How to buy XEQT on Wealthsimple, step by step (and at Questrade or RBC)

How to buy XEQT on Wealthsimple comes down to three choices: which account holds it, how much goes in each month, and whether the purchase repeats on its own. The order itself is the easy part. This guide walks through the steps in the app, which account to fill first, what a monthly XEQT plan costs in actual dollars, and how buying XEQT at Questrade, RBC Direct Investing or TD compares. It is general education, not financial advice.

How to buy XEQT at a glance

Buying XEQT on Wealthsimple: key facts (September 2026)

	Buying XEQT on Wealthsimple
Commission to buy or sell	$0
Currency conversion	None: XEQT trades in Canadian dollars on the TSX
Dollar-amount (fractional) orders	Offered on thousands of Canadian and US stocks and ETFs; look for the fractional-shares label on XEQT's page
Account minimum and opening fee	No minimum; $0 to open
Accounts that can hold XEQT	TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, LIRA, RRIF, non-registered (cash and margin), and corporate accounts
Recurring buys	Weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, included on every plan
Dividend reinvesting	Optional; once on, eligible payouts buy more units within 24 hours
XEQT's own fee (MER)	0.19%
Investor protection	securities eligible for CIPF coverage up to $1M per defined account

Per Wealthsimple’s trade fee schedule (September 2026), buying or selling XEQT costs $0 in commission, and because the fund is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canadian dollars, no currency is converted. Opening an account costs $0, with no account minimum. XEQT can sit in any self-directed account Wealthsimple offers: TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, LIRA, RRIF, non-registered (cash and margin), and corporate accounts. Wealthsimple’s pricing page lists recurring investments (weekly, bi-weekly or monthly) and optional dividend reinvesting within 24 hours of a payout as included on every plan, and its fractional-shares page covers thousands of Canadian and US stocks and ETFs, with eligible ones labelled in the app. The only ongoing cost sits inside the fund: XEQT’s MER is 0.19%. For protection, Wealthsimple’s accounts page lists securities eligible for CIPF coverage up to $1M per defined account; CIPF steps in if a member firm fails, not when markets fall.

What you’re buying. XEQT, the iShares Core Equity ETF Portfolio, launched on August 7, 2019 and has $22.8 billion in net assets. It owns five iShares ETFs that together hold 8,301 stocks: about 45% US, about 25% Canada, about 24% international developed markets and about 5% emerging markets. There are no bonds. Over five years to August 31, 2026 it returned 13.14% a year, per iShares; past returns don’t predict future ones. For a full breakdown of the fund itself, see the XEQT review.

How do you buy XEQT on Wealthsimple, step by step?

Open a self-directed account, fund it, search XEQT, enter a dollar amount and submit; Wealthsimple charges $0 commission on the order.

1. Open the account XEQT will live in. Sign up with Wealthsimple and open a self-directed TFSA, FHSA, RRSP or non-registered account. The next section helps you choose. Opening an account costs $0.
2. Add money. Deposit from your bank account, or move an existing account from another institution. Transfer-out fees charged by your old institution are reimbursed on transfers of $25,000 or more, up to $150 per account, and Wealthsimple puts the average transfer at 2–4 weeks. The Wealthsimple transfer guide covers the details. Wealthsimple’s ETF page says deposits can be available to invest instantly, up to a limit that depends on your plan.
3. Search for XEQT. Type XEQT or “iShares Core Equity ETF Portfolio” into the search bar and open the Toronto Stock Exchange listing, priced in Canadian dollars. Wealthsimple’s ETF page says its full, current ETF list lives in that search rather than on a web page.
4. Tap Buy and set the order. Choose the account (make sure it reads TFSA, FHSA or RRSP if that’s what you intend), then enter either a dollar amount or a number of shares. A dollar amount buys the matching fraction of a unit when XEQT carries the fractional-shares label. A market order fills at the current price; a limit order fills only at your price or better.
5. Review and submit. Confirm the account, the amount and the order type before you submit. With XEQT there’s no currency conversion to review, because nothing is converted to US dollars.
6. Automate the next purchase. Set up a recurring investment in XEQT on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly schedule, and turn on dividend reinvesting so each quarterly distribution buys more units.

The same steps buy VFV, XGRO or any other Canadian-listed ETF; only the ticker changes. If the S&P 500 is what you’re after, the guide to buying VFV on Wealthsimple covers that version.

