Nine managed-portfolio services, all-in costs from 0.37% to over 1% — a spread
worth thousands a year on a retirement portfolio. We verified every fee at the source, mapped
Underlying ETF management-expense ratios stack on top of the robo's management fee. Questwealth, RBC, BMO, CI Direct, Justwealth and Nest Wealth publish theirs; Wealthsimple and ModernAdvisor don't. ,
flagged which robos can't hold a RRIF, and ranked who actually gives you a human.
9Robos compared — all alive, no ghosts
0.37%Cheapest all-in (Questwealth) vs 1%+ at the priciest
Ranked by all-in value for a long-term, registered-account investor — never by who pays
us. Protection wording is deliberate: some robos are portfolio managers whose
custodians hold the CIPF membership. Verified June 10, 2026.
How we build this ranking.
The bank options, for reference
Convenient if you bank there — but you pay for the logo, and one of them can't hold the account
your retirement actually needs.
Mutual funds — Global ETF Portfolio MER 0.75% (Core portfolios 1.06%)
Yes
Not a managed account — these are mutual funds with a $25 minimum. Simple, and RRIF-capable, but there’s no RESP, FHSA or LIRA and no CIPF wrapper.
How to choose
Add up both fee layers — then compound them
The advertised fee is only the top layer — the ETFs underneath charge their own MERs. All-in ranges from 0.37% to over 1% across this page, and that gap compounds into six figures over a retirement.
Every robo charges twice: its management fee, plus the
Management expense ratio — the annual cost embedded in each ETF the robo buys for you, deducted from fund returns before you ever see them.
of the funds underneath. Questwealth's all-in lands around 0.37%–0.47%;
BMO SmartFolio on a $50,000 account runs about 0.9%–1.05%; Tangerine's portfolios
are mutual funds at 0.75%+ all-in. The difference reads small and compounds huge —
half a point on $300,000 is $1,500 a year before growth effects. Two providers (Wealthsimple,
ModernAdvisor) don't publish their underlying MERs at all, which means their true all-in cost
isn't public — a transparency point that should factor into your pick. Feed any two fee levels
into the MER calculator to see the retirement-sized
result.
The retiree checklist: RRIF, income portfolios, a human
Eight of nine robos hold RRIFs — RBC InvestEase doesn't. Only Justwealth builds portfolios specifically for the drawdown phase, and only Justwealth and CI Direct bundle real human advice.
Three filters do most of the sorting for anyone near or in retirement. One: RRIF
support — your RRSP must convert by the end of the year you turn 71, and
RBC InvestEase can't hold the result; everyone else here can. Two:
drawdown design — Justwealth is alone in offering dedicated Income and
Preservation portfolios built for taking money out, which pairs naturally with our
retiree cash strategy and
RRIF schedule. Three: human
access — Justwealth assigns a named advisor to every client and CI Direct includes CFP
access; Nest Wealth gives you a support inbox. In the drawdown years, the ability to phone a
person who knows your file is worth real basis points.
Fee structures flip the winner as you grow
Percentage fees beat flat fees on small balances; flat fees win big. Nest Wealth's $150/month cap is ~2% on $15k — and ~0.18% on $1M, the cheapest in Canada.
Percentage pricing and flat pricing cross over. Under ~$50,000, Nest Wealth's flat plan is the
most expensive option on this page ($25/month on $15,000 ≈ 2% a year) while Wealthsimple's
$0-minimum 0.5% costs pennies. Past roughly $500,000 the picture inverts: Nest Wealth's
$150/month cap is ~0.18% on $1M — under even Questwealth — with 0.13% average MERs
underneath. Wealthsimple plays the same game with tiers (0.4% at $100k, down toward 0.2% for
Generation clients), and ModernAdvisor steps down to 0.30% past $1M. If your portfolio is large,
run the math at your number, not the advertised headline.
Robo vs DIY, honestly. A one-ticket asset-allocation ETF in a $0-commission
brokerage costs ~0.2% all-in and does 90% of what a robo does — the robo's extra 0.2%–0.5% buys
automatic rebalancing, payroll-style deposits, and protection from your own worst instincts in a
crash. That's genuinely worth it for many people and genuinely unnecessary for some. The decision
framework is in our robo vs DIY vs advisor guide; the DIY
route starts at our broker comparison.
