Is my brokerage account protected in Canada?

CIPF is the fund that compensates clients of an investment dealer or mutual fund dealer when that firm becomes insolvent and client property is missing. Its predecessor was set up in 1969 as the National Contingency Fund, a trust sponsored by the Canadian, Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver stock exchanges and the Investment Dealers Association of Canada. On January 1, 2023 the former CIPF and the MFDA Investor Protection Corporation were amalgamated into the current Canadian Investor Protection Fund, following an initiative led by the Canadian Securities Administrators.

CIPF and the regulator are two separate bodies with two separate jobs. The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) supervises investment dealers: it sets the rules on capital, on keeping client assets apart from the firm's own, and on how firms deal with clients. CIPF's own coverage page puts the link plainly: CIPF member firms are members of CIRO. The regulator tries to stop a firm from failing in a way that hurts clients, and the fund pays when that effort falls short.

You do not apply for CIPF coverage and you do not pay for it. It attaches automatically to eligible accounts at a member firm, and there is no requirement that you live in Canada or be a Canadian citizen.

The limit is not $1 million per person in total. It is $1 million per account category, and for an individual there are three categories. These figures come from CIPF's page About CIPF Coverage, as published in October 2026.

A worked example shows how the categories stack. Someone with a $300,000 TFSA, a $250,000 non-registered margin account, a $600,000 RRSP and a $90,000 RESP at the same member firm has $550,000 in the general category, $600,000 in registered retirement and $90,000 in the RESP category. Every category is under its own $1 million limit, so the full $1.24 million is within CIPF limits even though the total is above $1 million.

Joint accounts work differently. CIPF presumes each holder's interest is equal unless shown otherwise in writing, and each holder's share counts toward that person's general accounts limit, which is usually $1 million.

CIPF's coverage page lists the exclusions directly, and they matter more than the limits for most people:

• A drop in the value of your investments, for any reason.
• Unsuitable investments, misrepresentation, misleading or undisclosed information, and poor advice.
• The default of the company or government that issued a security. If a bond issuer goes bankrupt, CIPF does not replace the bond.
• Securities you hold directly, such as a share certificate in your own possession.
• Mutual funds registered in your name and held at the fund company rather than at the dealer.
• Crypto assets that are missing at the time of the firm's insolvency.

The property CIPF does cover is cash, securities, futures contracts and segregated insurance funds that the member firm was holding for you on the date of insolvency. Compensation, where it is needed, is based on the value of that property on that date. CIPF also states that its first objective is to return the actual property: if you held one hundred shares, the aim is to give you back one hundred shares, with cash compensation only for what is missing. Claims must be filed within 180 days of the insolvency.

The practical reading is that CIPF is a backstop for one specific failure, a dealer collapsing with client property unaccounted for. It is not insurance on your returns and it is not fraud insurance on your login.

Yes. Questrade, Inc. is listed in CIPF's directory of current investment dealer members. Questrade's own legal disclosure says Questrade, Inc. is a registered investment dealer, a member of CIRO and a member of CIPF, and that the benefits of CIPF membership are limited to activities undertaken by Questrade, Inc.

The detail that trips people up is the managed product. The same disclosure says Questrade Wealth Management Inc., which runs Questwealth Portfolios, is not a member of CIRO or CIPF. It also says Questrade, Inc. provides the administrative, trade execution, custodial and reporting services for those accounts, so the assets themselves are held at the CIPF member. Self-directed accounts are opened directly with Questrade, Inc.

Yes, for its investment accounts. Wealthsimple Investments Inc. is listed in CIPF's directory of current investment dealer members, so eligible cash and securities in its TFSA, RRSP, FHSA and non-registered accounts fall under the CIPF limits above.

Wealthsimple also offers a chequing account, which is protected by a different body. Wealthsimple's product page says chequing balances are held in trust with Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC) members, that Wealthsimple itself is not a bank or a CDIC member, and that spreading personal chequing funds across up to 10 CDIC member institutions extends deposit protection to a combined amount of up to $1 million CAD.

Crypto bought in Wealthsimple is the third case. CIPF's coverage page excludes crypto assets from eligible property, so coins missing after an insolvency would not be compensated by CIPF, even inside an app whose stock accounts are covered. For a fuller look at the platform, see our Wealthsimple review, which is written by a competitor and labelled as such.

Yes. BMO InvestorLine Inc. is listed in CIPF's directory of current investment dealer members, as is its full-service sibling BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. BMO InvestorLine's relationship disclosure document describes it as a regulated investment dealer under the rules and oversight of CIRO.

One point that confuses bank clients: an InvestorLine account is a brokerage account, so CIPF covers it, not CDIC. A savings account at BMO Bank of Montreal is a deposit and falls under CDIC. The two are run by the same banking group but are separate legal entities with separate protection.

Yes. CIBC Investor's Edge is offered by CIBC Investor Services Inc., which is listed in CIPF's directory of current investment dealer members. CIBC World Markets Inc., which runs CIBC Wood Gundy, is listed separately.

