Tag: finance

Changing your online broker: a guide

RobH7 Comments

I have succumbed to the offer of free money and am in the process of breaking up with QTrade in favor of Questrade1.

From https://www.questrade.com/about-us/programs-promotions on Feb 28, 2025

I had no illusions about making the switch; I knew it was going to be a bunch of work to get it done. But as a retiree with no other sources of income, I figured I could spare the time2.

Switching DIY brokers, on the face of it, isn’t terribly complicated:

  1. Create a login on the new provider
  2. Open appropriate accounts on the new provider
  3. Fill out transfer forms to move accounts with the former provider to the new provider
  4. Set up ways and means of moving money in/out of your new provider
  5. For RRIFs and TFSAs, make sure the successor/beneficiary information is accurate3.
  6. Wait for step 3 to complete
  7. Resume investing and/or decumulating

Here are the things I needed to complete each of the above tasks as I went through the process of opening ten (yes, 10!) accounts4 on Questrade.

Step 1: Creating the login(s)

You’ll want a unique and strong password to do that, and using a password keeper of some kind is the best way to do that. Most providers also offer (or require) two factor authentication, and they usually require a cell phone number 5that they can text. Do set that up at the same time, this stuff is important to protect as best as you can.

If your spouse is joining in on the fun, you’ll need a second login for that.

Step 2: Opening the accounts

There will be some series of provider-dependent steps you will need to go through to identify what kind of account you want, and who will own it. And in order to do that, you’re going to need to have a full understanding of what kind of accounts are at your old provider — what vehicle (e.g. RRIF, RRSP, TFSA) and what owner (me, my spouse, or joint) ?

The owner(s) of a given account are easy enough to determine if you refer to your (monthly, quarterly, annual) statements: the name of the owner will be right up on top. In the case of a joint account6, both of your names will be visible. I’m not aware of any way to change the ownership of an account in the process of a transfer.

This step will be rather tedious. Lots of repetitive form filling, and depending on the sophistication of your provider (and, I think, your province of residence matters), you may have to print (!) and sign — with a pen — documents. In my case, the amount of printing was minimal at this step because Questrade makes good use of DocuSign. But other providers may make you print/sign/take pictures/upload7 instead.

Step 3: Fill out transfer forms

There is usually some delay — a day or two — between step 2 and step 3 since there’s usually some sort of back-office approval process involved8. This will give you the time to make a list of all the account numbers associated with the existing accounts and their rough market value. You’ll need those for the forms.

For me, this step involved a lot of download/print/sign/take pictures/upload9. So make sure you have a working printer, sufficient paper, a way to get forms back to your computer, and patience.

You will have to make an important choice at this step: whether to move the funds as cash, or whether to move them in-kind. “Cash” means you’re authorizing the receiving institution to sell your stuff at your old provider before moving it10. “In-kind” means you’re wanting to keep exactly what’s in the old account already. You can also choose to do a partial transfer at this step, but that’s not something applicable to me.

I chose in-kind since I hate being in a cash position for any period of time. But if you hold GICs or mutual funds (I do not), you should really check to make sure you are able to move those in-kind; many providers have restrictions on that sort of thing.

After the fact, I discovered that Questrade does not support HISA accounts. I am hoping that this does not create unintended consequences or delays.

Step 4: Set up ways and means to move money in/out of your accounts

Different providers do this differently. In my experience, most support online bill pay to get money into the accounts (like, for example, to make a TFSA or RRSP contribution), and EFT to get money out (like, for example, a RRIF payment, something rather important to me).

To set up an EFT transfer, you’ll need your banking details (institution number, transit number, account number) and a void cheque. Most banks have a way to do this directly online, no need for an actual physical cheque, if anyone still uses those.

An increasing number of providers11 seem to support direct credential connection between their platform and your banking platform using a third party like Plaid. I freely admit this sort of thing gives me serious heebie-jeebies, and will default to using upload of void cheques whenever possible.

Step 5: Make sure successors and beneficiaries are named for RRIF/RRSP/TFSA accounts

This will make the life of your heirs much easier and deny the government some of the $$$ associated with estate administration fees since properly documented successors and beneficiaries are NOT considered part of the estate. Read all about it in my previous post.

