Review: RBC Direct Investing

Here you will find my review on the RBC Direct Investing brokerage service. I rate the service based on several categories including: website, investment variety, cost, reporting, research, planning tools, and additional features. At the bottom, you will find my overall rating and recommendation for the service! Click here to check out my other brokerage service reviews.

Website: 6.5/10

The Royal Bank of Canada offers some great services through RBC Direct Investing, unfortunately, their website is not one of these highlights. It’s fairly simple navigation and simplicity are it’s strong points, as it is easy to access all of their services. The site does look outdated, which is typical for larger banks, which is why they score an average 6.5/10 in this category.

The website is neither strong or weak enough to really play a factor in your decision making process. Fortunately, RBC is investing into upgrading their online presence, which has been seen through the development of their mobile banking software. The future is looking up for this big bank’s website and online services.

Variety of Investments: 9/10

Fittingly for the largest bank in Canada, RBC offers a wide selection of investments including stocks, ETFs, options, mutual funds, and fixed income. The investments are easy to find, research, and purchase through the website or mobile services. A huge perk is that RBC offers RRSP’s, RRIF’s, and TFSA’s in US dollars, which many other brokerages do not. Largest weakness is that RBC does not offer low cost Mawer mutual funds without commission.

Cost: 7.5/10

RBC offers the majority of trades under $10.00, with every online or mobile transaction costing $9.95 and decreasing to $6.95 when conducting over 150 trades per year. Mutual fund buy and sell transactions are free.

In addition, RBC offers a ‘Pay with Points’ service, allowing you to pay trading fees with credit reward points, which gives it a small bump above average to 7.5/10.

Reporting and Maintenance: 9/10

Account reporting is easily accessible and well communicated. It is easy to keep updated with your portfolio and investments, with real time price updates. Also offers updated performance and activity history. Most exciting feature is that they allow you to break down your asset mix and comprehensively break down risk and return based on market predictions. Also offer ‘Trading Dashboard’ feature which is much more visually appealing in comparison to the website, and centralizes all reporting on your portfolio and markets.

Research: 9/10

Personally, I believe that RBC’s ‘Research Centre’ is one if it’s strongest assets as a brokerage service. With a range of depth on markets and investments, RBC allows you to dive in as deep as needed to access pertinent information. A huge perk is that the service provides additional help for beginners, with detailed explanations on navigating the site, but does not restrict experienced investors from accessing information with ease. The company’s partnership with Morningstar allows investors to easily view analyst opinions and research.

I strongly recommend using the RBC Market Commentary reports for basic information and updates, while also providing multiple investments you may want to add to your watchlist.

Only negative is that the website is outdated, which makes navigating research tools a bit more difficult. Lack of style and display can make the data difficult to read. Overall, not visually appealing, but excellent information and data make up for it.

Planning and Goal Setting: 10/10

A category that often gets over looked when analyzing brokerage services, RBC excels in allowing their customers to plan for their future and set goals. Not only does this benefit the average investor, but features such as ‘Stock Screeners’, ‘Model Portfolios’, and ‘Inspired Invesor’ allow users to customize their portfolios to meet their interests and investment expectations.

Additional Features:

Unique features like ‘Trading Dashboard’, ‘Stock Screener’, and ‘Research Centre’ are RBC’s biggest assets when it comes to features that differentiate the service from other brokerages.

Personally, I believe that another huge perk RBC offers is its tutorials for beginners. Through the ‘Getting Started’ feature, the service explains investing basics which are condensed, easy to read, and informative.

Final Grade and Remarks: 9/10

RBC’s largest downfall is that the website as a whole is unappealing and outdated. Thankfully, the bank recently remodeled the site, moving it from the 20th century to the late 2000’s. With additional investment and attention from the bank, I believe that the RBC Direct Investing brokerage service is promising, as the content of the site is excellent.

I highly recommend using this service for any investor, but especially beginner and amateur investors, as the site breaks down data effectively and provides well thought out portfolio building tools and tutorials.


Originally published at portfoliostartup.com on July 28, 2017.

Christian Vander Voet

Written by

Founder and Lead Blogger at portfoliostartup.com, undergrad student at StFX University.

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