Tag: questrade

Ex-Dividends and Getting Paid in Retirement

RobHLeave a comment

As mentioned elsewhere, getting paid in retirement for me is a monthly activity involving selling shares (mostly XGRO), moving funds and so on. The exact date I actually DO the work is a little variable. Questrade and Wealthsimple both automatically move my RRIF payments to my bank account on the last business day of every calendar month; this means I could conceivably do my sell trades to free up cash on the next-to-last business day of every calendar month1, but usually I do it sometime in the last week of the month.

Today, (the 23rd of the month), I noticed the market doing something it hasn’t done much lately, namely go up. And since the 23rd is in the right window (nearing the end of the month), I thought, “well, maybe I could do my monthly payment today”. Admittedly, it’s probably a day or two earlier than I would normally do this, but I didn’t think it mattered too much in the big scheme.

Part of me felt a bit uneasy about doing this, it felt a bit like timing the market. But then I also remembered that since this was March, it meant that XGRO was due to pay its quarterly dividend around now.

A quick search revealed that XGRO’s “ex-dividend date” is in fact March 26, 20262. This means that anyone holding XGRO at close of business on March 25th would qualify for the dividend, which per the XGRO page, is $0.117 per unit held.

So this would mean that selling today would have been at the expense of the dividend payout for the quarter. Now, I know that this really should not matter; it’s a well established fact that the dividend-paying stock drops by the same amount as the dividend paid out on the ex-dividend date, meaning it should make zero difference whether I sell just before or just after the ex-div date.

In the end, I decided not to sell today. My usual day would actually be closer to the ex-dividend date, and psychologically, I feel like I’ve earned the dividend by holding XGRO the entire quarter. What do you think? Do you ever time your buys/sells based on ex-dividend dates? Let me know at comments@moneyengineer.ca.

  1. Since the settlement time of ETF trades is T+1, meaning the day after the trade completes. Notable is that Questrade requests you have funds available 3 business days before payment date; I haven’t quite figured out how strictly they enforce that. ↩︎
  2. Look at the “Distribution” section, specifically the table. ↩︎

News: Wealthsimple Norbert’s Gambit in Beta

RobHLeave a comment

Norbert’s Gambit is a way to save money on USD/CAD conversions. (Want to learn more? I’ve written about it here). Most brokers take extra margin points on these conversions, hidden in the relatively crappy exchange rate you actually get. Since a lot of my retirement holdings are in USD, and since I am a cheapskate, I’ve used Norbert’s Gambit at three different brokerages (BMO Investorline, QTrade and Questrade1) over the years.

And now, Wealthsimple has joined the fray. It’s not open to the general public quite yet, but I did get a notification that I can now perform the Gambit on this platform. This brings Wealthsimple agonizingly close to being a contender for my retirement savings business. They only lack (puzzlingly) USD support in RRIF accounts. Otherwise, they check the other boxes in my “need to have” list for any broker:

  • $0 trading commissions
  • Support for USD accounts in non-registered, RRIF, and spousal RRIF2
  • Norbert’s Gambit3

Wealthsimple’s implementation of the Gambit seems to mirror that of Questrade insofar as they charge a $9.95 plus tax fee for journaling shares, a necessary step of performing the Gambit. There are a few oddball wrinkles documented on their website, none of them show-stoppers in my view:

  • Not available on the Wealthsimple app
  • You can only journal DLR/DLR.U. Other cross-listed shares aren’t supported4.
  • The journaling fee is always charged in Canadian dollars, and by the language used on the website, it sounds like you are blocked from doing the journaling unless you have the cash in your account at the time of the request5

Normally I’d give the feature a whirl to see if it’s comparable to the Questrade/QTrade experience, but I only hold CAD assets at Wealthsimple at the moment. It’s not really a complicated thing to do, the only way Wealthsimple could make the experience better is to do the journaling faster. I’ve documented the timelines involved with doing the Gambit at Questrade here.

