Terms of Use and Disclaimer

1. Who We Are and Accepting These Terms

The publisher. WealthScale is published by WealthScale Media Inc. (“WealthScale”, “we”, “us”), 55 Queen St E, Suite 1205, Toronto, ON M5C 1R6. These terms and conditions apply to every page, table, calculator and email we publish.

Your agreement. By using WealthScale, you agree to these terms and to our privacy policy. If you do not agree, please do not use WealthScale.

Your consumer rights. Some parts of these terms limit our responsibility. Nothing in them removes a right you have under consumer protection law that cannot be waived by contract.

2. General Information Only: The WealthScale Disclaimer

Not advice. Everything on WealthScale is general information for readers in Canada. It is not financial, investment, tax, accounting or legal advice. Using WealthScale does not create an adviser-client, accountant-client or lawyer-client relationship with WealthScale Media Inc. or with anyone who writes or reviews our pages.

What we are not. WealthScale Media Inc. is a publisher. It is not a bank, investment dealer, adviser, portfolio manager, insurer or accounting firm. It does not hold money, open accounts or trade for anyone.

Your situation decides. Tax rules, contribution room and benefit amounts depend on your own circumstances, and every figure on WealthScale applies to the year stated beside it. Before you act, please consider your whole situation and, where you need personal advice, speak with a qualified professional licensed where you live.

Investing has risk. Investments can fall in value, and you can lose money, including money held in a registered account. Past returns do not predict future returns. Deposit insurance and investor protection cover only what their rules cover, as our pages describe.

3. No Personal Recommendations

We do not know you. We do not know your income, goals, debts, tax position or how much risk you can accept. Nothing on WealthScale is a recommendation that a particular account, provider, product or investment is right for you.

No picks. We do not recommend any stock, exchange-traded fund, mutual fund, cryptocurrency or other security, and we do not publish model portfolios. When a page names a security, it does so only to explain how something works.

How to read our wording. When a page says an account or platform “may suit” or “is built for” a type of investor, it describes features in general terms. Tools such as our account chooser give general information based on a few answers, not a recommendation.

What a ranking means. A high score or a top place on a list means a provider did well on our published criteria for the sample investors we price. It does not mean the provider is the best choice for you.

4. Calculators Give Estimates

Estimates only. Our calculators produce estimates for general information. They combine the numbers you enter with the rates, limits and formulas in our data set as of the date shown, and with simplifying assumptions explained on each calculator page.

Why results can differ. Your actual tax, refund, contribution room, benefit or account balance can differ from a calculator result because of rounding, credits or deductions the calculator does not include, your full tax and benefit history, changes in the law after our last check, or an input error.

What counts. Your notice of assessment, government notices, account statements and your provider’s records are what count, not a calculator result. Please check them before you contribute, withdraw or make any other decision. We are not responsible for decisions made using a calculator result.

Your inputs. Calculators run in your browser, and the numbers you enter are not sent to us. Our privacy policy explains what your browser may remember on your own device and how to remove it.

5. Provider Rates, Fees and Features Can Change

Dated information. Rates, fees, promotions, account features and other details about banks, brokers, robo-advisors, crypto platforms and other providers come from each provider’s published pricing, and we show the date we checked them.

Things change. Providers can change their rates, fees, features and offers at any time, without telling us. We re-check interest rates weekly and fees monthly, but a figure can change between our checks. Promotions often have conditions, eligibility rules, balance limits and end dates.

No warranty on third-party information. We do not warrant that any third-party rate, fee, feature or offer shown on WealthScale is current, complete or available to you. Please confirm the current terms with the provider before you open an account or move money.

Your relationship with a provider. Any account you open is an agreement between you and that provider, on its terms. We are not responsible for a provider’s products, services, decisions, errors or failures.

6. Scores, Rankings and Partner Links

Published method. Our lists are ordered by scores set under our published broker rating methodology, or by the figure a table names, such as a rate or a fee. A score reflects our criteria and weights, the sample investors we price and the facts on the date we checked. Another reasonable method could rank providers differently.

No paid rankings. No provider can pay for inclusion, a score, a place on a list or the style of its button. WealthScale has no partner (affiliate) links today. When partner links go live, each will carry a visible “Partner link” label, and we may earn a commission if you open an account through one. Our advertiser disclosure sets out these rules in full.

Corrections. When we find an error, or a provider changes a price or feature that feeds a score, we correct the page and recalculate the score. Our editorial standards explain how corrections work.

7. Who Writes and Reviews Our Pages

Our writer. Sharad Gondaliya, CPA, writes WealthScale’s pages. He checks tax rules, contribution limits and government benefit figures against primary sources and gives final approval on every page.