Step 6: Wait

The claim I am getting from Questrade is to allow 20 days for assets to move. This seems totally ridiculous on the face of it. I’ll report back on how long it actually takes. 1-2 weeks is more typical in my limited experience.

While waiting, I’ll complete the forms to make sure I have trading authority over my spouse’s accounts. This should allow me to see all the accounts she owns from my login. This is handy, since I’m the one who does most of the mechanics of making this whole “getting paid in retirement” thing work.

Step 7: Resume investing/decumulating

After making sure everything moved from your old provider to your new provider, as expected, of course.

You’ll probably want to ask your new provider to refund you any transfer-out fees charged by the old provider at this step.

Given Questrade doesn’t support HISAs, I’ll have to find an ETF alternative, which, thankfully, are plentiful. Other than that, I’m not anticipating big changes in the portfolio or the approach.

At this point, I’ll also have to (probably) close out the QTrade accounts and figure out how I’ll get my tax slips from them next year.

All this probably took 8 hours over the course of a few days. So not a trivial amount of time, but the promotional bonus will make it worthwhile12.

  1. And while both brokers start with the letter “Q” and are frequently confused with one another, I can assure you they are different. ↩︎
  2. And the resultant hourly rate if all goes well is better than what I made when I was paid a salary… ↩︎
  3. I covered that topic in this post. ↩︎
  4. For me: Investment account, RRIF account, Spousal RRIF account, TFSA. Same for my spouse. And then there’s one more joint firewalled investment account that we use for VPW’s cash cushion. That retirement decumulation strategy was covered in a previous post. And a family RESP. ↩︎
  5. Not the most secure or even convenient option; Questrade also offered using a standalone app like Microsoft Authenticator, which made me happy. ↩︎
  6. Here I hit a bit of a wrinkle: QTrade has joint non-registered accounts, but Questrade only has joint non-registered margin accounts. I am hopeful (but unsure) that I can successfully transmogrify one to the other. ↩︎
  7. My workflow for this: take picture on iPhone, Airdrop to Macbook, convert .HEIC files to pdf (and possibly, re-export to reduce file size), upload. This step alone would defeat many folks. ↩︎
  8. In my case, TFSA/non-registered was almost immediate, but 2 days in, I’m still waiting for the RRIFs to be approved. There are some extra regulations involved with registered accounts, it seems. ↩︎
  9. This is probably dependent on both providers involved as well as the type of account involved. The RESP transfer requires some CRA form to be filled out. ↩︎
  10. Possibly attracting high transaction charges — you may want to liquidate the assets yourself instead. ↩︎
  11. Questrade and Wealthsimple to name two ↩︎
  12. Note to the political class — maybe it’s time to take a look at the regulations here to streamline this process? Eight hours of effort to change a provider does not seem like it’s in the consumer’s best interest ↩︎

What’s the deal with AOA?

RobH4 Comments

As mentioned elsewhere, I rely heavily on all-in-one ETFs in my retirement portfolio. New to all-in-ones? Read a bit about them here.

Previously, I covered what’s in XGRO, which is an all-in-one you can purchase on the Canadian market. Because I also happen to have a lot of US dollar-based retirement savings, I have the majority of those funds invested in AOA. AOA is an 80/20 fund 1 offered by BlackRock. It seems that this sort of all-in-one is not as popular in the US as Canada, not sure why2. I see offerings from State Street that sound similar. BlackRock has other members of their asset allocation family with different equity percentages — there’s something for everyone!3

I thought it would be interesting to see what, exactly, is underneath every $100 you invest in AOA. So by reading AOA’s ETF description, following the ETF descriptions of what’s inside AOA, and doing a little math, I came up with the following breakdown4:

FundWhat is it?How much?Colour Commentary
IVV US stock coverage that tracks the S&P 500 Index, 500 of the largest US companies $46.44 of your $100 investment

(of which ~3$ is in each of Apple, Nvidia, and Microsoft, another $2 is in Amazon and Alphabet and $1 in each of Meta and Broadcom)		The Magnificent 7 and 493 other companies
IDEVBroad international (ex-US) developed market stock coverage that tracks the MSCI WORLD ex USA IMI Index, about 2250 companies $21.90 of your $100 investment

