Best Financial Advisors in Canada

In trying to do your homework and separate the best financial advisors in Canada from the rest, you’re going to run into a lot of highly-motivated sales professionals. Most people that call themselves financial advisors are great at using vague jargon and financial fears to steer you toward the products that pay them the most.

Canadian mutual funds and insurance products are among the priciest on the planet. There’s real money in selling them, even when they’re a poor fit for your needs.

Further confusing the picture is that a lot of people still think that selecting a financial planner is about someone selecting the perfect investments for you. That hasn’t been true for 20+ years (if it ever was). We now know with 100% certainty that there is no such thing as a hot stock tip from a financial planner.

The very, very few people in the world who have any idea what the markets are more likely to do, work for massive hedge funds – they don’t give advice “for free” to people with $100,000 in the bank (or even $10 million).

Real financial planning isn’t about guessing the next winner – it’s about building a low-cost, tax-smart plan you can actually stick with. It’s about understanding someone’s goals and helping them get there.

We’re all human, and we’re all susceptible to sales tactics. Someone who remembers your kids’ names, asks about your vacation, and checks in once a year can feel friendly and safe. Small talk feels nice, puts us at ease, and lets the seller (aka “financial advisor”) establish a cycle of trust with us. It also has no bearing on if they are a good financial advisor.

Here are my four essential filters I use when choosing an advisor:

• Are they fee-only and advice-only financial planners? 
• Do they embrace a fiduciary duty towards clients?
• Are they willing to fully explain their fees in easy-to-understand terms?
• Are they willing to provide references?

If an advisor doesn’t have all four of my non-negotiables, they’re out. It’s that simple. 

Once I used those criteria to establish a short list, I did a quick Google check (now I’d probably use an AI to look as well) to see if there are any red flags. I also check whether independent financial writers have quoted them or covered their firm.

If the editors at the Globe and Mail or Financial Post have decided that you’re credible enough to comment or write for them, that’s also a step in the right direction (although by no means an automatic recommendation). Finally, if top personal finance podcasters, respected columnists, and other pros keep inviting you on as a financial planning expert, that carries some weight as well.

Canada’s Top Financial Advisor Company: Objective Financial Partners

That transparent selection process is how I came to find Jason Heath and his team at Objective Financial Planners.

Here’s why I think Objective is the best financial advisory company in Canada:

• Google Jason Heath – you’ll see that he is an absolute expert when it comes to Canadian financial planning. Very few financial advisors are willing to stick their neck out by writing for as many publications as Jason does.
• Absolutely no commissions or kickbacks from selling products of any kind.
• A very simple payment process. You tell them what you need – they tell you what it will cost.
• No confusing percentages of your portfolio are taken away each year (often called “Assets Under Management” – or AUM – by many financial planning companies).
• Jason’s team is handpicked with a wide array of experience in niches like accounting, expat finance, corporate finance, estate planning, retirement planning, and senior citizen financial planning. This range of expertise allows the firm to answer any questions you can throw at them.

My personal experience says that you can’t find that combination of objectivity, transparent fee structure, and elite level of expertise anywhere else in Canada. You can see for yourself what kind of services that Objective offers by clicking the button below.

My Personal Experience With Objective Financial Partners

Several years ago, I wanted some help from a wealth management company with a wide range of resources and experience to double check my own planning. My wife and I’s finances were getting increasingly complicated due to selling a small corporation, handling cash flow from a couple of other small ventures, and optimizing the taxes for two teaching incomes as well.

Finally, we were considering moving overseas, and so we had some really unique questions about taxation for Canadian residents looking to move abroad.

Jason and his team took their time in making sure that they fully understood what we needed. 

Then they gave an estimated quote for how much time it would take to answer all of my questions, optimize my tax planning (plus prepare my actual tax forms for the CRA), and present me with a comprehensive financial plan. They would also look over what I was already doing and advise me on any pros/cons or tradeoffs that I might’ve not considered.

After I double-checked to make sure that there were no percentages of assets being charged, or commissions on products, I agreed.

The return on investment that I received was excellent. I saved thousands on making sure my taxes were prepared the right way.  

But even more than the money I saved upfront, I got the peace of mind that came with having a team of experts answer every single follow up question and “what if” scenario that I could come up with. After hiring Objective, I was 100% sure what direction I wanted to take, what my options were, and how I could navigate the choices ahead of me. They more than delivered on what they had promised, and they were well within the initial quote that they provided during our first no-obligation video chat.

I’m not saying that Objective is the only game in town when it comes to good Canadian financial advisors, but they are simply the best combination of expertise and transparency.

