market portfolios, as covered above.
- Tax implications. The fund doesn't make distributions, but how your returns are taxed depends on the type of income the fund generates. If you hold the fund in a non-registered account, there may be tax consequences even without a cash payout — for example, part of your return may come from interest income, which is generally taxed as ordinary income. Holding it in a TFSA or RRSP sidesteps this.
- It's not a complete portfolio. The fund gives you private-markets exposure only — you still need public-market exposure too. You can build that yourself through your own investing strategy, or get a ready-made mix through one of our managed portfolios. Worth knowing the difference: Wealthsimple Classic is built from public-market investments, while Summit blends public markets and a private-markets allocation in one managed portfolio. So if you'd rather hold private markets as part of a complete, managed strategy than as a standalone piece, Summit already does that for you.
- Foundations first. This is for investors who already have the basics handled — an emergency fund, registered accounts funded, the fundamentals in place. It's a step you take after the groundwork, not instead of it.
A couple of practical notes: the fund isn't available in a RRIF, so it's not appropriate if you're at or near converting to retirement-income mode. And as with any investment, returns aren't guaranteed.
Learn more
Not sure if it's right for you? Start with our resource centre — a plain-language guide to what private markets are, why they matter, and who they suit. When you're ready to see how the fund fits your strategy, learn more about the Private Market Fund.