(of which SAP gets 29 cents ASML gets 28 cents…)		This also includes a tiny slice of Canada…top holding is RBC at 16 cents of your $100
IUSBBroad US Bond market exposure, about 16,000 bonds from government and corporate entities$16.37 of your $100 investment

(of which $6.29 is in US Treasury, $1.42 is in the Federal National Mortgage Association…)		12 month trailing yield is 4.07%, not too shabby
IEMG3500 or so international companies from emerging markets, following the MSCI Emerging Markets Investable Market Index $8.37 of your $100 investment

(of which 72 cents is in Taiwan Semi, 36 cents is in TenCent..) 		27% China, 19% Taiwan, 18% India, 10% South Korea…
IAGGAbout 5800 international bonds tracking the Bloomberg Global Aggregate ex USD 10% Issuer Capped (Hedged) Index5$2.83 of your $100 investment

(of which 5 cents is Chinese T-Bills)		Trailing 12 month yield = 4.27%, even less shbby
IJHUS Midmarket stocks that track the S&P MidCap 400 Index$2.67 of your $100 investment (of which 2 cents is in Williams Sonoma)21% Industrials, 18% Financials…
IJRUS Small Cap stocks that track the S&P SmallCap 600 Index $1.87 of your $100 investment
(largest holding is Hims Hers Health — 2 cents)		IJH+IJR+IVV is sort of similar to ITOT
Main components of AOA as of February 2025

Like XGRO, investing in an all-in-one like AOA provides you with exposure to a bunch of different asset types across many different geographies in one product, including all of the “hot” stocks you read about ad nauseam. Diversification under one banner.

The big difference from XGRO is the very tiny representation of Canada overall. I worked it out to about 2.5% of the overall number, which makes sense given the size of Canada on a global scale.

I came across the “Three Fund Portfolio” popularized by Bogleheads over 15 years ago. AOA and its family members is more or less that concept.

  1. Shorthand for “80% equity, 20% bonds”. There remains a lot of disagreement about the appropriate asset allocation, e.g. https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=210178 ↩︎
  2. Instead, I see a lot of “target date” retirement ETFs, which are in some ways similar, but lower the equity percentages as you get closer to the target date. ↩︎
  3. There’s also AOR (60% equity), AOM (40% Equity) and AOK (30% Equity) ↩︎
  4. Compare with the XGRO breakdown at https://moneyengineer.ca/2025/01/30/whats-the-deal-with-xgro/ ↩︎
  5. That’s a mouthful. ↩︎

USD Assets in the retirement portfolio. Good idea?

RobH7 Comments

I’m not sure when I first made a purchase of a USD-denominated ETF. Probably over 10 years ago. Clearly, I thought it was a good idea, because as of today I find that 57% of my retirement savings1 are denominated in US Dollars.

And unlike other people I’ve talked to, there’s no underlying rationale for that. I’ve never earned employment income in USD and I don’t own property in the US. So why?

I’m a cheapskate.

I started investing in USD based ETFs simply because they were a much better deal than their Canadian equivalents. This is less true now than it used to be, but it’s still true. Take for example the comparison between comparable USD and CAD ETFs that track the same index:

IndexWhat’s in itUSD ETFMERCAD ETFMER
S&P 500Top 500 US stocksIVV0.03%VFV, XUS0.09%
Russell 20002000 mid-market US StocksVTWO0.07%XSU2, RSSX30.36% for XSU, 0.25% for RSSX
FTSE Developed ex USGlobal stocks outside of the USASCHF0.06%VDU0.22%
USD versus CAD ETFs tracking the same index4

The Canadian market has become more competitive, and MERs have come down, but given the size of the US market, it’s still cheaper to invest there.

I’m not a very savvy cheapskate.

So although the MERs of US ETFs were stunningly attractive, I failed to consider the cost of currency conversion. For this I blame naivete as well as a lack of transparency on the part of my provider. It was not possible for me to easily figure out how much each CAD to USD transaction was costing me. A good estimate is about 1.5% the cost of the transaction, but some providers make this much cheaper5.

