To answer your first question, my TFSA is with TD Direct Investing, split equally among Canada, US and Global equity ETFs. I do have some fixed income in my RRSP. TDDI is not the cheapest broker but I don't trade much so the fees are not really an issue for me.
I really believe that to succeed, investors need to learn and make their own decisions. Here are some great resources:
If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly by William Bernstein is a free ebook. The author says more in 16 pages than many say in hundreds. It is US based, but you can substitute Canadian funds such as the Canadian Couch Potato portfolios that others already mentioned.
https://www.etf.com/docs/IfYouCan.pdfMillionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School by Andrew Hallam is a great story of frugal living and low-cost investing, written by a Canadian with a global perspective. I borrowed it from the library.
https://www.amazon.ca/Millionaire-Teacher-Wealth-Should-Learned/dp/1119356296Finiki the Canadian Financial Wiki is an excellent online learning resource.
http://www.finiki.org/wiki/Getting_startedRegarding the Russell Fund your advisor recommended, did he say why? It has about 35% fixed income with the rest split equally among Canadian, US and global equities. You could easily replicate that with one of the Canadian Couch Potato portfolios with much lower cost. Of the 2% MER, probably half of that goes back to the advisor, as compensation for his advisory services. But most advisors are under no obligation to act in their clients' best interest. They only have a "suitability standard" that is they must make recommendations that are suitable for their clients' investing risk tolerance and timeline. So they recommend funds like Russell that pay them 1%, not Tangerine funds that don't pay them at all. 2% MER does not sound like much, but if a balanced mutual fund returns 8% per year as a long term average, 2 percentage points is actually 25% of the fund's return. Ouch. This Vanguard Canada page explains the impact of cost in further detail:
https://www.vanguardcanada.ca/individual/articles/education-commentary/etf-information/learn-about-why-costs-matter.htmThe Tangerine Balanced Growth fund you are in has better performance, as it would be expected to since it has lower fixed income content and lower fees. It is slightly more risky with its 25% fixed income vs. 35% for the Russell Fund. But that's not a real concern with your long timeline. Tangerine Balanced Fund is closer to the Russell fund, with 40% fixed income, and its performance is still better than the Russell fund. The only reason to switch to the Russell fund is if you think the adviser's services are worth ~25% of your annual returns.
You can see the performance of the funds on Morningstar here:
Russell:
http://quote.morningstar.ca/QuickTakes/fund/Performance/f_Perf.aspx?t=F000005PDQ®ion=CAN&culture=en-CATang Balanced Growth:
http://quote.morningstar.ca/QuickTakes/fund/Performance/f_Perf.aspx?t=F000000S6A®ion=CAN&culture=en-CATang Balanced:
http://quote.morningstar.ca/QuickTakes/fund/PortfolioOverviewNew.aspx?t=F000000S68®ion=CAN&culture=en-CAWhat should you do? First, don't be in a rush to switch away from the Tangerine fund. It's a good, balanced, low cost fund. Second, have some fun with the adviser. Print out the Morningstar performance results for the Russell and the 2 Tangerine funds and ask why the Russell fund is recommended. Ask how they get paid, and if the Russell fund pays them any fee. He/she will have lots of reasons that are all bafflegab designed to confuse and scare you into his/her clutches. Third, study investing a bit more to decide if you want to take a more active role. You could basically replicate the Tangerine fund you are in with 3 ETFs: 25% ZAG, 25% VCN and 50% XAW, and lower the MER from 1.07% with Tangerine to 0.15%. But you will have to open a brokerage account, buy 3 funds instead of one, and rebalance annually to keep the portfolio to your desired allocation, since equities will most likely grow faster than bonds. Really not that difficult :)
You can check out the CCP portfolios here:
http://canadiancouchpotato.com/model-portfolios-2/