I’ve long counted Robb Engen a friend, and he is a trusted public figure in a similar way to Jason. But Robb is a one-person operation and so he is self-admittedly limited in terms of the number of clients he can take on, and the complexity that he can deal with.

I think that Ben Felix, Cameron Passmore, and the rest of the team at PWL Capital are really knowledgeable folks. They produce excellent free content on Youtube and on their Rational Reminder podcast. That said, I just simply do not agree with how they charge customers for their services.

PWL charges a percentage of your portfolio in exchange for their financial planning efforts. In industry lingo, your investment portfolio is called “assets” and so the “Assets Under Management” (AUM) would be the category to which PWL belongs. This is a very common model in the USA. 

I could not find a plainly-stated fees section on the PWL website, but I did come across a Ben Felix post from mid-2025 that stated PWL charges the following fees at different asset levels: 1.25% on the first $500,000 invested, 0.85% at the $2,000,000 level, 0.68% at the $3,000,000 level, and 0.54% for folks with $5,000,000. To be clear – that’s money that would come out of your account every year no matter what the stock market (or any other investments) did. It’s NOT a one-time or hourly fee.

To break that down into an easy-to-digest number, if you had a million bucks (combined) invested across several accounts (TFSA, RRSP, non-registered, corporate, etc) then you’d be paying over $11,000 every single year. If you compare that number to a quote you’ll get from Objective, then you’ll see the difference pretty quickly.

And that initial difference doesn’t even take into account the fact that some years you may not need any advice at all (last year’s plan is still being executed), or maybe you just need a quick one or two questions that can be answered in an hour-long appointment. With Objective, you’d be paying $0-$500 for that situation, as opposed to the same $11,000+ with the AUM model.

I also have to admit to some bias in that I’d rather pay my money to a medium-sized Canadian-owned corporation, as opposed to PWL, which is owned by an Atlanta-based U.S. financial services and human resource consulting company named OneDigital (as of a 2025 sale).

When you compare that to the quote that you will get from Objective, I think you’ll see the difference pretty quickly. Also, Objective is NOT going to charge you year-in and year-out based on the size of your portfolio!

You don’t have any questions in a given year? Then you pay nothing at all!

If all that you need in a given year is a double-check that your financial plan is proceeding in the right direction, then Objective will simply charge you for the one or two hours that it takes them to look at everything – and then one hour for your conversation. That’s going to cost you thousands of dollars less every single year than if you were paying 1% of your entire portfolio!

That advice-only sales model is the main difference between Objective and the other contenders for the best financial advisory company in Canada. Of course, the individual credentials of team members are also elite, and they are routinely quoted in Canada-wide publications as subject area experts.

2026 Update: It has been great to see Objective Financial grow over the last couple of years. They have now added specialists in the fields of divorce finance and several more cross-border financial advisors. 

As my small business has grown, it has become a bigger and bigger part of my overall personal financial picture. Fortunately for me, Objective has grown its small business advisor team over the years as well. As they have added several accountants with plenty of corporate tax filing experience, their ability to combine corporate and personal financial advice is second-to-none.

By combining small-business tax knowledge, with long-term cash flow management between the corporation and the individual, Objective is a perfect fit for small business owners.

If you want an in-depth look at the issues with the vast majority of Canada’s financial advisors and the companies they work for, check out our Edward Jones Review and compare the compensation model to what I just described above. I think you’ll see the conflict of interest pretty fast.

Canadian Financial Advisor Fees and Costs Explained

While we’re on the topic of fees and costs charged by Canadian financial advisors, let’s take a second to briefly outline how your advisor gets paid.

There are a few main models of how to pay a financial advisor in Canada, and some advisors charge a combination of these models. I personally think it’s kind of crazy that we don’t have one simple model to pay for advice like we do for a dentist or an engineer, but currently that’s not how it works.

The fee-only, advice-only financial planner: The most simple way to pay for advice. They quote you a basic dollar amount. You pay that dollar amount – once. If you want to set up an annual or monthly meeting with your advisor, you can – and it will cost you the predetermined amount. There are no kickbacks, commissions, or percentages of assets to worry about.

The fee-based assets under management financial planner: This is the type of compensation that PWL charges and that we discussed above. It means that no matter what types of investments that are recommended, the same percentage fee of your portfolio will be applied each year. 

Be careful when looking for a fee-based financial advisor that you don’t end up with an advisor fee – plus an additional layer of fees and costs on the products that are recommended. This can be a very expensive way to pay for financial advice, but at least it removes a lot of the incentive to just sell mutual funds no matter what (which is the most common model in Canada, and which we’re about to read about).