  1. Other brokers also support it, but I just have no personal experience with it. ↩︎
  2. Wealthsimple doesn’t support this per their website ↩︎
  3. People (especially on Reddit) frequently cite Interactive Brokers as the best game in town to do currency conversions. I did at one time have an IB account, and I can confirm that their currency conversion rates across the board are a pittance, and in most cases will be cheaper (and faster) than even Norbert’s Gambit. HOWEVER, if you want to actually get hold of the cash you’re converting, then you can expect VERY long delays before you are allowed to withdraw the funds. ↩︎
  4. Most people use DLR/DLR.U to do the Gambit but it isn’t obligatory. At BMO Investorline, if you didn’t want to place a phone call, you had to use some other share combination (I usually chose a Canadian bank stock like RY). Not sure this is still true. ↩︎
  5. Questrade lets you carry a negative balance, but of course they will charge interest on that. ↩︎

Achievement: Down to two providers

RobHLeave a comment

I am trying to keep my retirement investments as simple as possible, really I am. And this week, I finally reduced the number of providers I use from three to two. Most of my retirement investments (RRIFs, TFSAs, non-registered) are now held with Questrade, excepting one RRIF account I hold with Wealthsimple.

I had intended to be down to two providers back in March 2025, but then I uncovered a wrinkle in how providers deal with RRIFs and I ended up keeping 4 RRIF accounts over at QTrade during 2025. These 4 accounts funded my RRIF minimum payments in 2025.

One RRIF was moved to Wealthsimple in early November 2025 and this was an altogether painless experience, and I’ve been enjoying free money every month from Wealthsimple for my troubles. A good deal.

I waited until late November 2025 (November 26th, to be exact) before starting the transfer exercise from QTrade to Questrade for the remaining three RRIFs. And it took until this week (February 6th, 2026) before the assets finally showed up. That’s 72 days, a little over 10 weeks. Here’s a timeline:

  • November 26th: Submitted paperwork electronically to Questrade
  • On December 2nd, QTrade charged me the $150 transfer out fee on each account (plus tax).
  • On December 8th, I got the following message from Questrade: “Please be advised that RRIF/LIF account transfers are subject to the industry-wide cut-off date, November 28, 2025. f you would like to proceed with your transfer request, we require a document showing that the RRIF/LIF minimum payment was made for the year 2025.”
  • I submitted this proof (which, as I mentioned previously, was more than a little annoying) but nothing happened. After many calls to both Questrade and QTrade, I gathered that transfers at this point in the year were impossible. Of course, QTrade had already charged me the $150 plus tax transfer out fee.
  • In the new year, I resumed hassling Questrade and QTrade support for updates. This was made more complicated by a free money promotion offered by Questrade, which meant their support desk, shaky at the best of times, became completely overwhelmed. I saw a series of cryptic messages in my transfer update that indicated somebody wasn’t responding to a followup. These cryptic messages disappeared from my status update last week, which I either took to mean progress or an attempt to cover up inept practices, I haven’t decided which yet.
  • Anyway, without much fanfare, the assets appeared in my RRIF accounts on Friday, February 6th. My transfer status still shows “in progress”, for what it’s worth.

Anyway, I’m happy this latest transfer is done, but there’s still some tidying up I have to do:

  • I have to make sure I know what Questrade will use for RRIF minimum for the newly moved accounts. That’s another call to support, regrettably. And since I missed a month of payments, I have to figure out how to catch up.
  • I have to make sure Questrade refunds me the transfer out fees. I uploaded the documentation (which, I note, Wealthsimple does not require) to “prove” I was charged $1501.
  • I will check (again) to ensure all these RRIF accounts have a properly documented successor. That’s really important.

This last go-round was especially unsatisfactory since I got no free money out of it, which is really quite galling given how much is being thrown around these days2.

Anyway, it’s nice to have a simpler view of my portfolio; Passiv gives me a unified view across Wealthsimple and Questrade, but since the relationship between Questrade and Passiv has come to an end, I’m not sure what that will entail once my free “elite” subscription ends in March.