I also had USD investments in my TFSAs, which, from a tax perspective, isn’t the best idea.

Over time, I discovered the joys of Norbert’s Gambit to do currency transactions on the cheap and I became more savvy. And I eliminated all US holdings from my TFSA.

Preparing for Retirement

In preparing my portfolio for retirement (steps I took are outlined here), I did seriously consider converting everything to CAD in the interest of keeping things simple. I did not, and here’s why:

  • I figured that having ready access to USD would be rather useful to retired me, since I do vacation there. And I had made other preparations in light of that, setting up a USD credit card and USD savings account for RRIF payments to go to.
  • Although I knew that having USD RRIFs would make getting paid in retirement more complicated, I thought I had worked out a plan with my provider6 that would make extracting USD RRIF payments achievable, with some effort on my part.
  • I sort-of liked having some of my investments in USD since it’s a stable currency. Usually.
  • I also liked the additional boost I got from USD HISAs. (That’s probably an anomaly but one I’m happy to take advantage of)
  • I could change my mind at any time.

Current Reality

This isn’t working like I thought it would.

My provider decided to backtrack on allowing me to extract USD from my USD RRIF;7 we’re still going back and forth on that front, but my friends at QTrade are on my naughty list as a result. I’m not hopeful.

What it means practically is that although the value of my USD RRIF is used to calculate my RRIF minimums, I can only withdraw RRIF payments from the Canadian side. At present, the Canadian side of my RRIF will fund my RRIF minimum payments for a while, but at some point I’ll have to use Norbert’s Gambit to move funds from the USD RRIF to the CAD RRIF.

My Advice

I don’t think that holding USD assets in retirement — especially in a RRIF — is a great idea for the DIYer. Unless platform providers give really clear processes8 for how to extract that money from a USD RRIF, expect trouble.

At some point, I will either switch providers to find one that supports my requirements9, or I will convert everything to CAD. Right now, I have a process that works, but older me I expect will find it too complicated.

  1. Majority of the USD holdings are in my / my spouse’s RRIF; small portion is in my non-registered account. ↩︎
  2. Not an apples to apples comparison, admittedly. This ETF is hedged so it’s less impacted by changes in the CAD/USD exchange rate but this comes at a cost. ↩︎
  3. This is ALMOST the same thing; RSSX uses a capped version of the index ↩︎
  4. And try as I might, I couldn’t find a USD ETF that invested in the TSX/S&P 60. Not really surprising, and my USD retirement holdings have very limited Canadian exposure. AOA has about 2.4% Canadian exposure. ↩︎
  5. Notably, Interactive Brokers and lately, Wealthsimple especially if you hold more than 100k with them. ↩︎
  6. Involving multiple phone conversations and multiple emails ↩︎
  7. You may ask, “what’s the point of having a USD RRIF if you can’t extract USD from it”? I had the same question… ↩︎
  8. RBC says they support it and so does Questrade. ↩︎
  9. I had sorely hoped Wealthsimple could be that provider, but (sigh) they don’t support spousal RRIFs at the moment. ↩︎

What’s in my retirement portfolio (Feb 2025)

RobH4 Comments

This is a (hopefully monthly) look at what’s in my retirement portfolio. The original post is here.

Portfolio Construction

The retirement portfolio is spread across a bunch of accounts:

  • 7 RRIF accounts (3 for me1, 3 for my spouse, 1 at an alternative provider as a test)
  • 2 TFSA accounts
  • 5 non-registered accounts2, (2 for me 1 for my spouse, 2 joint)

The target for the overall portfolio is unchanged:

  • 80% equity, spread across Canadian, US and global markets for maximum diversification
  • 15% Bond funds, from a variety of Canadian, US and global markets
  • 5% cash, held in high interest savings accounts (list available to me shown here)

The view as of this morning

As of this morning, this is what the overall portfolio looks like:

Overall retirement portfolio by holding, February 2025

The portfolio, as always, is dominated by AOA and XGRO which are 80/20 asset allocation funds in USD and CAD, respectively. The rest are primarily either cash holdings in HISAs (DYN6004/5 in CAD and USD) or residual ETFs held in non-registered accounts for which I don’t want to create unnecessary capital gains just for the sake of holding AOA or XGRO.