Which account should you buy XEQT in: TFSA, FHSA or RRSP?

Use a registered account before a taxable one: iShares lists XEQT as eligible for registered plans, and TFSAs, FHSAs and RRSPs all shelter its growth and distributions from yearly tax.

Which registered account comes first depends on your plans:

• FHSA, if you qualify as a first-time home buyer. Contributions are generally deductible, like an RRSP’s, and a qualifying withdrawal to buy your first home is tax-free. Room is $8,000 a year, up to $40,000 over your lifetime. The catch with XEQT: it is all stocks, so money you need for a down payment soon can drop right before you need it. If the purchase is close, a savings product inside the FHSA may be the better holding. The Wealthsimple FHSA guide covers the rules.
• TFSA, for long-term money you may want to reach. The 2026 dollar limit is $7,000, room builds from the year you turn 18, if you're a resident of Canada (and no earlier than 2009), and withdrawals are added back to your room on January 1 of the following year. Growth and distributions aren’t taxed in Canada, even when you withdraw them. See the Wealthsimple TFSA guide.
• RRSP, when your tax rate now is higher than you expect in retirement. RRSP room is calculated as unused room carried forward, plus the lesser of 18% of last year's earned income and the annual RRSP limit, minus your pension adjustment; the 2026 dollar limit is $33,810. The deduction lowers this year’s tax, and withdrawals are taxed later. The Wealthsimple RRSP guide has more.
• Non-registered, once registered room is used up. Distributions are taxable every year, and selling at a profit can trigger capital gains tax.

How much a month fills each account

Spreading the 2026 room evenly over twelve monthly purchases works out to:

• TFSA: $7,000 over 12 months is about $583.33 a month.
• FHSA: $8,000 over 12 months is about $666.67 a month.
• RRSP at the 2026 cap: $33,810 over 12 months is about $2,817.50 a month, though your personal limit is the one on your notice of assessment.

If you have unused room from earlier years, the helper below estimates the total. Your exact figures are in CRA My Account.

What does a monthly XEQT plan cost on Wealthsimple?

Filling a 2026 TFSA with XEQT costs nothing in commissions or currency fees on Wealthsimple; the only charge is XEQT’s 0.19% MER, taken inside the fund.

Here is a worked example: someone fills this year’s TFSA room of $7,000 with a monthly recurring buy of XEQT, about $583.33 each month.

• Commissions: 12 purchases at $0 cost $0. At TD Direct Investing’s standard $9.99 per trade, the same 12 purchases would cost $119.88, or about 1.7% of the year’s contributions before any growth. TD waives its commission on a list of select ETFs, but XEQT wasn’t on it when YieldMaple checked on September 24, 2026. TD’s separate Easy Trade app includes 100 free trades a year, which would cover these 12 purchases.
• Currency conversion: $0. The same monthly amount into a US-listed ETF such as QQQ from a CAD account would pay the 1.5% conversion fee: about $8.75 a purchase, or $105 a year, with a second conversion when you sell.
• Fund fee: once the full $7,000 is invested, XEQT’s MER costs about $13.30 a year, or about $1.11 a month. You never see a bill; it is reflected in the fund’s price. In the first year it’s less, because the balance builds month by month.
• Automated Investing, if you added it: $17.50 a year on the same balance, which is more than XEQT’s own MER, to rebalance a one-fund portfolio that doesn’t need it.
• Distributions: at XEQT’s 12-month trailing yield of 1.55%, a full year on that balance would pay about $108.50, quarterly. With dividend reinvesting on, each payout buys more XEQT, and inside a TFSA none of it is taxed. A trailing yield describes the past year, not a promise.

Bottom line for year one: at most about $13.30 in total costs on Wealthsimple, all of it the fund’s own fee.

Do you need US dollars to buy XEQT?

No: XEQT trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canadian dollars, so any CAD account buys it directly, with no currency conversion fee.

XEQT still owns foreign companies (about 45% of it is US stocks), so exchange rates affect its value in Canadian dollars. What you skip is the conversion itself, which the fund handles internally.