Our financial reviewer. Neha Gupta, CFA, a CFA charterholder, reviews WealthScale’s investing and account pages: platforms, brokers, robo-advisors, TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP and bank accounts. A page shows a review date only after she signs that page off.

Editorial roles only. Their roles at WealthScale are editorial. They do not give personal advice through WealthScale, and reading a page they wrote or reviewed does not make you a client of either of them or of any firm they work with. WealthScale is independent of Gondaliya CPA Professional Corporation. No one who writes or reviews our pages is paid according to which providers we rate, rank or link to.

8. Intellectual Property

Our content. The text, tables, scores, methodology, calculators and their code, data sets, graphics and the WealthScale name and logo are owned by or licensed to WealthScale Media Inc. and are protected by copyright and other laws.

What you may do. You may read, print and save pages for your own personal, non-commercial use, and share links to WealthScale pages. You may quote short excerpts if you credit WealthScale and link to the page.

What needs our written permission. Copying, republishing, selling or framing our pages; reproducing our tables, scores or data sets; and using our content to build a competing product or to train machine-learning or artificial intelligence models.

Other trademarks. Provider and product names belong to their owners and are used only to identify them. CFA® and Chartered Financial Analyst® are registered trademarks owned by CFA Institute.

9. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• Use WealthScale for anything unlawful, or to mislead or harm others.
• Scrape, crawl or harvest content or data by automated means, except search engines indexing pages for public search results.
• Send requests that overload or disrupt the site, or try to get around its security.
• Upload or send malicious code.
• Present an altered calculator result, score or table as WealthScale’s own.
• Impersonate WealthScale, our writer or our reviewer, or suggest that we endorse you, your product or your service.

We may block or limit access, without notice, for anyone who breaks these rules.

10. Messages and Feedback You Send Us

Corrections and ideas. If you send us corrections, suggestions or other feedback, we may use them to improve WealthScale without any obligation to you. We handle your personal information as our privacy policy describes.

Keep sensitive details out. Please never send your social insurance number, account numbers, passwords or tax documents. We do not need them to answer any question.

Replies. We aim to reply within two business days, but we cannot promise a reply to every message, and we cannot give personal financial, investment, tax or legal advice by email.

11. Links and No Warranty

Links. WealthScale pages link to other WealthScale pages. The only links that leave the site today are credential verification links on our two reviewer profiles; partner links, once live, will be labelled. We do not control other sites and are not responsible for their content, products, availability or privacy practices.

Provided as is. We work to keep every figure accurate and dated, and we correct errors when we find them. Even so, WealthScale is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the extent the law allows, WealthScale Media Inc. makes no warranty, express or implied, that the content is accurate, complete or current, that calculators are without errors, or that the site will be available without interruption.

12. Limitation of Liability

Our liability. To the fullest extent the law allows, WealthScale Media Inc. and its directors, officers, employees, writers and reviewers are not liable for any loss or damage arising from your use of, or reliance on, WealthScale. This includes investment losses; tax, interest or penalties; lost profits or savings; and indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages, even if we were told such a loss was possible.

Your responsibility. You agree to compensate WealthScale Media Inc. for losses and reasonable legal costs that arise from your breach of these terms or your misuse of WealthScale.

Where the law says otherwise. Some laws do not allow these exclusions or limits, including consumer protection laws in some provinces. Where that is the case, they apply only to the extent the law allows.

13. Governing Law and Disputes

Ontario law. These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply there.

Where disputes are heard. The courts of Ontario, sitting in Toronto, have jurisdiction over any dispute about WealthScale or these terms, unless consumer protection law gives you the right to bring your claim in your own province or territory.

Talk to us first. Please write to us before starting any claim. Most concerns can be settled by email.

14. Changes and General Terms

Changes to these terms. We may update these terms from time to time. The date at the top shows when they last changed, and changes apply from the date they are posted. We will post a notice on WealthScale for any material change. If you keep using WealthScale after a change, you accept the updated terms.

Changes to WealthScale. We may change, suspend or remove any page, calculator or feature at any time.

The rest of these terms. If a court finds any part of these terms unenforceable, the rest continues to apply. If we do not enforce a term, we have not given up the right to enforce it later. These terms and our privacy policy are the whole agreement between you and us about your use of WealthScale.

15. Contact

General questions and corrections. Email info@wealthscale.ca.

Privacy. Email our privacy officer, Sharad Gondaliya, at privacy@wealthscale.ca.

By mail. WealthScale Media Inc., 55 Queen St E, Suite 1205, Toronto, ON M5C 1R6. Our contact page explains what to include so we can answer in one reply.