Switching in Canada: What to Expect
General information only — not a recommendation to switch providers or use any particular institution.
The short version from the general overview still holds here: you ask the new brokerage for a transfer, and they do the work of pulling everything from your old provider. In Canada, a few details are worth knowing before you start.
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The timeline is a bit of a moving target
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The regulator that oversees this (CIRO) has a standard requiring transfers to settle within 10 business days of the request. In practice, plenty of transfers take longer — sometimes a few weeks — especially for registered accounts or if paperwork gets kicked back for something minor like a mismatched signature. CIRO is actively working on modernizing this (there's a push toward more automated, all-digital transfers happening right now), but as of today, expect the process to lean on some manual steps rather than feeling instant.
Your account type affects the paperwork
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Canada has several registered account types — RRSP, TFSA, RESP, RRIF, plus regular non-registered accounts — and each has its own transfer form and rules:
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RRSPs and RRIFs generally move using a standardized transfer form between the two institutions
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TFSAs move similarly, but issuer-to-issuer
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Non-registered (taxable) accounts can typically move in-kind without triggering a taxable event
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One thing that trips people up: you can't directly transfer between account types. Moving RRSP money into a TFSA isn't a "transfer" — it's a withdrawal (which triggers withholding tax) followed by a separate TFSA contribution. If that's part of what you're picturing when you say "switch," it's a different process than moving an RRSP from one broker to another.
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The TFSA room trap
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If you withdraw TFSA funds yourself instead of requesting a direct transfer, and then redeposit them at the new institution, that redeposit counts as a new contribution — not a transfer. If it pushes you over your contribution limit, you're looking at a penalty, and the room doesn't reset until January 1 of the following year. This is exactly why a direct, in-kind transfer request matters more than it might seem to.
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One fee to know about going in
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Your current provider may charge a transfer-out fee (commonly $100–$150). Most discount brokers will reimburse this once your account is transferred and funded — but it's worth asking the new institution about this up front rather than after the fact. (If you're moving out of older mutual fund holdings, there's a separate fee question — deferred sales charges — that's covered in [the fees section] rather than here.)