Frequently asked questions
The best robo overall, true all-in costs, RRIF support, robo-vs-DIY-vs-advisor, CIPF safety, and how fresh this data is.
What is the best robo-advisor in Canada?
On pure cost, Questwealth — 0.20%–0.25% management plus published ETF costs of 0.17%–0.22%, roughly half the all-in price of most rivals. But "best" splits by situation: Justwealth for retirees (dedicated Income and Target-Date portfolios, RRIF/LIF support, a named human advisor), Wealthsimple for starting from $0 or for halal portfolios, CI Direct for bundled CFP-level planning, and Nest Wealth for large portfolios, where its flat $150/month cap works out to ~0.18% on $1M.
What does a robo-advisor actually cost, all-in?
Two layers: the management fee (0.20%–0.70% across this table) plus the MERs of the underlying ETFs (0.11%–0.35% where published). All-in, the field runs from roughly 0.37% (Questwealth) to over 1% (BMO SmartFolio on smaller accounts; Tangerine’s 0.75%+ mutual funds). That spread is enormous over time — a 0.5-point difference on $300,000 is $1,500 a year, compounding. Our MER calculator turns any pair of fees into a retirement-sized dollar figure. Beware providers that only advertise the management fee: if the MER isn’t published, the all-in cost isn’t knowable.
Which robo-advisors can hold a RRIF?
Most — but not all, and the exception is surprising. Questwealth, Justwealth, Wealthsimple, CI Direct, Nest Wealth, ModernAdvisor, BMO SmartFolio and Tangerine all support RRIFs. RBC InvestEase does not — no RRIF, RESP or LIRA — so an RRSP there must eventually transfer out to become retirement income. If you’re within a decade of 71, that’s disqualifying. Justwealth goes furthest the other way: RRIF and LIF support plus portfolios actually designed for the drawdown phase.
Robo-advisor, DIY, or a human advisor — which should I use?
The honest cost ladder: DIY with an asset-allocation ETF (~0.2% all-in, you do the discipline), robo (~0.4%–0.7% all-in, automation does the discipline), human advisor (1%–2%+, you’re paying for planning and hand-holding). Robos won the middle: cheaper than advisors, more disciplined than most humans. The hybrid options blur it — Justwealth assigns a real advisor and CI Direct includes CFP access at robo-ish fees. Our robo vs DIY vs advisor guide works through which tier you actually need.
Is my money safe at a robo-advisor?
The assets sit with CIRO-regulated dealers covered by CIPF — up to $1M per account category group if the firm fails (never against markets falling). One nuance worth knowing: some robos are portfolio managers whose custodians hold the CIPF membership — CI Direct says this explicitly, and Nest Wealth custodies at Fidelity Clearing/NBIN, ModernAdvisor at Aviso/CI. Your money is at the custodian, which is the entity that matters. Also reassuring: all nine providers on this page are open and operating — the 2024–2026 era consolidated the industry (Nest Wealth to Objectway, ModernAdvisor to Desjardins) but closed nothing.
How current is this comparison?
Every fee, minimum, account lineup and protection detail was verified at each provider’s own pricing or help pages on June 10, 2026. Watch for staleness elsewhere: ModernAdvisor changed its fee schedule in April 2025 (old reviews quote dead tiers), CI Direct’s published MERs carry an April 2024 as-of date, and Wealthsimple’s 1% transfer match ends September 15, 2026. Where a figure wasn’t published (Wealthsimple’s and ModernAdvisor’s underlying MERs), we say so instead of guessing. See our methodology.
This page is for educational purposes only and is not investment advice. Management fees, MERs,
minimums, account availability and offers change without notice; every figure was verified at the
provider's own published pages on June 10, 2026 (CI Direct's MERs carry that provider's April 2024 as-of
date), and unpublished figures are stated as unpublished rather than estimated. CIPF protects
against member-firm insolvency, never market losses; where the robo is a portfolio manager,
protection applies at its custodian. Confirm current terms before opening or transferring. See our
methodology.
Take control of your retirement
Create a free account to save your place — no bank, no upsell.
or
We only use your email to save your account and send the occasional tip. Educational content only — not financial advice.
