Best wealth management firms in Canada, according to AI

Which wealth management questions did we ask AI?

Twenty-eight questions that name no firm. Fourteen are buying questions, and those produce almost every firm the engines name.

The panel is 28 questions a Canadian investor might put to an assistant while choosing a firm. They cover six topics: firm comparison and reputation (9), choosing an advisor (6), high net worth and business owners (6), fees and cost (4), independent against bank (4) and corporate ownership (1). Searchable labels 14 of them commercial, 9 informational and 5 transactional.

Each question went to ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overview twice on 2 October 2026, giving 168 answers. The tracked set is 36 questions, and we set aside the eight that name a firm, four of them Wellington-Altus.

Intent changes the result more than the choice of engine does. Answers to the 14 commercial questions named a firm 83.3 percent of the time, against 16.7 percent for the 9 informational questions, so visibility in this category sits in a narrow band of shortlist questions.

A firm that measures itself on definitional questions such as how advisors are paid will find almost nothing to measure.

Which wealth management firms does AI name most in Canada?

RBC Wealth Management, in 23.8 percent of 168 answers, then BMO Private Wealth at 20.8, Wellington-Altus at 19.6, CIBC Wood Gundy at 18.5 and TD Wealth at 17.9.

The top five sit within 5.9 points of each other, and four of the five are bank-owned. Below them the field opens: Richardson Wealth, Raymond James and Nicola Wealth sit between 12.5 and 14.9 percent, and the next firm, Wealthsimple, is at 7.1.

The engines named 156 firms in 524 mentions. Ninety-six of them were named once, and the ten most named take 50.0 percent of all mentions, so the category has a crowded head and a long tail of local advisory practices.

Figure 1

The full ranking

Four bank-owned firms and Wellington-Altus sit within six points of each other at the top.

Bank-ownedNot bank-owned advisory firmOnline platform

1. 01RBC Wealth Management23.8%1st of 153.0 points ahead of BMO Private WealthAnswers naming it40 of 168
2. 02BMO Private Wealth20.8%2nd of 153.0 points behind RBC Wealth ManagementAnswers naming it35 of 168
3. 03Wellington-Altus19.6%3rd of 154.2 points behind RBC Wealth ManagementAnswers naming it33 of 168
4. 04CIBC Wood Gundy18.5%4th of 155.3 points behind RBC Wealth ManagementAnswers naming it31 of 168
5. 05TD Wealth17.9%5th of 155.9 points behind RBC Wealth ManagementAnswers naming it30 of 168
6. 06Richardson Wealth14.9%6th of 158.9 points behind RBC Wealth ManagementAnswers naming it25 of 168
7. 07Raymond James14.3%7th of 159.5 points behind RBC Wealth ManagementAnswers naming it24 of 168
8. 08Nicola Wealth12.5%8th of 1511.3 points behind RBC Wealth ManagementAnswers naming it21 of 168
9. 09Wealthsimple7.1%9th of 1516.7 points behind RBC Wealth ManagementAnswers naming it12 of 168
10. 10Harbourfront Wealth6.5%10th of 15, tied with 217.3 points behind RBC Wealth ManagementAnswers naming it11 of 168
11. 11Canaccord Genuity6.5%10th of 15, tied with 217.3 points behind RBC Wealth ManagementAnswers naming it11 of 168
12. 12Questrade6.5%10th of 15, tied with 217.3 points behind RBC Wealth ManagementAnswers naming it11 of 168
13. 13Assante5.4%13th of 15, tied with 118.4 points behind RBC Wealth ManagementAnswers naming it9 of 168
14. 14National Bank Financial5.4%13th of 15, tied with 118.4 points behind RBC Wealth ManagementAnswers naming it9 of 168
15. 15Scotia Wealth Management3.6%15th of 1520.2 points behind RBC Wealth ManagementAnswers naming it6 of 168

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Data behind Figure 115 rows · CSV · JSON · PNG

Share of the 168 answers to unbranded questions that name each firm, pooled over two runs. The Prompt Group, 2 October 2026.

Ownership group is our classification, as of October 2026. Firm names follow the Searchable roster, so TD Wealth stands for TD Wealth Private Investment Advice. A ring means a site whose mark we could not confirm.