  1. Since every broker does this, this is 100% an exercise to prevent refunds to the unwary. . ↩︎
  2. Just search this site for “free money” if you don’t believe me. ↩︎

RRIF Support Showdown: Wealthsimple, Questrade, QTrade

RobHLeave a comment

I’m currently holding RRIF accounts at three different online providers (QTtrade, Questrade and Wealthsimple)1. So I am perhaps uniquely positioned to comment on the relative goodness and badness of the support of this kind of account at these three brokers. I also have some experience with BMO Investorline in this regard, but that experience is getting a bit long in the tooth now.

So without further ado, let’s take a look:

Wealthsimple

Wealthsimple now provides support for both RRIFs and (relatively recently) Spousal RRIFs. And although Wealthsimple supports USD accounts, they do not (for whatever reason) support USD RRIFs2, which, for many readers, isn’t a big deal, but to me it is.

But for all that, I still hold a CAD RRIF with Wealthsimple. It started last year, when I realized my DPSP couldn’t be immediately converted to a RRIF, and Wealthsimple was offering a shiny new Macbook to win the business. How could a certified cheapskate refuse?

Since I only opened the RRIF last year, this year is the first year where I’m obliged to take out RRIF-minimum payments. Wealthsimple makes this stupidly easy on many levels:

  • They clearly display what your minimum payment for the year is right on the account screen, and they also show how much you have left to go against that minimum
  • They make it easy to create a “recurring withdrawal” from the RRIF, which is something I do every month, and I can easily change this whenever I want, although I’m not planning on doing that.
  • And — bonus — they support XGRO fractional shares AND the ability to place a sell trade in dollars and cents rather than # of units. This means I can sell EXACTLY the number of XGRO units I need to every month, with no excess dead-money cash floating around.

You have to set up your bank account for EFT withdrawals before this works, of course.

QTrade

I still hold 3 RRIF accounts at QTrade, although I’ve been trying to move them to Questrade since late November. Seems that there is an industry-wide freeze on moving RRIF accounts in the month of December.

QTrade supports USD and CAD RRIF accounts, and they keep them completely separate — different account numbers, even. They are linked, however, because the TOTAL value of the 2 accounts is used to determine your CAD RRIF minimum payment. I’ve only withdrawn RRIF funds in Canadian dollars, because I couldn’t get a straight answer whether I could withdraw USD funds natively to my USD account.

QTrade also supports Norbert’s Gambit, which is important if you want to convert between USD and CAD cheaply.

With QTrade, you have to send in a form to set up your RRIF withdrawals, either monthly/quarterly/annually. And per their fee schedule, if you deviate from this, you owe them $503.

Once the schedule is in place, the withdrawals happen automatically. You have to make sure you sell your assets in advance of the withdrawal date. What happens if you don’t have enough funds? Not sure, cannot find any documentation that addresses this. There is also no indication online as to what your RRIF minimum payment is; you have to contact support if you want the exact amount.

Questrade

The majority of my RRIF holdings are here. As mentioned above, I’m trying to move 3 RRIF accounts from QTrade to Questrade. The delay from end of November to beginning of January seems like it’s explainable by the aforementioned industry-wide freeze. But since then, I lay the blame fully on Questrade for dragging their feet on getting the right forms in QTrade’s hands.

Questrade supports USD RRIFs, and combines them with CAD holdings. Same account for both, and they do a nice job of providing you with multiple views so you can see your portfolio in either currency.

Questrade also supports Norbert’s Gambit, and I’ve used it multiple times already to convert USD holdings into CAD holdings.

Questrade requires a form to set up RRIF payments, and like anything involving a form at Questrade, you have to sit on top of support to make sure someone actually reads the form.

Like QTrade, Questrade treats RRIF minimum payments as some sort of secret, forcing you to contact support if you don’t know what the value is.