The commission-based financial planner: The sad fact is that the most common form of payment for financial advisors in Canada continues to be getting kickbacks (aka: commissions) from the financial products that they sell you. If you walk into a bank, credit union, or one of the big name wealth management companies, you’re almost assuredly going to get stuck with a commission-based financial planner. 

In my opinion, this type of financial planning should be avoided at all costs. It is terribly expensive and confusing, as the money is taken out of your investment accounts before you even see it. Avoid this type of financial planner like the plague.

To recap – the most easy to understand type of payment for a financial advisor is the most rare. The type of hidden-fee financial planning that incentivizes financial planners to put your money in high-fee mutual funds is the most popular.

A logical person might ask how in the world that can be?!

It all boils down to how our brains look at money and paying for stuff.

Commission-based financial advisors are able to legally say things like, “Oh you don’t have to pay me today for our financial planning services, the fund company takes care of that.” Then, you get to keep whatever the investment return is when it hits your investment account.

That all sounds like a pretty good deal right?  

The problem is that you have likely paid a fee called a Management Expense Ratio (MER) that is 2% or higher – you just don’t ever see it. That money gets paid to the company and the financial advisor before it ever enters your investment account. 

Canada has some of the highest mutual fund MER fees in the world! That means that if you’re using a commission-based advisor, not only do they have a lot of financial incentive to give you bad advice – but you’re also going to pay a ton of money for it!

If you have that same million bucks invested with a commission-based advisor, you’re probably paying more than $20,000 to the wealth management company every year without even knowing it. BUT there is no psychological hit to seeing the money come out of your chequing account like there is when you pay for a fee-only, advice-only financial advisor.  

I would argue that the entire commission-based fee structure is completely unethical, and that even the fee-based financial planning structure is somewhat confusing (if more ethical and more transparent).

The worst part is that there are probably only about 150 fee-only, advice-only financial planners in Canada. That’s total individuals – NOT companies.  It’s simply very difficult to get most Canadians to understand they shouldn’t be paying a hidden percentage of their entire nest egg each year.

Right now, far less than 1% of Canada’s financial planners are fee-only, advice-only planners.

What’s a Financial Advisor, What’s a CFP, and What’s a Financial Planner?

In addition to having a really unethical way of paying for financial advisors in Canada, we also let financial service companies operate in a really grey zone when it comes to what titles people can use.

A reasonable person might assume that to call yourself a financial advisor you must have attained a specific credential or have a specific education background.

That reasonable person would be wrong!

Unless you live in Quebec, you can go to your printer right and print off a sheet that says “Financial Advisor” (or “Financial Adviser” if you prefer), hang outside your door, and boom – you’re now an official financial advisor, ready to provide financial planning services.

The same goes for terms like “financial planner” or “money coach”. These titles have no legal bearing and can basically be used by anyone. I personally know several people who went to work at major financial institutions in Canada, took a three-week course that mostly focused on how to sell mutual funds, were told their pay depended on how much money they could get clients to put into mutual funds – and were then released on to the front lines to provide financial advice to folks.

I know that sounds insane, but I assure you it’s true.  If you want proof, here’s an undercover video from the CBC program Marketplace that details exactly what I’m talking about.

The terms that actually have legal meaning in Canada are as follows:

Fiduciary: If you ask someone if they have a fiduciary responsibility to you, it means they legally have to place your needs ahead of the firm’s needs (or their personal paycheque). They can be sued if they are found to have provided you with advice that padded their bottom line but that wasn’t in their best interests.

Certified Financial Planner (CFP): If someone is a CFP it means they have attained a certain level of education and experience within the industry. It is regulated by a professional body.

Qualified Associate Financial Planner (QAFP): Much like the CFP, this is a regulated title. It is often seen as a “bridge” or “stepping stone” to a full CFP.

Now, I should mention that I have seen plenty of really bad financial planners with the CFP designation.  Having a CFP doesn’t guarantee that you will receive good advice, but at least it filters out the people that only have 3-weeks of training on how to sell mutual funds.

Financial Planning in Canada FAQ

Why I Don’t Like Canadian Bank Advisors

Most Canadians are probably pretty surprised that they haven’t heard me mention big financial firms yet such as: 

• Raymond James
• Edward Jones
• Investors Group (IG Wealth Management)
• RBC
• BMO
• CIBC
• TD
• ScotiaBank
• IA Private Wealth
• CI Financial (Assante Wealth Management)
• Manulife
• Sunlife 

Look, I’m sure that there are some good financial planners that work for these companies. I just can’t in good conscience recommend a wealth management company that uses the commission-based structure to hide fees from investors. It’s just really unethical.

