FolioNorth

All-in-One ETF Cost Tool

All-in-One ETF Fee Calculator

Is XEQT worth its 0.20% MER? See what XEQT, VEQT, XGRO, VGRO, and CAGE cost you in management fees and foreign withholding tax (FWT) each year, and whether buying the underlying ETFs yourself is worth it. This is the tool people still call the ETF Split Calculator.

Data freshness

10 of 10 ETF split datasets have structured source checks

Most recent check: Jul 17, 2026.

Your Portfolio

Enter what you have in each account. Leave 0 for any you don't use.

Your Savings

Annual savings
$—
vs. all-in-one
Fund fee avoidedNot calculated
FWT recovered$–
Breakeven– yrs
↑
Pick a fund and enter a portfolio size to see your savings.
Annual MER Saving
$0
NaN bps
Annual FWT Saving
$0
NaN bps
No RRSP allocation, so there is no FWT saving
Combined Annual Saving
$0
0.000% of portfolio
Breakeven Portfolio Size
$145,631
Splitting pays off above this
30-Year Compounded
$0
$0/yr · 30 years · 6% return
Real spend power, before tax on growth.

Next steps

Asset LocationDecide which of the split components belongs in your RRSP, TFSA, or non-registered account.Capital Gains TaxSplitting an all-in-one in a taxable account means selling it, so estimate the gain before you trade.Transfer BonusesSwitching brokers to trade in USD cheaply? Several pay cash bonuses on incoming transfers.

Fee breakdown by fund

Want the numbers for a specific fund first? Each guide shows what that fund's published fee costs per year and whether paying it is worth it versus holding the components yourself.

XEQT fees→VEQT fees→XGRO fees→VGRO fees→CAGE fees→

How this works

Fund-fee savings apply to your full portfolio across all account types.

FWT savings in this calculator reflect only the RRSP benefit. The Canada–US tax treaty eliminates the 15% US withholding tax on US-sourced dividends when USD-listed ETFs are held directly in an RRSP. This benefit does not apply to TFSAs or non-registered accounts.

In non-registered accounts, US withholding tax on USD-listed ETFs is creditable via the foreign tax credit, recoverable whether you hold the all-in-one or the split. There is no incremental FWT saving from splitting in a non-registered account.

Foreign country withholding tax (Level 1) on international holdings exists whether you hold the all-in-one or the components directly, so it is not captured as a saving in this calculator. How much of it you can recover depends on the fund and the account: a Canadian-listed fund such as XEF or XEC can report the foreign tax on your T3, making it generally creditable in a non-registered account but lost inside an RRSP or TFSA, while USD-listed AVDV loses its Level 1 layer in every account type.

AVDV (USD-listed international small cap value) carries two layers of unrecoverable withholding tax in a TFSA: Level 1 from the foreign countries where stocks are held, and Level 2 from the US wrapper. Hold AVDV in a non-registered account or RRSP instead.

USD-listed ETFs (ITOT, VTI, AVUS, AVUV, AVDV) require currency conversion to purchase. Norbert's gambit is the standard low-cost method, a multi-day process using DLR/DLR.U or equivalent. This one-time friction cost is not reflected in the annual savings above.

20- or 30-year projection assumes annual savings are reinvested at 6% annually. Illustrative only. This calculator does not constitute financial advice.

Frequently asked questions

What does splitting an all-in-one ETF actually mean?+
Buying the pieces yourself instead of paying a fund to hold them for you. XEQT owns US, Canadian, developed international and emerging market equity in fixed proportions and charges 0.20% for the package. Splitting means buying comparable exposure through separate, cheaper funds (often ITOT, XIC, XEF and XEC) and rebalancing between them yourself. You keep roughly the same market exposure and take on the maintenance.
Where does the saving actually come from?+
Two places, and they are not equal. The first is the fund fee: the weighted MER of the components is lower than the all-in-one's, and that saving applies across every account you hold. The second is foreign withholding tax, and it only appears in an RRSP. Holding a US-listed US equity fund directly in an RRSP avoids the 15% US withholding under the treaty, which a Canadian-listed all-in-one pays internally and cannot recover.
Is splitting worth it in a TFSA?+
The fee saving is, the withholding saving is not. A TFSA gets no treaty relief, so a US-listed fund loses 15% of its US dividends there just as the all-in-one does inside its own structure. Splitting inside a TFSA is a fee decision only, which usually means the break-even portfolio size is much larger than it looks in an RRSP.
What does the calculator leave out?+
The friction. Converting Canadian dollars to buy US-listed components costs money and takes days, usually through Norbert's gambit, and that one-time cost is not netted off the annual saving shown here. Foreign withholding at the fund level on international holdings is also left out, because it applies whether you split or not rather than being something splitting changes. How recoverable that tax is depends on the fund and the account: a Canadian-listed international ETF such as XEF or XEC can report the foreign tax on your T3, so it is generally creditable in a non-registered account and simply lost inside an RRSP or TFSA, while a US-listed international fund such as AVDV loses its fund-level layer in every account. Neither is the time you spend rebalancing four funds instead of one.
How much work is holding the components?+
More than most people expect before they try it. You are rebalancing four or five positions across accounts instead of owning one ticker, tracking adjusted cost base on each in any non-registered account, and deciding what to do every time you contribute. Our rebalancing calculator handles the trade arithmetic, but the decision still lands on you several times a year.
At what portfolio size does splitting start to make sense?+
There is no universal number, which is why this is a calculator rather than a rule of thumb. It depends on your balance, how much of it sits in an RRSP, which fund you hold today, and what you would pay to convert currency. Enter your own account balances and the tool gives you the annual figure. A saving that does not cover an afternoon of your time each year is not a saving worth taking.