US-listed ETFs are different. Invesco’s QQQ, for example, trades in US dollars on a US exchange and tracks the Nasdaq-100, an index Invesco says includes many of the world’s leading technology stocks, so it’s not a substitute for XEQT’s global mix. Buying it from a Wealthsimple CAD account adds the 1.5% conversion fee each way. A Wealthsimple USD account avoids a conversion on every trade, but it costs $10 a month for Core clients; free for Premium and Generation. Converting money into it is priced by size: 1.5% under $10,000; 1.0% from $10,000; 0.5% from $25,000; 0% from $100,000. The Wealthsimple USD account explainer and the guide to Norbert’s gambit on Wealthsimple cover how to keep those costs down. For XEQT, none of it applies.

XEQT vs VEQT on Wealthsimple: which should you buy?

Either works: XEQT and VEQT are both all-stock, one-ticker ETF portfolios in Canadian dollars, and Wealthsimple charges $0 commission on each.

VEQT, the Vanguard All-Equity ETF Portfolio, is Vanguard’s version of the same idea. The two differ slightly in regional weights and fees; the XEQT vs VEQT comparison has the side-by-side numbers. On Wealthsimple, nothing about buying them differs: same search, same order screen, same recurring-buy setup. At the big-bank brokerages the fund can change the cost: TD Direct Investing’s commission-free list includes VEQT but not XEQT, while RBC Direct Investing’s includes XEQT and no Vanguard ETFs. The mistake to avoid is holding both. Two all-in-one funds give you the same global stock market twice, with an extra ticker to track and no added diversification.

What about VFV, XGRO and the rest of Wealthsimple’s ETF list?

• VFV holds only the S&P 500, with an MER of 0.08%. XEQT already owns most of what VFV holds, so VFV works as a deliberate US tilt, not a replacement. The VFV vs XEQT comparison explains when each fits.
• XGRO is XEQT’s sibling in the iShares Core portfolio family, with a slice of bonds added. It suits investors who want the same one-fund simplicity with smaller swings.
• Everything else: Wealthsimple’s ETF page says the complete, current list of ETFs is in the app’s search, covering thousands of Canadian and US ETFs, all at $0 commission.

How do you buy XEQT on Questrade, RBC or TD?

The steps match everywhere (open an account, fund it, search XEQT, order), and Questrade and RBC also charge no commission on XEQT, while TD Direct Investing charges $9.99.

What it costs to buy XEQT at four Canadian brokerages (September 2026)

	Wealthsimple	Questrade	RBC Direct Investing	TD Direct Investing
Commission to buy XEQT	$0	$0 to buy and sell Canadian and U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs	Commission-free: XEQT is on RBC's commission-free ETF list	$9.99 standard: XEQT isn't on TD's commission-free ETF list
Worth knowing	Dollar-amount orders on fractional-eligible ETFs; recurring buys of a chosen ETF	Fractional shares on hundreds of eligible Canadian and US stocks and ETFs, from $1, commission-free, in any self-directed account; can hold US dollars inside registered accounts	DRIP reinvests into whole shares only	VEQT and TEQT are on TD's commission-free list; TD Easy Trade includes 100 free trades a year

Questrade. Questrade’s commission page lists $0 to buy and sell Canadian and U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs, so XEQT is free to trade there too. The steps: open a TFSA, FHSA, RRSP or cash account, fund it from your bank, search XEQT in Questrade’s app or web platform, enter the number of units and submit. Questrade also offers fractional shares on hundreds of eligible Canadian and US stocks and ETFs, from $1, commission-free, in any self-directed account; its quote page shows whether a given ETF is eligible. Where Questrade wins is currency: you can hold USD in registered accounts, so US trades don't force a conversion, and its dual-currency accounts are free — every account can hold both Canadian and US dollars. That matters if you also buy US-listed ETFs, not for XEQT itself. If you already invest at Questrade, there’s no cost reason to move just to buy XEQT. The Wealthsimple vs Questrade comparison covers the account-by-account differences.

RBC Direct Investing. As of September 23, 2026, RBC’s commission-free ETF list is iShares ETFs, including XEQT, XGRO, XBAL, XIC and XUS, and RBC says those commission-free trades apply in every account type, including TFSAs, RRSPs and FHSAs. RBC notes the list can change; ETFs not on it cost $9.95 per online trade. RBC’s dividend reinvestment plan reinvests into whole shares only, so any part of a distribution too small to buy a whole unit isn’t reinvested. If you already bank and invest with RBC, buying XEQT there costs nothing extra. For small, frequent amounts, Wealthsimple’s dollar-amount orders are the main draw; RBC’s is keeping your investing inside the bank you already use. The Wealthsimple vs RBC Direct Investing comparison goes further.