The biggest month over month change is due to a small re-balancing exercise. I replaced some of my XGRO (which is an 80/20 equity/Bond asset allocation fund) with XEQT (a 100% equity asset allocation fund). I do re-balancing any time my asset allocation drifts more than 1% off my target allocations3. The trigger for me was an overweighting in bonds, which had drifted to represent 16% of my portfolio instead of the desired 15%. Upon reflection, the reason was obvious: both AOA and XGRO are 20% bonds, and if I want only 15% bonds, I will periodically need to fund an all-equity alternative. The net effect will be that you will see more XEQT show up in the portfolio over time.

The observant reader will also notice a bit of a shift between DYN6004 and DYN6005. The reason? I raided some USD from DYN6005 to pay my US credit card bill and replaced it with CAD in DYN6004 using the spot FX rate at the time. Seemed the easiest way to get some USD4 without having to resort to my friends at Knightsbridge.

SCHF percentages drifted down a bit since that’s the ETF I’m selling in my non-registered portfolio to augment my monthly RRIF payments. That will continue for the next few months at least since the USD payouts are needed to fund a few holidays5 I’m taking that are billed in USD.

Otherwise, nothing interesting to see in the month to month changes.

Plan for the next month

The geographic split looks like this

Overall retirement portfolio by market, February 2025

The international equity percentage is below my target of 24%, and so I’ll have to fix that. SCHF seems a good choice in USD6 since it’s free to trade with QTrade. XEF would be a perfect fit in the Canadian market.

A quarterly activity that I’ll be performing this month is to shift some of my USD RRIF holdings into my CAD RRIF. This wasn’t something I had planned to do but since my provider has backtracked on allowing me to get paid out of my USD RRIF in USD, I needed a way to keep the USD exposure at a constant-ish level in the overall portfolio. I’ll talk about the USD in my portfolio in a future dedicated post.

One final note: my retirement savings continue to grow even though I’m now actively removing assets out of it. On paper, this makes perfect sense since an 80/15/5 portfolio ought to grow at a rate greater than my rate of removal. In practice, of course, it’s rather stock market dependent. Here’s the monthly returns for the 2 ETFs that make up the lion’s share of my portfolio7.

XGRO and AOA monthly returns so far8
  1. For me, that’s one personal RRIF that has 2 accounts, one for CAD, one for USD, and one spousal RRIF. My spouse has one spousal RRIF in two currencies, and a personal RRIF. The alternative provider RRIF exists because I wanted to give Wealthsimple a try. ↩︎
  2. For me, two because one each for CAD and USD. The 2 joint accounts are my cash cushion accounts for the VPW methodology outlined here and here. ↩︎
  3. Completely spreadsheet-driven. I don’t trade on news, analyses, gut feelings, hot tips, or guesses. ↩︎
  4. I did hesitate a bit because the interest rate on DYN6005 is over 1% higher, but given the amounts involved, I’m clearly overthinking things. ↩︎
  5. All booked before this current tariff nonsense. Sorry. ↩︎
  6. Although it does have a 9% exposure to the Canadian market so not 100% “international”. Hard to beat the MER of this, though. ↩︎
  7. I don’t think this tool accounts for FX so it’s probably not totally accurate. Check out https://moneyengineer.ca/tools-i-use/ for other useful tools. Canadian dollar gained 1.4% against the USD in the past 30 days, per https://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/exchange/daily-exchange-rates/ so that will reduce the effective return of AOA by the same amount. ↩︎
  8. “Without dividends reinvested” since these two ETFs only pay out quarterly. There haven’t been any yet. ↩︎

Ok, I’m ready to fire my advisor. What do I need to do?

RobH2 Comments

So you’ve decided to make the leap and keep more of your own money. Congratulations! Here’s a list of things you need to do to put that plan into action.

Disclaimer: I treat my retirement assets separately from any other assets (rainy day funds, day-to-day expenses). If you blend these sort of things together, it may change things like step 1.