You can also exceptionally get “extra” payments using the “Move Money” menu. I am not sure how withholding tax would work if you did this. It appears that you could also withdraw USD from this menu. The “Move Money” menu is one that seems to be rather fragile — bank accounts previously linked have a habit of disappearing from this screen.

As I write this, Questrade is only batting .500 in delivering the first RRIF payment. I got mine, but my spouse did not. Unclear why this may be, the support person I spoke to also seemed perplexed.

The Verdict

If you have USD in your RRIF, I would probably pick Questrade over QTrade. Questrade’s support of “on demand” payments is a nice flexibility. The one downside is that Questrade charges a flat fee to execute Norbert’s Gambit, whereas QTrade, as far as I can tell, does not.

But once Wealthsimple supports USD in RRIFs and Norbert’s Gambit4, they would be my #1 pick for managing the RRIF payments. High degree of automation, high degree of flexibility, high degree of transparency. If you don’t have USD in your RRIF, then I could recommend Wealthsimple over the other two.

  1. Mishaps and greed have contributed to this current situation. I don’t condone it. ↩︎
  2. Proof: https://help.wealthsimple.com/hc/en-ca/articles/17933575404315-Open-a-RRIF#h_01H8Y8853951RYHHA80S11T5Y9:~:text=Can%20I%20hold%20USD%20cash%20in%20my%20self%2Ddirected%C2%A0RRIF%3F ↩︎
  3. I’ve never had the need, but be forewarned! ↩︎
  4. Coming this quarter per this PR. ↩︎

Questrade and RRIFs: Annoying

RobH4 Comments

It’s January 2026 and so I’m about to undertake my first withdrawals from my Questrade RRIFs. For the entirety of 2025, I’ve only had to deal with QTrade’s methodology for RRIF payout, which looked something like this:

  • Determine what my monthly RRIF-minimum amount would be. (For QTrade, I had to call support to get this number…why, I don’t know). Once this was established, it didn’t change for the year, so that was easy.
  • Before the end of the month, I had to sell assets to make sure I could cover the monthly payment
  • The minimum payment was taken from available cash and deposited into my linked chequing account without any action on my part on the last business day of the month.

So for Questrade, I’m trying to do the same thing, but so far, no joy.

  • Determine what my monthly payment is. When I talked to an agent on January 2, they could not tell me as they claimed that it wasn’t available yet. Or they didn’t understand my question.
  • Today, I got an email from Questrade, reminding me that my payment was due shortly and to make sure I had enough cash to cover the payment. And if I didn’t know what the payment was, I had to call support.
  • I also learned that if I don’t have the cash to cover the payment, they’ll just skip it.1

Now, of course I know how to work out what my RRIF payment for any RRIF account will be — all you have to do is know the RRIF value at the start of the year and know how old you are2, and presto. But because my Questrade RRIFs have USD components, knowing the exact exchange rate is also necessary, and that’s where uncertainty creeps in.

Anyway, I have a pretty good idea what the minimums will be, but I’m not going to hang out for an hour waiting to talk to an agent3 to get it penny-accurate. I’ll have a little extra cash for the first month, at which point it should be clear enough what my monthly payments will be.

This is yet another example of small, but rather irritating shortcoming from the provider of my choice. One that you wouldn’t know about until you experienced it firsthand. Would it really be so hard to report the amount on my account screen4? Anyway, something to ponder if you’re nearing retirement or are starting a RRIF with a new provider…

  1. QTrade would’ve sold things on my behalf and charged me for the privilege, so I suppose this is a better option ↩︎
  2. What the CRA refers to as a “prescribed factor”. You can’t make this stuff up. Their charts only show the factors starting at age 71, but believe me, you can take payments from a RRIF well before that age. ↩︎
  3. Word to the wise: avoid talking to Questrade support when they have a promotion running, it will seriously test your patience… ↩︎
  4. I note that Wealthsimple and BMO Investorline both do ↩︎