myHSA partnered with Wealthsimple through a myASO plan to design and deliver a custom, private, and flexible Gender Affirmation benefit tailored to their employee needs.
About Wealthsimple
Wealthsimple is a leading financial technology company in Canada, known for its commitment to an inclusive workplace culture. With a guiding value to “Be Human,” Wealthsimple strives to create an environment where all employees feel seen, supported, and empowered to bring their full selves to work.
“Our attitude from the beginning was simple: You belong here, exactly as you are, and we’ve got your back. We wanted to create something our people could use to access the care they need without barriers or judgment.”
— Lydia Burnside-Hughes, HR Programs Manager, Wealthsimple
As part of this commitment, their employee resource group (ERG) for 2SLGBTQIA+ staff, Rainbow, brought forward a proposal to improve support for gender affirming care.
Goals
Wealthsimple’s primary goals with myHSA and the Gender Affirmation benefit were to:
- Alleviate systemic and financial barriers to gender affirming care.
- Centre the voices of ERGs and diverse communities in benefit design.
- Ensure employees could access care confidentially and without HR involvement.
- Improve the overall employee experience.
“We start with inclusion and equity at the core—and we know that all of the positive things like retention and loyalty follow from that.”
— Lydia Burnside-Hughes, HR Programs Manager, Wealthsimple
The Solution
Through collaboration with myHSA, Wealthsimple launched a custom Gender Affirmation benefit with these key elements:
- Employees can contact a dedicated myHSA representative directly, bypassing HR entirely for maximum privacy.
- To remove systemic barriers, including gender dysphoria diagnoses and extensive medical documentation. *
- To acknowledge that gender-affirming care extends beyond medical procedures, with inclusive coverage for needs such as electrolysis, gender-affirming clothing, and legal name changes.
- Based on Wealthsimple’s feedback, myHSA added a “preferred name” field to ensure respectful communication when legal documents differ.
*HSA expenses are subject to CRA guidelines; some select expenses do require a Gender Dysphoria diagnosis.
“We came to myHSA and just said, ‘this is what we want to do,’ and they said, ‘we’ve got it.’”
— Krista Duncan, HR Operations Manager, Wealthsimple
The Results
The impact of the Gender Affirmation benefit has been deeply meaningful.
- Employees have expressed that the plan made it financially and psychologically safe to explore their gender identity.
- Employees in the Rainbow ERG share advice, support each other, and help the community grow.
- Candidates in interviews cited the benefit as a reason they chose Wealthsimple.
- Other ERGs were inspired by Rainbow’s success, leading to new programs and improvements driven by parents and mental health support.
Wealthsimple recommends this approach to other companies as a powerful way to put inclusion into action and support employees meaningfully.
“This benefit wasn’t just a plan—it was a gateway. A few employees shared that being able to access gender-affirming care through myHSA helped them begin their journey toward discovering their gender identity. That’s life changing. And to know we created a system that allowed them to do that privately, without fear or red tape, makes this one of the most meaningful things we’ve ever done.”
— Lydia Burnside-Hughes, HR Programs Manager, Wealthsimple