1. Determine your desired asset mix

“Asset mix” is just another way of describing your risk profile, or in really plain English, what percentage of your portfolio is going to be invested in equity. There’s a quick questionnaire over here that will put you in one of 5 buckets:

  • Very Conservative: This means 20% Equity.
  • Conservative: This means 40% Equity.
  • Balanced: This means 60% Equity.
  • Growth: This means 80% Equity.
  • Aggressive Growth: This means 100% Equity.

If you’re happy with the way your existing portfolio is performing, then you can instead calculate the percentage of equity in it and use that as your asset mix. For simplicity, I would consider any stock as “equity” and any cash, HISA, Bond fund or GIC as “not equity”. If your portfolio holds ETFs, then you need to see what’s inside them. You can typically read that on the “fund facts” page. They are usually one or the other, unless you already hold funds like XGRO.

2. Choose your platform and create login(s) for it

But which one? I talk about some of the things to consider over here, or you can investigate a trustworthy source like the Globe and Mail’s annual rankings. Some providers (e.g. QTrade, Questrade) allow you to make trial accounts to test drive them. I myself use QTrade for my investments. Like all providers, it does some things really well, and others, not so much. I have either personal experience or friends using (in alphabetical order) BMO Investorline, Interactive Brokers, iTRADE, QTrade, Questrade and Wealthsimple. Any of them will do. Many of them run promotions1 trying to entice you to switch. Might as well take advantage of that if it makes sense23. Also consider if they will reimburse you the transfer fees imposed by your soon-to-be-ex provider of choice4.

The heading of this section says “login(s)” because if you’re part of a spousal team, you should really do this as a team.

This step also usually entails form-filling and proof of life uploads/emails/faxes5 (photo ID, banking info….). Put on your favourite tunes and the time will be filled with pleasant sounds.

3. Figure out how to move money to and from your new platform

If you’re still contributing to your TFSA/RRSP/RESP, or if you have non-registered accounts, or are close to retirement and about to set up a RRIF, then it’s pretty important to know how money will move in/out of these accounts. Typical things you’ll have to do are

  • set up your new account(s) as “Bill Payees” online banking6
  • set up EFTs7 between your bank account and new platform
  • set up new Interac eTransfers8
  • Get cheques/bank card for your non-registered account, if applicable9

4. Collect all your existing account information

To successfully complete the transfer, you are going to need to know the details of all your existing accounts. The usual information requested is found on your monthly/annual statements. Client number, account number, rough value of what’s in each.

If applicable, you’ll also want to have a very good handle on exactly how much you’ve contributed to capped government savings vehicles (e.g. RRSP, TFSA) so you don’t inadvertently over contribute in the year you make the shift10.

There may be a snag at this step. You may hold assets at your old provider that are not supported at your new provider. This may or may not be a big deal. Typical issues are caused by

  • GICs11. The reason you get good interest rates from them is because the money is locked away. You may or may not be able to move them without incurring penalties. You’ll have to ask your new provider what they are willing to do. In most cases, the answer will be “sorry, can’t help you, if you want to move them, you’ll have to sell them first”12.
  • Mutual Funds. Many of these are private to that provider,13 and constitute, in their estimation, considerable value add. For these, you are almost certainly going to have to say goodbye (and good riddance) .

For GICs, you can choose not to move those assets, wait until they mature, or eat the cost of cashing them in early.

For Mutual Funds, selling them usually isn’t a concern, unless you hold them in a non-registered account, in which case there may be undesirable capital gains that will cause a tax hit.

For most people, the costs involved in moving assets are small compared to the money you’ll ultimately save by firing your advisor. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.

5. Initiate account transfers from your newly selected platform

This is the first step where things get real.

Different providers will do this somewhat differently, but it’s usually called something like “Transfer Account”. In my experience, providers are highly motivated to be highly helpful at this stage ;-).

But in essence, initiating an account transfer will involve two things:

  • The creation of the kind of account you’re moving (e.g. TFSA, RRSP, Spousal RRSP, RRIF14) AND
  • The details of that account (client number, account number….all collected in the previous step)

It’s also possible you have to create the account (TFSA, RRSP….) on your new platform FIRST, and once it’s created THEN you can initiate a transfer.

