About FolioNorth

I started investing the way a lot of Canadians do: opening a discount brokerage account, reading through forums and personal finance blogs, and slowly realizing how much of the good information was either locked behind advisors, buried in dense CRA documents, or scattered across a dozen half-finished spreadsheets people had shared online.

The tools I wanted mostly didn't exist in a form I trusted. I wanted to figure out the cleanest way to split an ETF portfolio across my registered and non-registered accounts. I wanted to actually understand Norbert's Gambit before attempting it with real money. I wanted to know where to hold US-listed ETFs to minimize foreign withholding tax, and I wanted the math done properly, not hand-waved.

So I started building them. FolioNorth began as a single ETF split calculator I made for myself. It worked, it was useful, and it turned out other Canadian investors wanted the same thing. One tool became several, and the site grew from there.

I'm a Canadian DIY investor with a technical, analytical background. I'm not a financial advisor, I don't manage anyone's money, and I'm not trying to be the next finance guru. I invest my own portfolio across a TFSA, an RRSP, and a workplace plan, I care about getting the tax-efficiency details right, and I happen to enjoy building tools that do the tedious math correctly.

That's deliberately the whole pitch. Everything on FolioNorth comes from the perspective of someone actually using these tools and strategies on my own money, not from a content team writing to fill a page. When I cover foreign withholding tax, asset location, or the trade-offs between XEQT and a more factor-tilted approach, it's because I've worked through those exact questions for my own accounts.

It is: free, Canadian-focused tools and clearly written guides built to help you make your own informed decisions. The calculators run entirely in your browser. Your numbers never leave your device, and there's no login.

It isn't: financial advice. I can't and won't tell you what to buy. Everything here is educational. Before you make a material financial move, the right step is to verify the current rules with the CRA or a qualified professional who knows your full situation.

The tools are free and I want to keep them that way, so some links on the site (primarily on the Transfer Offers and Credit Cards pages) are affiliate links. If you open an account through one of them, FolioNorth may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. That compensation never affects which products I list or how I rank them. The details are spelled out on the disclosure page.

Found a bug, spotted a number that looks off, or have an idea for a tool? I read everything. Reach me at hello@folionorth.ca or through the contact page.