TD Direct Investing. TD lists $9.99 per trade (Standard); $7.00 per trade (Active Trader); $0 on select ETFs. When YieldMaple checked TD’s commission-free ETF list on September 24, 2026, it held 108 ETFs, including VFV, VEQT, VGRO, VBAL, SPY, QQQ and TD's own ETFs such as TEQT, but not XEQT. So each XEQT purchase at TD Direct Investing costs the standard commission, which adds up fast with monthly buys, as the worked example above shows. TD clients have two ways around that: buy VEQT or TD’s own TEQT from the commission-free list instead, or use TD’s separate Easy Trade app, which includes 100 free trades a year and then charges $9.99 a trade ($1.99 for partial-share orders of less than one share).

Should you use Automated Investing or a managed portfolio instead?

Not for XEQT alone: Automated Investing charges 0.25%, capped at $250 per account per year to rebalance a portfolio, and XEQT already rebalances itself inside the fund.

iShares describes XEQT as “continuously monitored and automatically rebalanced” to keep its target weights. Wealthsimple’s Automated Investing is built for self-directed investors holding several stocks and ETFs at chosen target weights; it tops up whatever is underweight when you deposit. With one all-in-one fund there is nothing to rebalance between, so the fee buys you nothing a free recurring investment doesn’t already do.

A managed Wealthsimple portfolio is a different product: Wealthsimple picks the funds, sets the mix to your goals and adjusts it over time, for 0.50% a year on the Core plan, plus the fees of the funds inside it. On the same $7,000 TFSA balance as the worked example, that management fee is $35 a year before the funds’ own fees, compared with about $13.30 a year in MER for holding XEQT yourself. The managed route earns its fee if you would otherwise not invest at all, or would sell in a panic. The Wealthsimple managed vs self-directed guide runs through that choice in detail.

Before you buy XEQT: a six-point checklist

1. Right ticker. XEQT is the iShares Core Equity ETF Portfolio on the Toronto Stock Exchange. VEQT, XGRO and XBAL are different funds with similar names.
2. Right account. The order screen shows which account you’re buying in. Buying in a personal (non-registered) account by mistake makes every distribution taxable.
3. Room checked. Confirm TFSA, FHSA or RRSP room in CRA My Account first. CRA taxes excess TFSA contributions for every month they stay in the account.
4. One all-in-one fund, not two. XEQT plus VEQT is the same market twice.
5. Money you won’t need soon. XEQT is all stocks. Money for next year’s bills or an emergency fund belongs somewhere steadier, such as a Wealthsimple savings account paying 2.5% (available to every client, no tiers).
6. An exit you understand. Fractional units can’t be transferred to another brokerage; Wealthsimple’s fractional-shares page says they would need to be sold first, which is tax-free in a TFSA but can realize a gain in a non-registered account. Instant withdrawals from investment accounts cost 2.5%, so plan withdrawals ahead when you can.

Who should (and shouldn’t) buy XEQT on Wealthsimple

Buy XEQT on Wealthsimple if:

• You want one fund to be your whole stock portfolio, and you plan to keep adding to it for years.
• You invest small or uneven amounts and want to order in dollars rather than whole units (check that XEQT carries the fractional-shares label).
• You want the habit automated, with recurring buys and dividend reinvesting at no extra cost.
• Your chequing, savings or other accounts are already at Wealthsimple. Our complete Wealthsimple guide covers the rest of the platform.

Stay where you already are if:

• You have a Questrade or RBC Direct Investing account. Both charge nothing to buy XEQT, so moving adds paperwork, not savings.
• You also buy US-listed ETFs and want to hold US dollars cheaply. Questrade’s dual-currency accounts are free — every account can hold both Canadian and US dollars, while a Wealthsimple USD account costs $10 a month for Core clients; free for Premium and Generation.
• You invest at TD and are happy with VEQT or TEQT instead of XEQT. Both are on TD Direct Investing’s commission-free list; XEQT isn’t.

Skip XEQT if:

• You’ll need the money within a few years, or a large drop would push you to sell.
• You want bonds in the mix (XGRO or a balanced fund) or want someone else to choose and adjust your portfolio (a managed account).

Whichever brokerage you use, XEQT is the same fund with the same 0.19% MER. The platform only changes how easy it is to keep buying.