Because the two are separate member firms, an Investor's Edge account and a Wood Gundy account are held at different dealers. The legal entity printed on each statement tells you which firm holds what. CIPF notes that its full Coverage Policy, not the summary on its website, governs how a claim is decided.

Yes. TD Direct Investing is a division of TD Waterhouse Canada Inc., which is listed in CIPF's directory of current investment dealer members. TD Securities Inc. is listed as its own member as well.

Since the brand name and the legal name differ, the name to look for on a statement or in the CIPF directory is TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. CIPF's directory notes that member firms sometimes use marketing names that differ from their legal entity names, which is the reason a search for "TD Direct Investing" can come up empty while the account is covered.

Membership is the same across all five, so the protection on an eligible stock or ETF account is the same too: up to $1 million per account category. The differences that matter sit in the edges, such as a managed portfolio held through an affiliate, a chequing product under CDIC, or crypto sitting outside CIPF entirely.

The two funds are easy to mix up, especially at a bank-owned brokerage. CDIC protects eligible deposits, such as savings and chequing balances, at CDIC member institutions, up to $100,000 per coverage category per member institution. Stocks, ETFs, mutual funds and crypto are not deposits, and CDIC does not cover them.

CIPF protects the property a CIRO dealer holds for you, including the cash sitting uninvested in a brokerage account. So cash in a TFSA at a discount brokerage is generally a CIPF matter, while cash in a high-interest savings account at the bank down the street is a CDIC matter. The legal entity named on the account statement tells you which one you are dealing with.

If you also hold a US brokerage account, the American equivalent is SIPC, which works on similar logic with different limits. Our guide What is SIPC insurance? covers it.

1. Find the legal entity

Open a recent account statement or the firm's legal disclosures and note the full legal name of the dealer, the one ending in Inc. or Limited. The brand on the app is often different.

2. Look it up in the CIPF member directory

CIPF publishes a list of current investment dealer members, a separate list of mutual fund dealer members, and a list of past members on cipf.ca. Search the legal name from step 1.

3. Confirm the firm and any advisor with CIRO

CIRO's website lets you confirm that a firm is CIRO regulated, and its AdvisorReport tool shows an individual advisor's approval categories and any disciplinary actions. Investment frauds often borrow the names of real firms, so a lookup on the regulator's own site is worth more than a logo on a website.

4. Add up each category

Total your general accounts (cash, margin, TFSA, FHSA), then your registered retirement accounts, then any RESP where you are the subscriber, and compare each total with its $1 million limit. Anything held outside a member firm, crypto, or directly registered mutual funds is outside CIPF and needs its own answer.

Walnut is an AI investing app, not a brokerage and not a CIPF member, and it does not need to be one: it never holds your money or your securities. Everything stays at your broker, under that broker's CIPF coverage, whatever happens to Walnut.

Once connected, Walnut reads your holdings at Questrade, Wealthsimple, BMO InvestorLine, CIBC Investor's Edge, TD Direct Investing and many other brokers, compares your portfolio with the S&P 500, gives a keep, trim or exit read on each position, and lets you ask the AI assistant about what you actually own. You can group holdings into baskets with target weights and see how far each one has moved from its targets.

Walnut places orders only when you approve them, at Public and Robinhood (through a Robinhood Agentic account), and also at E*Trade, tastytrade, Webull (US and Canada), moomoo, Questrade, Wealthsimple, Trading 212 and Stake (Australia). BMO InvestorLine, CIBC Investor's Edge and TD Direct Investing are connected read-only, so Walnut can analyze those accounts but cannot trade in them. More on how the connection works is in Is Walnut safe? and Is it safe to connect your brokerage to an AI?

"My account is insured for $1 million total." The limit is per account category, so an individual with general, registered retirement and RESP accounts can have up to $3 million within CIPF limits.

"CIPF will cover me if someone logs into my account." CIPF pays only when a member firm becomes insolvent with client property missing. Losses from a compromised login fall under the firm's own policies and client agreement, so two-factor authentication does more for that risk than CIPF does.

"My bank brokerage is covered by CDIC." The brokerage arm is a separate dealer covered by CIPF. CDIC applies to deposits at the bank itself.

"Everything in the app is covered." Crypto, directly held mutual funds and products run by a non-member affiliate can sit outside CIPF even when the app's stock accounts are inside it.

Coverage limits, account categories, eligible property, exclusions and the 180-day claim deadline: CIPF, About CIPF Coverage. History and the 2023 amalgamation: CIPF, History of CIPF. Member firm names: CIPF, Current CIPF investment dealer members. Questrade's entity structure: Questrade CIRO and CIPF disclosure. Wealthsimple chequing CDIC coverage: Wealthsimple chequing. BMO InvestorLine regulatory status: BMO InvestorLine relationship disclosure. Advisor and firm lookups: CIRO, Know Your Advisor: AdvisorReport. Walnut is not a registered investment adviser, and this guide is educational, not personalized financial advice.