Pearler is an investment platform empowering everyday people on their journey to financial independence and growing their wealth. Read our unbiased Pearler Review below.
The majority of people don’t invest. This is a problem because investing can help you build wealth and achieve financial independence faster.
In order to get more people to start investing, we need an investment platform that makes it easy for the average person to invest their money.
Pearler has been designed from the ground up with simplicity in mind. It is easy to buy stocks or ETFs on your phone or tablet without having to download any software! If you have a brokerage account with them, they will also automatically rebalance your portfolio for free so that it matches your desired asset allocation.
While there are certainly advantages to making investments yourself, there is no doubt that if you would rather leave the process to a computer you will likely be happier with the results. As long as you are willing to accept a potential loss of some money, you can use our automatic investing feature on Pearler and see how it compares to manual investing.
What is Pearler?
Pearler is a financial app that was founded by three friends who wanted to acquire FIRE. Pearler provides FREE ETF investing, automated investment options, and community investing tools.
When you go to the Pearler app, you’ll notice that there are no charts or candlesticks showing stock prices which encourages you to invest based on your plan rather than reacting to a chart. You’ll notice a community and “influence” presence to demonstrate how other people are using the platform which is very unique as compared to other investment platforms.
The Team Behind Pearler
Pearler was created by three University of New South Wales graduates: Kurt Walkom, Nick Nicolaides, and Hayden Smith.
How Does Pearler Work?
Pearler is a Licensed Representative of Sanlam Private Wealth Pty Ltd (SSW). Sanlam is a Licensed Representative of Sanlam Private Wealth Pty Ltd (SSW) under the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s Licence Number 439077.
You can learn a lot about a financial firm by visiting their website. Financial websites are full of useful information including articles, videos and a wide variety of financial tools.
Each time you buy or sell a share on the Australian stock exchange, you’re recorded on the official record for the market. Your name, your HIN (Holder Identification Number) and your share holdings are published online so that anyone can see everything you own.
They each have their advantages and disadvantages, but CHESS sponsorship comes with a cost: the extra layer of security it provides shareholders. That is why most CHESS sponsored platforms charge a brokerage fee, whereas custodian platforms do not.
Users of the Pearler App may invest in both Australian and US equities, as well as ETFs for a low $9.50 fee. It’s worth noting that only a few Australian ETFs are eligible for the no-cost brokerage free ETF alternatives, not US listed ETFs.
Who is it aimed at?
Investors who live in Australia and wish to invest in equities but want it done quickly and simply should use Pearler. They have features that may benefit both novice and experienced investors. Pearler is designed for people who wish to “invest in shares the proper way,” which means building a long-term diversified share portfolio.
Tradable assets
Currently, you can only invest in Australian equities and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). They claim that they will expand this to include US stocks and ETFs in the future. Compared to their competitors, this is a relatively small number of accessible trading instruments.
The Pearler brokerage offers free ETFs when you buy and keep them as a means to entice long-term investing. Since the brokerage partners with eInvest, ETF Securities, and VanEck, it can provide these services since the managers of the ETFs want to retain long-term investors.
A fee-based trading platform pays the brokerage firm on your behalf, making it much easier for your broker to earn commission. But, there are many other reasons to use a platform like this – here are some of them.
You can now invest in over 43 ETFs that are free to trade through brokerage accounts, allowing you to make more frequent investments (which benefits from compound interest) while your assets work harder since you don’t pay any commissions.
This is especially useful for individuals who wish to invest a regular amount of money, as previously transaction costs could have eaten away at your profits because they are so large.
Pearler Features
Pearlers’ unique characteristics set it apart from other similar investment platforms. You can use AutoFund to automatically invest your funds. It removes the burden of constantly monitoring your share portfolio and puts it on autopilot.
The newest version of the platform offers you two options: make a deposit and invest right away, or leave your payment to grow while investing only when it reaches a certain value. You can opt for three strategies offered by Pearler: Lowest share, Rebalance portfolio, and Equal invest.
Autodeposit is a service that enables you to set up a regular payment to add to your cash account. It’s a great way to build a savings plan and also track your progress toward goals. Other users can watch your progress too and learn from your success.
You can find many famous “FinFluencers” there and if you share your portfolio, you can become a FinFluencer too. And if you don’t want to share it, that’s okay too!
You can find different types of portfolios on the Pearler website. You can pick one based on what you want to invest in, like for example if you want to invest in stock or life insurance. Every portfolio has a name and they are sorted by themes. For example, there is one called Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE). This portfolio has investments that are popular with people who like that theme. Then you can customize it to suit your needs.
Pearler now integrates with Sharesight. This makes it easier to track the performance of your investments and tax information.
Brokerage fees of Pearler
When comparing online brokerages, Pearler’s pricing is quite simple. They do not charge any fees, and share trades at their firm incur a fixed $9.50 commission fee, or ETFs with no brokerage cost (as the fund providers will pay the brokerage for you to entice you into buying the ETF).
Most of the big four banks have sliding scale trading fees that can add up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a large transaction. The reason for such steep charges is that they want to protect themselves from fraudsters.
With CHESS sponsored trades, Pearler has industry-leading brokerage among online brokers. Realistically, if you’re on the road to FI and understand the value of Dollar Cost Averaging into the market, your trade size will almost always be reasonable; thus we’ll need a fair comparison. Most of us non-professional traders would spend somewhere around $5,000 per month, $9.50 is quite accurate.
Are Pearler CHESS Sponsored?
Yes, your Pearler account is CHESS-sponsored. This is critical because CHESS sponsorship ensures that you are the legal owner of your assets and that the ASX tracks your personal name and ownership using your Holder Identification Number (HIN) against each individual share holding.
Conclusion
Pearl is an innovative share trading tool for auto-investing that makes it easy for investors to set and achieve their financial goals without stress. Pearl is industry leading at $9.50 trades, and provides easy to use tools for those looking to invest for financial independence.
The auto-invest feature is one of the best tools you can use to balance your portfolio. Pearler has over 10,000 investors and a rapidly growing user base. You should at least sign up to Pearler, and set a goal within Pearler to see it for yourself.
Automated investing with Pearler has been a game changer for allowing people to invest regularly while keeping stress levels low.