Tag: unreal deal

News: Wealthsimple offering free money

RobH2 Comments

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but yes, there’s another offer out in the market that demonstrates the seemingly never-ending gravy train for the DIY investor who isn’t too dedicated to any particular broker.

It’s Wealthsimple’s turn, again, with a promotion they are calling “The Un(Real) Deal”. Marketing page here, Ts and Cs here, but step one, as in all Wealthsimple promotions, is a registration for the promotion that is painless, but must be done by March 31, 2026. After registering, you have 30 days to initiate account transfers.

In this promotion, Wealthsimple is trying to keep the rewards modest for the deal-hopper, but are pretty darn attractive for the more loyal investor. When you register for the promotion, you pick a lock-in period for transferred-in funds of one of:

  • 1 year, and get 1% cash back payable over 12 months
  • 2 years, and get 3% cash back payable over 36 months
  • 5 years, and get 3% cash back payable over 60 months1

What is particularly noteworthy about this promotion (besides the 3% cash back) is that the maximum you can earn in free money is 3% of five million dollars2. That’s (checks math) $150,000 possible in free money. That is a nice slice of pizza, if you ask me.

It appears that the usual kinds of accounts count as eligible for the promotion: non-registered, TFSAs, RRSPs, RRIFs, RESPs, LIRAs…One missing is spousal RRIFs, but spousal RRSPs are shown, so not sure about that.

If you’re tired of missing out on the gravy train, this could be an even better deal than the aforementioned Questrade deal.

Anyway, there you have it. This is one that I will take a closer look at. If you want a little extra incentive, you can use my referral code and get some additional free cash.

  1. I (meaning chatGPT) ran the numbers at various discount rates (0%,5%,10%) and the present value of 5 year deal always came out ahead. My MSci prof would be so proud of me. At 10% discount rate, the PV of the three options assuming $200k is moved is $1900, $3350, and $4720. ↩︎
  2. Yeah, ok, I know most people aren’t moving that kind of dosh, but normally these promotions are capped at a much lower dollar amount. The aforementioned Questrade deal is capped at a maximum reward of $20k, requiring $750k to be moved across 3 accounts. ↩︎