Name	Value	Answers naming it
RBC Wealth Management	23.8%	40 of 168
BMO Private Wealth	20.8%	35 of 168
Wellington-Altus	19.6%	33 of 168
CIBC Wood Gundy	18.5%	31 of 168
TD Wealth	17.9%	30 of 168
Richardson Wealth	14.9%	25 of 168
Raymond James	14.3%	24 of 168
Nicola Wealth	12.5%	21 of 168
Wealthsimple	7.1%	12 of 168
Harbourfront Wealth	6.5%	11 of 168
Canaccord Genuity	6.5%	11 of 168
Questrade	6.5%	11 of 168
Assante	5.4%	9 of 168
National Bank Financial	5.4%	9 of 168
Scotia Wealth Management	3.6%	6 of 168

Wellington-Altus is the only firm in the top five not owned by a bank. Below the top eight, no firm is named in more than one answer in thirteen.

The pooled ranking averages three engines that disagree, and one of them is unreliable in this collection. Read the order inside the top five as a tie, and read Figure 2 before quoting any one engine.

Does ChatGPT name the same wealth management firms as Google AI Overview?

ChatGPT names RBC Wealth Management and TD Wealth most, each in 35.7 percent of its answers, while Google AI Overview names Wellington-Altus most, in 33.9 percent.

On the 14 commercial questions the gap widens. ChatGPT named RBC Wealth Management in 60.7 percent of its 28 answers and Wellington-Altus in 39.3, sixth. Google AI Overview named Wellington-Altus in 57.1 percent and Nicola Wealth in 50.0, with RBC at 28.6.

TD Wealth shows the largest reversal: 35.7 percent on ChatGPT and 8.9 on Google AI Overview. Bank-owned firms take 35.4 percent of firm mentions on ChatGPT against 28.8 on Google AI Overview, under our ownership classification.

Figure 2

Engine by engine

ChatGPT leads with the banks, Google AI Overview with Wellington-Altus, and Perplexity names few firms.

ChatGPTPerplexityGoogle AI Overview

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1. 01RBC Wealth Management35.7%14.3%21.4%2.5× as often on ChatGPTas on Perplexity, a gap of 21.4 pointsChatGPT1st of 15Perplexity1st of 15Google AI Overview4th of 15
2. 02TD Wealth35.7%8.9%8.9%Highest on ChatGPT26.8 points above PerplexityChatGPT1st of 15Perplexity2nd of 15Google AI Overview10th of 15
3. 03BMO Private Wealth33.9%8.9%19.6%3.8× as often on ChatGPTas on Perplexity, a gap of 25.0 pointsChatGPT3rd of 15Perplexity2nd of 15Google AI Overview6th of 15
4. 04Wellington-Altus23.2%1.8%33.9%Highest on Google AI Overview32.1 points above PerplexityChatGPT6th of 15Perplexity9th of 15Google AI Overview1st of 15
5. 05CIBC Wood Gundy26.8%5.4%23.2%Highest on ChatGPT21.4 points above PerplexityChatGPT4th of 15Perplexity5th of 15Google AI Overview3rd of 15
6. 06Richardson Wealth26.8%3.6%14.3%Highest on ChatGPT23.2 points above PerplexityChatGPT4th of 15Perplexity7th of 15Google AI Overview7th of 15
7. 07Nicola Wealth10.7%1.8%25.0%Highest on Google AI Overview23.2 points above PerplexityChatGPT8th of 15Perplexity9th of 15Google AI Overview2nd of 15
8. 08Raymond James12.5%8.9%21.4%2.4× as often on Google AI Overviewas on Perplexity, a gap of 12.5 pointsChatGPT7th of 15Perplexity2nd of 15Google AI Overview4th of 15
9. 09Harbourfront Wealth5.4%1.8%12.5%Highest on Google AI Overview10.7 points above PerplexityChatGPT13th of 15Perplexity9th of 15Google AI Overview8th of 15
10. 10Canaccord Genuity8.9%010.7%Only some engines name itPerplexity never doesChatGPT10th of 15PerplexityNot namedGoogle AI Overview9th of 15
11. 11National Bank Financial10.7%05.4%Only some engines name itPerplexity never doesChatGPT8th of 15PerplexityNot namedGoogle AI Overview14th of 15
12. 12Wealthsimple8.9%3.6%8.9%Highest on ChatGPT5.3 points above PerplexityChatGPT10th of 15Perplexity7th of 15Google AI Overview10th of 15
13. 13Questrade5.4%5.4%8.9%65 percent more often on Google AI Overviewas on ChatGPT, a gap of 3.5 pointsChatGPT13th of 15Perplexity5th of 15Google AI Overview10th of 15
14. 14Assante7.1%1.8%7.1%Highest on ChatGPT5.3 points above PerplexityChatGPT12th of 15Perplexity9th of 15Google AI Overview13th of 15
15. 15Scotia Wealth Management5.4%05.4%Only some engines name itPerplexity never doesChatGPT13th of 15PerplexityNot namedGoogle AI Overview14th of 15

Data behind Figure 215 rows · CSV · JSON · PNG

Share of each engine’s 56 answers that name each firm, pooled over two runs. The Prompt Group, 2 October 2026.

