TD Direct Investing Review 2026: Canada's Largest Bank Brokerage
TD Direct Investing is Canada's largest bank-owned online brokerage by accounts and assets. It has the most powerful research tools of any Canadian platform, a 24-hour phone desk, and deep integration with TD's banking system. It also charges $9.99 per stock and ETF trade. We tested it exhaustively to find out: for a Canadian buying XEQT, is any of that worth the cost?
What Is TD Direct Investing?
TD Direct Investing is the self-directed brokerage arm of Toronto-Dominion Bank, one of Canada's five largest financial institutions. It is the most widely held online brokerage in Canada. If you bank with TD, your money, your mortgage, your chequing account, and your investments can all live on a single login. That convenience is real and has value for a certain type of investor.
The platform operates through WebBroker, TD's web trading interface, and the Advanced Dashboard for active traders. It also maintains TD Easy Trade, a separate mobile-only app positioned as a beginner-friendly alternative to Wealthsimple, though it has significant limitations that make it unsuitable for most XEQT investors.
TD Direct Investing is regulated by CIRO and is a CIPF member, providing up to $1 million in protection per account category. It received an A+ from Rob Carrick's annual brokerage review in 2025, primarily for its research tools and platform stability.
The Fee Problem: $9.99 Per XEQT Trade
Let us start with the most important number for a Canadian XEQT investor: every time you buy or sell XEQT on TD Direct Investing's main platform (WebBroker), you pay $9.99. On Wealthsimple, you pay $0. On Questrade, you pay $0 (plus negligible ECN fees). At TD, you pay $9.99 every single time.
For an investor making monthly XEQT purchases of $500, that is $9.99 per month, or $119.88 per year in trading commissions alone. Over 25 years of monthly investing, the commission drag compounds. At a 7% gross return, $119.88 per year in avoidable fees costs you approximately $7,400 in lost future wealth over 25 years. That is the real cost of paying $9.99 when free alternatives exist and offer the same XEQT at the same 0.20% MER.
The math on monthly XEQT purchases at TD WebBroker: 12 trades per year at $9.99 = $119.88 in annual commissions. Wealthsimple: $0. Over 25 years at 7%, that difference compounds to approximately $7,400 in lost wealth. For a passive index investor, there is no research capability or platform feature at TD that justifies this cost.
The full TD fee structure
| Fee Type | TD WebBroker | TD Easy Trade | Wealthsimple |
|---|---|---|---|
| ETF purchase (XEQT) | $9.99 | TD ETFs only, free; other ETFs not available | $0 |
| Stock trades | $9.99 | 50 free/yr then $9.99 | $0 |
| Active trader rate | $7.00 (150+ trades/qtr) | N/A | $0 |
| TFSA maintenance | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| RRSP maintenance | $0 or $25/qtr* | $0 | $0 |
| Account maintenance | $25/qtr if under $15K household | $0 | $0 |
| FHSA | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| RESP | Yes | No | No (self-directed) |
| Options trading | Yes | No | No |
| Minimum deposit | $0 | $0 | $0 |
*RRSP maintenance fee waived with $15,000+ household balance or qualifying activities. Verify at td.com/directinvesting.
TD Easy Trade: The Free Alternative (With a Catch)
TD launched Easy Trade in 2021 as a mobile-only beginner investing app. It offers 50 commission-free stock trades per year and unlimited commission-free purchases of TD's own ETF lineup. The account types supported are Cash, TFSA, RRSP, and FHSA. There are no monthly maintenance fees.
This sounds attractive until you read the fine print: TD Easy Trade does not support third-party ETFs. You can buy TD's all-in-one ETF portfolios commission-free, but you cannot buy XEQT (iShares/BlackRock), VEQT (Vanguard), or any ETF not manufactured by TD.
Cannot buy XEQT on TD Easy Trade. If you want XEQT specifically, Easy Trade is not an option. You need the full TD Direct Investing WebBroker account, where every XEQT purchase costs $9.99. TD's own equivalent all-in-one ETF is TGRO (100% equity). It is a reasonable fund but has a higher MER than XEQT and does not have XEQT's track record or assets under management.
TD e-Series as an alternative
For TD customers committed to the TD ecosystem, the TD e-Series index mutual funds are worth considering. The Canadian, US, and international equity e-Series funds have MERs between 0.33% and 0.50%, which is higher than XEQT's 0.20% but far lower than typical actively managed TD mutual funds. They can be purchased in any dollar amount and are ideal for investors with small balances. However, they are not a single-fund solution and require manual rebalancing between the four funds.
