Why I Moved Our TFSA and RRSP for Wealthsimple's 3% Match

The 3% match got my attention because it was attached to money we were already treating as long term. I moved our TFSA and RRSP, and I also moved an old company group-plan RRSP from Sun Life. That last one mattered emotionally because group plans can quietly become the drawer you never open.

This was not me waking up one morning and deciding one brokerage had become morally superior. Questrade served me well for years. Sun Life was part of an employment setup. CIBC mutual funds were where this whole learning path started. The useful question was much smaller: given where our household is now, was this transfer worth the paperwork and the strings?

For me, the answer became yes only after Wealthsimple caught up on enough of the USD and account plumbing that had previously kept me at Questrade. Before that, a shiny match would not have fixed the part I cared about most: avoiding expensive back-and-forth currency conversion in registered accounts.

As of my June 18, 2026 check, Wealthsimple's public terms said the match required registration first, then at least $25,000 of qualifying account transfers. Cash deposits were not the normal path for the match.

The terms listed 1%, 2%, and 3% reward choices, paid monthly over one, three, or five years. The 3% option is the largest number, but it is also the longest commitment.

The same terms said transfers had to be initiated inside the 30-day window and received within 90 days. That is why I do not like treating transfer promos as a one-click decision. The originating institution, account type, paperwork, and timing all matter.

The headline number is 3%, but the hold period does the real talking. Wealthsimple's public terms tied the 3% option to a 60-month payout and a 60-month hold after the qualifying period.

That makes it less like found money and more like a five-year household promise. If the money is truly long-term, that can still be reasonable. If you may need flexibility, it becomes very easy to overvalue the promo.

The public terms also described a 20% available-to-withdraw buffer based on qualifying funding. Past that, future payments can be reduced proportionally rather than previous installments automatically clawed back. That is better than the scariest version of a clawback, but it still means the future payments are not unconditional.

The transferred assets were not next-year money. They were TFSA and RRSP assets we already expected to keep invested, plus an old workplace RRSP that I wanted back in the same place as the rest of our investing life.

I also cared that Wealthsimple had become good enough on the pieces that previously kept me at Questrade: USD handling, registered-account workflow, and the general feeling that I could run the accounts without fighting the tool. Questrade still deserves credit here. It was a rational choice for the version of me that was trading more in USD and using things like Norbert's Gambit.

The Sun Life transfer was a different kind of cleanup. Workplace plans can be perfectly fine while you are actively using them, especially if there is an employer match. But after leaving a plan or letting an old account sit around, I want to know what I own, what it costs, and whether it belongs in the same household system as everything else.

Before treating the match as free money, I checked account types, transfer-out fees, whether the transfer would be in-kind or cash, USD holdings, contribution room, dividend timing, and anything that might not transfer cleanly.

Wealthsimple's transfer docs say supported transfer types include stocks and ETFs, cash transfers for eligible account types, cash-only FHSAs, and some eligible mutual funds. They also list unsupported assets such as GICs, bonds, options, warrants, delisted securities, and fractional shares for trading accounts.

That matters because selling something to transfer as cash can create different risks than moving holdings in kind. In a registered account, the transfer itself may not be taxable, but being out of the market, triggering product fees, or losing track of USD handling can still cost real money.

I would not move emergency money for a five-year promo. I would not move accounts I expect to need soon. I would not ignore a good workplace match just because a brokerage promo looks cleaner on paper.

I also would not pretend the 3% match is the only variable. A bad investment choice, tax-room mistake, transfer delay, forced liquidation, or repeated FX fee can overwhelm a promo surprisingly quickly.

The way I think about it now is simple: the match can improve an already-good transfer. It should not rescue a transfer that fails the basic household test.

For our household, I was comfortable taking the 3% option because the assets were long-term, the platform had caught up enough for our use, and consolidating the old group RRSP reduced a kind of financial clutter I no longer wanted.

But the more honest headline is not 'I got 3% free money.' It is: I accepted a five-year payout because the transfer already made sense without needing the promo to do all the work.