You will have to answer a question of moving the existing assets “in kind” or “as cash”. If you hold portable assets at your old provider (e.g. cash, stocks, ETF), “in kind” is fine. If you don’t (e.g. GICs, mutual funds) then “as cash” will allow your new provider to trigger a sale of those assets.

You will have to do this for EVERY account you’re moving. Were I to switch, I’d have to move

  • 4 RRIF accounts (2 each for me and my spouse; one in CAD, one in USD)
  • 2 spousal RRIF accounts (1 for each spouse)
  • 2 TFSA accounts (1 for each spouse)
  • 5 investment accounts (2 for me, 1 for my spouse, and 2 joint15)
  • 1 RESP account

6. Wait for the funds to arrive

This always seems to take forever. Expect a delay of 5-10 business days at this point. Expect a panicky call from your soon-to-be-ex advisor. Take the time to set up Trading Authority (TA) for your personal accounts (spouse, adult child, other relative) so they can make trades on your behalf. There’s a form for that. Having TA for my spouse’s accounts means I can see our ENTIRE retirement portfolio from my login which is Highly Desireable.

7. Buy the correct ETF in line with step 1.

As as example, if you were to use the Blackrock family of asset allocation funds:

  • Very Conservative: This means 20% Equity. This means XINC.
  • Conservative: This means 40% Equity. This means XCNS.
  • Balanced: This means 60% Equity. This means XBAL.
  • Growth: This means 80% Equity. This means XGRO.
  • Aggressive Growth: This means 100% Equity. This means XEQT.

The reason for choosing an asset allocation fund is for automatic re-balancing. You pay about 0.15% for that service, which is baked into the price of the fund. It’s more or less what your advisor should do for you today.

8. Pay as much or as little attention as you like

As you invest new funds (e.g. for TFSA/RRSP), buy more units. You might also consider setting up a DRIP at this stage so as dividends roll in (typically, monthly or quarterly), you automatically purchase more of the same. Autopilot.

If you want a second set of eyes to assess your holdings, then dropping some cash on a fee-for-service advisor from time to time may make sense.

Eight steps to save potentially thousands of dollars. You’re worth it!

  1. Googling (for example) “Wealthsimple promotion” would be one way to find the current one. ↩︎
  2. Read the fine print, there are almost always caps on rewards, as well as obligations to stick with the provider for a period of time. ↩︎
  3. Here is one rare case where there may indeed be something pretty close to a free lunch. ↩︎
  4. Almost all providers do this; there is almost always some sort of lower limit…$15k is pretty typical. ↩︎
  5. Any provider wanting faxes should disqualify them as a provider, just sayin’. ↩︎
  6. This is how QTrade does it. ↩︎
  7. Electronic fund transfers. You provide institution/transit/bank account number using a blank cheque. That’s how QTrade knows where to put my RRIF payments. Another form to fill. ↩︎
  8. Only Wealthsimple seems to allow this. It’s fast, but has upper daily/weekly/monthly limits that may make it impractical. ↩︎
  9. Both BMO Investorline and Wealthsimple allow this. I’m guessing that it’s a common feature for providers that also operate bank services (e.g. CIBC, TD, National Bank, Scotiabank). My provider (QTrade) does not. ↩︎
  10. Your new provider will have no idea what your TFSA limits are; only CRA knows that. Most providers will track what you contribute IN THEIR ACCOUNT in a given year, so that’s somewhat helpful. ↩︎
  11. The lack of liquidity of GICs is the main reason I don’t use them. ↩︎
  12. The one exception I’ve encountered thus far is that BMO Investorline was willing to accept the GICs purchased via BMO Advisor Services. There may be others. ↩︎
  13. Manulife and Sunlife, much loved by employers for DPSPs, are notorious for their 1.5% MER index funds. ↩︎
  14. Don’t forget to properly designate beneficiaries or survivor annuitants. ↩︎
  15. These are CAD and USD versions of the cash cushion required by the system I use to pay myself in retirement. ↩︎