Interactive tool
Your mutual fund got blocked, auto-switched, or gave you a mystery rebate. Here's what actually happened — and what to do next. Built for Canadians at TD Direct, RBC DI, Questrade, NBDB, and other self-directed brokerages.
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Canada's securities regulators (CSA) banned order-execution-only (OEO) brokerages from receiving trailing commissions starting June 1, 2022. Here's the short version of a complicated rule change.
Trailer fees are an annual payment — typically 0.25% to 1.00% — baked into a mutual fund's MER and paid by the fund company to whoever sold or holds the fund on your behalf. For decades, advisors received trailers as ongoing compensation for "service." At discount brokerages where there's no advisor, trailers became a silent windfall for the broker — with no service in return.
Regulators ruled that OEO (order-execution-only) brokerages — TD Direct Investing, RBC Direct Investing, Questrade, National Bank Direct Brokerage (NBDB), Scotia iTRADE, CIBC Investor's Edge, BMO InvestorLine, and others — can no longer receive trailers. They must either stop offering trailer-paying series or pass the trailer back to clients as a cash rebate.
Most fund companies distribute their funds in multiple series aimed at different channels. Series A is the traditional advisor-channel version — it has a trailer embedded. Series D was created specifically for discount brokerages (the "D" stands for dealer/discount). Series F is the fee-based advisor channel — no trailer, lower MER, typically paired with a separate advisor fee.
After the ban, brokerages had to move clients out of trailer-paying series (usually A) and into either D or F — whichever the fund company makes available to them. Some fund companies never made a D or F series, which is why some funds simply disappeared from brokerage platforms entirely.
Key point: Not every fund company offers a D or F series. If a fund doesn't have a no-trailer sibling, your brokerage may have dropped it altogether — not because of your account, but because the fund company never built a discount-channel version.
Two different things can block a series: (1) your brokerage's policy about which series it will offer, and (2) the fund company never creating that series. TD Direct, for example, may offer D series from fund companies like TD Asset Management or Dynamic. But if Fidelity only makes Series A and F available to discount brokers, TD Direct has to use F — and if they don't carry F either, the fund is gone from that platform.
| Series | Who it's for | Has trailer? | Typical MER (equity) | After-ban status at OEO brokers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Full-service advisors | Yes (0.5–1.0%) | 2.0–2.5% | Blocked from new purchases; some held but flagged |
| B | DSC/back-end load advisors | Yes | Similar to A | Same as A |
| D | Discount/OEO brokerages | No | 1.5–1.9% | Preferred replacement at OEO brokers |
| F | Fee-based advisors | No | 0.8–1.2% | Available at some OEO brokers; lowest MER option |
| O / I | Institutional / large-account | No | 0.3–0.7% | Usually not available at retail OEO brokers |
Our Rebate vs Replace decision helper walks through whether your auto-switch left you in a good series — or whether you should ask for F, move to D, or replace with an ETF.
Open Rebate vs Replace helper Learn about fund seriesThis tool is educational only. It is not personalized financial advice. Series availability changes; confirm with your brokerage and fund company before acting. BestMutualFunds.ca is not a registered investment adviser.