Direct investing is rapidly growing in Canada, driven not just by investor interest, but by banks’ ambitions to create orchestrated digital journeys, encourage cross-selling, and keep customers within their ecosystem. By offering intuitive digital investing tools, banks can strengthen relationships, deepen engagement, and retain deposits, all while supporting users as they move from saving to investing.
At the same time, Canadian investors want more than just functionality, they seek guidance, clarity, and confidence as they navigate the transition into wealth management. Designing digital experiences that balance self-serve autonomy, personalised guidance, and educational support is essential to meet both business objectives and user needs.
At Hi Mum! Said Dad, our experience working with Bestinvest, top UK trading firms, and other wealth platforms has given us insight into creating digital investing experiences that feel intuitive, supportive, and tailored to individual users.
For most users, moving from saving to investing is their first step into wealth management, and it can feel daunting. Many new investors are hesitant, uncertain where to start, and unsure how to make decisions with confidence.
Savings accounts play a critical role here: they are often the gateway to wealth. This is the point where users first engage with a bank digitally, begin to set financial goals, and establish habits. Thoughtful design at the savings stage is essential to build trust and confidence early, so that when the time comes to move into investing, users feel supported and ready.
By embedding personalisation and guidance within the savings journey, platforms can help users understand their financial position, define goals, and see clear pathways to investing. In this model, savings is not just a standalone product; it is a strategic entry point into investing and wealth. By establishing trust, demonstrating clarity, and helping users take small, informed actions, banks can create a smooth, intuitive transition into self-directed investing, setting the stage for long-term wealth-building and engagement.
Many new investors struggle to know where to start. The online space is flooded with generic advice, jargon, and conflicting recommendations, which can feel overwhelming.
To address this, we partnered with a top trading platform to build an educational platform specifically aimed at closing the advice gap. Its goal was to provide clear, relevant, and tailored content, helping users navigate the often intimidating world of investing. Anchored in personalisation, a simple onboarding questionnaire tailors the platform to each user’s financial circumstances and knowledge, ensuring they start at the right point.
By breaking down complex concepts into digestible, structured lessons, the platform gives users confidence to take their first steps into investing. Gamification elements, such as progress tracking and interactive simulations, reinforce learning and engagement, turning education into an active, motivating experience.
This approach ensures that users move beyond uncertainty and information overload, developing the knowledge and trust they need to transition into a self-serve investment experience.
Autonomy is central to modern direct investing. Users want to explore options, manage accounts, and make decisions efficiently, but with reassurance when needed. Our work with Bestinvest illustrates how self-serve design can be both powerful and approachable.
One of the platform’s standout features is the “life plan”, which allows users to simulate investment performance against their long-term financial goals, such as funding children’s education, buying property, or planning for retirement. Goal-setting is embedded directly into the experience, so users can see how each action contributes to their broader life ambitions. Where users need additional support, the platform seamlessly hands them off to an advisor, ensuring guidance is available without breaking the self-serve flow.
By combining self-serve autonomy, goal-focused simulations, and context-sensitive guidance, the platform empowers users to manage their wealth with confidence while maintaining trust and accessibility across channels.
Direct investing is not just about transactions, it’s a journey of trust, learning, and empowerment. Financial products can be complex, and off-the-shelf platforms rarely provide the clarity, guidance, and engagement users need to feel confident managing their own investments.
At Hi Mum! Said Dad, we specialise in designing digital wealth experiences that make complexity approachable. By integrating personalised insights, tailored educational content, and interactive tools, we help users understand their options, make informed decisions, and develop long-term engagement with their financial goals.
Whether guiding users from savings into self-serve investing, building confidence through education, or designing self-serve tools that empower, we help wealth platforms create experiences that users return to, trust, and grow with over time, positioning us as the go-to partner for digital wealth design in both the UK and Canadian markets.