For every $100,000 that you have invested in mutual funds with these companies, you are likely paying between $2,000 and $3,000 every single year! That’s whether the stock market makes money or loses money!  It’s just a really bad deal.  

Ask yourself why you are paying for a service through a convoluted formula that involves percentages of funds. There are no good answers to that question.

Edward Jones vs Advice-Only Financial Planner

	Advice Only/Fee Only Financial Planners	Edward Jones
Is there an upfront quote that is easy to understand?	Yes!	Definitely Not.  Many percentages and fees to calculate.
Percentage the financial advisor and company will take from your portfolio	0%	Somewhere in the 1-3% range – see below for details.
Are there several layers of additional fees suh cas markups when you buy securities, “strategy fees”, and account fees for every RRSP, TFSA, RESP and investing account that you have?	No!	Yes!
Are advisors paid commissions to recommend investments?	No	Yes
Are advisors paid commissions to recommend insurance products?	No	Yes
Are advisors paid commissions to recommend mortgages?	No	Yes
Does the advisory company charge fees for services/products such as account transfers, margin accounts (loans), foreign exchange, trading fees, markups on investments you buy, etc?	No	Yes

*The above information was interpreted from the Edward Jones “Understanding how we are compensated for financial services” document found here. Please consult this document to fully understand the complexity of compensation involved.

Be Careful With the Media’s “Best Financial Advisors in Canada” Lists

When you Google best financial advisors in Canada you’re probably going to see a bunch of lists from places like the Globe and Mail or other media outlets.

I personally would put absolutely zero stock in these lists.

These news articles are often sponsored, and the criteria they use to determine if someone is a good financial advisor are awful. The most reputable lists (a very low bar to clear) are independently created by using a handful of surveys from customers who aren’t really qualified to know if the advice they received is good or not. Most Canadians don’t even understand how they’re paying their financial advisor!

These lists are often dominated by wealth management companies like the ones I noted above. They often only work with people that have more than $2 Million in investable assets. And of course they do – by putting those folks in mutual funds, they’re making $40,000-$60,000 EVERY YEAR from these clients.

If you decide that my choice of Objective Financial Partners isn’t the right fit for you, definitely choose another independent fee-only, advice-only advisor. Let me put it to you this way – There’s a reason why so many wealth management companies have their names on the side of sports stadiums right?

Guess who is paying the millions of dollars for those naming rights…

Choosing the Best Financial Planner for You

When people ask me how to choose a financial advisor, I respond that I start by eliminating people who fail my baseline expectations tests. If their business model depends on steering you toward products that quietly pay them commissions, that’s not advice – it’s sales. And if universal life insurance or high-fee mutual funds show up early in the conversation as “great investments,” that’s your cue to move on quickly. There are too many better options to tolerate conflicted incentives that lead to really bad financial advice!

From there, your personal advisor checklist may look slightly different depending on your situation. That’s fine. But the core standards shouldn’t be negotiable. The four criteria that I started this article with aren’t meant to be clever or exclusive – they’re the minimum bar for anyone you’re trusting with serious, long-term decisions.

As a brief aside, it constantly surprises me how casually many people approach selecting a financial advisor. I see folks spend weeks researching a TV or vacation purchase, then hand over their entire financial future after a single meeting and a decent first impression. That’s really crazy when you think about it! This is a relationship that can shape your retirement, your stress level, and your overall financial flexibility for decades.

Being personable isn’t enough. An advisor can be friendly, remember your kids’ names – and yet still do very little to improve your financial outcomes. What actually matters is whether they take the time to understand your full picture and explain, in plain English, why a specific plan makes sense for you. 

Salesy charm doesn’t compound inside your RRSP. Good advice does.

The best financial planners I’ve worked with share one common trait: You can ask them anything without feeling rushed or embarrassed. They’ll respond by clearly walking you through the reasoning behind every recommendation. No hand-waving. No jargon meant to intimidate you. Actual numbers and evidence that support the path they’re recommending.

Finally, fees should never be mysterious. Every dollar you pay should be obvious and understandable before you commit. No vague percentages. No buried trailer fees. And if you’re told that the advice is “free” because the product company covers the cost, that’s not a perk, it’s a huge blinking neon warning sign.

I’ll keep updating this article throughout 2026 and beyond. If you’ve had a genuinely good experience with a Canadian financial advisor, I’d love to hear about it in the comments. I can’t name bad actors directly, but you’re welcome to describe the behaviours and practices that made an experience go off the rails. Those details help everyone make better choices.