TD WebBroker: The Research Case for Staying
There is a reason TD Direct Investing earned an A+ from Rob Carrick in 2025. For investors who want to go beyond index ETFs into individual stocks, bonds, options, and detailed fundamental and technical research, WebBroker is the most capable platform available to Canadian retail investors.
Research depth
Free access to analyst ratings, earnings estimates, company profiles, technical charting with a library of indicators, ETF screener, mutual fund screener, and dedicated options research. The stock screener is among the best available to retail investors in Canada without a Bloomberg terminal. For a self-directed investor who wants to research individual companies, sector trends, or fixed-income opportunities, WebBroker is genuinely superior to every alternative in this review.
Fractional shares
TD added fractional shares in 2024, allowing investors to buy partial units of Canadian and US stocks and ETFs. This is a meaningful feature for investors starting with small amounts who want full diversification from day one.
Banking integration
If you bank with TD, the integration between your chequing account and your Direct Investing account is seamless. Transfers between accounts post instantly during banking hours. You can view your TD banking and investment accounts in a single dashboard. For investors who value simplicity and already use TD for day-to-day banking, this is a genuine quality-of-life advantage.
24-hour phone support
TD maintains a licensed Investment Representative phone desk from Monday to Friday, 7am to 9pm ET. For investors who want the option to call and speak with a human being about a trade, an account issue, or an unexpected situation, this is a real advantage over digital-only platforms.
TD Direct Investing vs Wealthsimple for XEQT Investors
TD Direct Investing Pros and Cons
- Best research tools of any Canadian retail broker
- Instant transfers from TD bank accounts
- Full account type range including RESP and RDSP
- Fractional shares for both stocks and ETFs
- Robust options trading capability
- 24/7 banking integration, one-dashboard view
- Phone support during business hours
- Rob Carrick A+ rating (2025)
- $9.99 per XEQT trade (Wealthsimple is $0)
- No free ETF trades on WebBroker (any ETF)
- TD Easy Trade cannot buy XEQT
- Account maintenance fee for smaller balances
- No automated recurring XEQT purchases
- Trustpilot 1.3/5 (customer service complaints)
- Account opening slower than digital-only platforms
- Mobile app is the banking app, less investment-focused
Is TD Direct Investing Right for You?
TD is the right choice if:
You are an existing TD banking customer who wants to invest in individual stocks or bonds alongside your XEQT position, needs professional-grade research, trades options, or wants everything under one institution: mortgage, banking, and investments together. The research tools genuinely justify a premium for active investors who use them.
You also have an RESP to manage for your children and want it alongside your other accounts. TD's RESP is fully featured and integrated with the rest of your portfolio.
TD is not the right choice if:
You are a passive XEQT investor making regular contributions. Paying $9.99 per trade when free alternatives exist makes no mathematical sense for this use case. The research tools TD is justly proud of are irrelevant to someone who has decided to buy one ETF and hold it for 30 years. Every dollar paid in commissions is a dollar that is not compounding inside your TFSA.
If you are currently at TD and uncomfortable switching, a reasonable compromise is to move your XEQT purchases to Wealthsimple while keeping your TD account for the banking integration you value. The platforms are not mutually exclusive. See our guide on which account type is best for holding XEQT and our comparison of Wealthsimple vs Questrade for the two commission-free alternatives.
TD Direct Investing 2026: Canada's Best Research Platform, Wrong Choice for XEQT
TD Direct Investing scores 6.8 out of 10. The low score reflects a single critical flaw for XEQT investors: paying $9.99 per trade when free alternatives exist. Every other dimension of TD's product is excellent or genuinely class-leading. The research tools are the best in Canada. The account range is comprehensive. The banking integration is seamless.
But none of that matters if you are buying XEQT monthly and paying $119.88 per year in avoidable commissions. For a passive XEQT investor, TD Direct Investing is an expensive solution to a problem that free platforms solve better.
Our recommendation: if you already bank with TD and value the integration, open a Wealthsimple TFSA for your XEQT purchases and keep your TD account for banking. You do not have to choose one or the other. What you should not do is pay $9.99 every month to buy an ETF that is free everywhere else.
Buy XEQT commission-free instead.
Wealthsimple charges $0. Every trade. No account minimums. $25 free on your first deposit.
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For informational purposes only. Not financial advice. This page contains affiliate links. Commission fees verified from TD Direct Investing's official fee schedule as of March 2026. Always verify current fees at td.com/directinvesting before opening an account.