Two of Google AI Overview’s 56 answers came back empty and count as naming nobody. Most Perplexity answers rest on unrelated sources; see the section on Perplexity.

Name	ChatGPT	Perplexity
RBC Wealth Management	35.7%	14.3%
TD Wealth	35.7%	8.9%
BMO Private Wealth	33.9%	8.9%
Wellington-Altus	23.2%	1.8%
CIBC Wood Gundy	26.8%	5.4%
Richardson Wealth	26.8%	3.6%
Nicola Wealth	10.7%	1.8%
Raymond James	12.5%	8.9%
Harbourfront Wealth	5.4%	1.8%
Canaccord Genuity	8.9%	0
National Bank Financial	10.7%	0
Wealthsimple	8.9%	3.6%
Questrade	5.4%	5.4%
Assante	7.1%	1.8%
Scotia Wealth Management	5.4%	0

The two engines appear to answer the same buying question from different evidence. ChatGPT’s shortlists lead with the bank-owned dealers and ChatGPT cites the bank sites far more often than Google AI Overview does (Figure 4), while Google AI Overview gives more room to independent firms.

Wellington-Altus is first on Google AI Overview and sixth on ChatGPT for the same commercial questions, so a blended score would hide the engine where it has the most ground to make up.

How often does Perplexity name Canadian wealth management firms?

Rarely, and most of its answers in this collection rest on sources unrelated to the question. Perplexity named a firm in 21 of its 56 answers, and Wellington-Altus once.

We read all 56 Perplexity answers with their sources. In 32 of them at least half of the cited domains have no connection to finance or to the question: music streaming pages, game sites, fandom wikis and unrelated foreign businesses. Most of those answers then say the results contained nothing usable.

Two answers print the model’s own working notes, and one answer about Calgary is in German. The 24 answers with relevant sources named a firm in 14 cases, and the 32 without in 7.

These answers describe a fault in the collection. The pattern is consistent with a retrieval failure in the Perplexity channel that Searchable queried on 2 October, and we cannot tell whether the consumer Perplexity app behaved the same way.

Figure 2 shows what was collected. Quote ChatGPT and Google AI Overview separately until a clean Perplexity run exists.

How many wealth management firms does each AI engine name?

ChatGPT named 98 firms in 257 mentions, Google AI Overview 57 firms in 177 and Perplexity 63 firms in 90, each across 56 answers.

ChatGPT named at least one firm in 36 of its 56 answers and Google AI Overview in 34. On the commercial questions the two are almost level: ChatGPT named a firm in all 28 commercial answers and Google AI Overview in 27.

ChatGPT writes at length, with a median answer of 3,140 characters against 1,840 for Google AI Overview, and its shortlists are wider. Two Google AI Overview answers came back empty, and we cannot tell a refusal from a question that did not trigger an overview.

Figure 3

How much each engine names

ChatGPT names 98 firms across its answers, Google AI Overview 57, and both name a firm on most buying questions.

0100200300

1. 257ChatGPT49 percent of all 524Firms named98Answers naming a firm36 of 56
2. 90Perplexity17 percent of all 524Firms named63Answers naming a firm21 of 56
3. 177Google AI Overview34 percent of all 524Firms named57Answers naming a firm34 of 56

Data behind Figure 33 rows · CSV · JSON · PNG

Firm mentions across each engine’s 56 answers, pooled over two runs. The Prompt Group, 2 October 2026.

Name	Value	Firms named	Answers naming a firm
ChatGPT	257	98	36 of 56
Perplexity	90	63	21 of 56
Google AI Overview	177	57	34 of 56

A longer answer names more firms, which suggests a single mention on ChatGPT says less about preference than a place on Google AI Overview’s shorter list. Being one of 57 firms Google AI Overview names is a narrower gate than being one of 98 on ChatGPT.

Which sources do AI answers cite about Canadian wealth management firms?

wsj.com, cited in 19.6 percent of 168 answers, ahead of the RBC Wealth Management site at 18.5, td.com at 16.7 and bmo.com at 14.9.

The answers carry 2,274 citations to 603 domains. ChatGPT accounts for 30 of the 33 answers citing wsj.com, and the pages are the paper’s US personal finance guides to choosing an advisor, including a review of a US firm. The regulator CIRO has the most citations of any domain, 192, concentrated in 24 answers, 14 of them to informational questions.

