Transferring Wise stock to Lightyear — a case study

Matt Sandford is an ex-Wiser, and the first beta tester to transfer his Wise stock over to Lightyear. Here's what his experience was like, in his own words 👇
Karolina Laas-Dobreva
Karolina Laas-Dobreva
Communications Manager
Published 2 years ago
3 minute read
So I don’t know about you but I’m not a Wall Street style investor dudebro, I’m just a regular dude minus the bro with shares from working at Wise!
No doubt you’ve all been exposed to a degree of the investment world when thinking about what the hell to do with shares now that you have them. I wish you luck with that journey my friend. It’s complicated stuff, and with all the risks involved I often find myself down a rabbit hole of investor lingo, acronyms and features I don’t understand or care for…
Without putting you to sleep with the traumatic backstory all I wanted was a broker / platform that didn’t add to the confusion, didn’t look and feel like it was walking the earth during the Archeozoic Era, and that I was fairly confident wouldn’t be messing me around or screwing me out of money somehow. So that’s where Lightyear came in… I was super happy to be among the first in moving shares from my LHV account to Lightyear.
For those of you that might have known me during my days at Wise I’m a big fan of modern tech in general - that’s why I use challenger banks over the typical fossils we all know and use (or have no doubt used at some point in time) and that’s where Lightyear wins me over. It just works… The process to move shares over was quick and painless, everyone on Lightyear’s side has been responsive and great to deal with, and the platform is easy to comprehend even for someone who hasn’t got much of a clue about trading platforms and investing like me. Like, there’s buttons for buy and sell and what looks like relevant information and that’s all I care about. Sure there appears to be other gadgets and doodads but I don’t feel like I’m trying to figure out how to pilot the starship enterprise. I personally plan to use it for some long-term safe-ish investments in future as well.
Anyway… So what else did I like about it? Well, the verification process was very fast and straightforward, all done through the app - I think I was verified the same day - it was so inconsequential that I hardly remember. The steps on my end to move shares over took all of 15 minutes of my time and that was mostly because I was afraid to do something stupid so I kept double checking what I was doing. Ultimately for something that was stressing me out (mostly after messing around with Interactive Brokers platform and looking at their instructions to transfer shares) it turned out to be effortless with Lightyear.
On a final note what helped me make my decision is I know Martin and Mihkel from working with them in the past, they represent some of the great talent Wise has seen over the years, and I trust them way more than I’d trust some random broker. Especially having worked for one in a past life…
Disclaimer
This article should not be construed as investment advice. It is Matt’s personal investment journey and the decision to transfer his stock to Lightyear was his own. When you do decide to transfer your Wise shares over and start investing in Lightyear, make sure to do your own research and remember that your capital is at risk.
Karolina Laas-Dobreva
Karolina Laas-Dobreva
Communications Manager
Karolina works as Communications Manager at Lightyear, sharing news about the platform as well as developments & research about the wider investing space across media and investor communities. She’s worked across communications and marketing in finance for over five years, building better ways for people across the globe to manage their money.