Five of the fifteen most cited domains are firm sites, all of them bank-owned except wellington-altus.ca, which is cited in 17 answers. Thirteen of its 18 cited pages sit on advisor team sites under advisor.wellington-altus.ca, not on the corporate site.

Figure 4

Most cited domains

A US newspaper’s advisor guides are cited in more answers than any Canadian firm or regulator.

A firm’s own siteRegulator or governmentPublisher, ranking or community site

1. 01wsj.com19.6%1st of 151.1 points ahead of rbcwealthmanagement.comCitations104Pages cited11
2. 02rbcwealthmanagement.com18.5%2nd of 151.1 points behind wsj.comCitations105Pages cited57
3. 03td.com16.7%3rd of 152.9 points behind wsj.comCitations80Pages cited30
4. 04bmo.com14.9%4th of 154.7 points behind wsj.comCitations76Pages cited57
5. 05ciro.ca14.3%5th of 15, tied with 15.3 points behind wsj.comCitations192Pages cited101
6. 06wealthprofessional.ca14.3%5th of 15, tied with 15.3 points behind wsj.comCitations95Pages cited51
7. 07canada.ca11.9%7th of 157.7 points behind wsj.comCitations46Pages cited22
8. 08reddit.com11.3%8th of 158.3 points behind wsj.comCitations25Pages cited21
9. 09wellington-altus.ca10.1%9th of 15, tied with 19.5 points behind wsj.comCitations21Pages cited18
10. 10moneysense.ca10.1%9th of 15, tied with 19.5 points behind wsj.comCitations19Pages cited10
11. 11advisor.ca8.9%11th of 15, tied with 110.7 points behind wsj.comCitations35Pages cited23
12. 12linkedin.com8.9%11th of 15, tied with 110.7 points behind wsj.comCitations17Pages cited15
13. 13cibc.com7.7%13th of 15, tied with 211.9 points behind wsj.comCitations25Pages cited15
14. 14newswire.ca7.7%13th of 15, tied with 211.9 points behind wsj.comCitations17Pages cited11
15. 15milliondollarjourney.com7.7%13th of 15, tied with 211.9 points behind wsj.comCitations13Pages cited5

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Data behind Figure 415 rows · CSV · JSON · PNG

Share of the 168 answers that cite each domain at least once, pooled over two runs. The Prompt Group, 2 October 2026.

A citation is a distinct page linked in an answer, counted once per answer. Subdomains count under their domain, so advisor.wellington-altus.ca is wellington-altus.ca. Type is our classification.

Domain	Value	Citations	Pages cited
wsj.com	19.6%	104	11
rbcwealthmanagement.com	18.5%	105	57
td.com	16.7%	80	30
bmo.com	14.9%	76	57
ciro.ca	14.3%	192	101
wealthprofessional.ca	14.3%	95	51
canada.ca	11.9%	46	22
reddit.com	11.3%	25	21
wellington-altus.ca	10.1%	21	18
moneysense.ca	10.1%	19	10
advisor.ca	8.9%	35	23
linkedin.com	8.9%	17	15
cibc.com	7.7%	25	15
newswire.ca	7.7%	17	11
milliondollarjourney.com	7.7%	13	5

Wellington-Altus is named in 33 answers and its own site is cited in 17. RBC Wealth Management is named in 40 and its site cited in 31, TD Wealth in 30 and 28. Wellington-Altus appears to reach answers more through how others describe it than through its own pages.

The wsj.com guides suggest Canadian questions are being answered partly from American advice that no Canadian firm controls.

What kinds of sources do AI answers cite about Canadian wealth management firms?

Company sites, with 30.1 percent of 2,274 citations, then news and publishers at 24.7 and government and institutions at 19.1.

The mix differs by engine. ChatGPT takes 36.5 percent of its citations from company sites and 24.7 percent from government and institutions, led by the regulator CIRO and canada.ca. Google AI Overview takes 10.5 percent from forums, reddit.com and Canadian personal finance forums, and 7.5 percent from social media, mostly LinkedIn, against 0.1 and 0.0 for ChatGPT.

Perplexity’s largest category is unclassified, at 36.4 percent, which is the unrelated sources described above. Review sites barely register on any engine, at 0.8 percent of all citations.

The two engines that answer reliably build from different evidence. ChatGPT’s answers rest on what firms and regulators publish, while Google AI Overview gives a sixth of its citations to community discussion that no firm writes.

A firm can shape its own pages and its coverage in the trade press. It cannot write the Reddit threads Google AI Overview cites, only give those discussions accurate material to draw on.