Feature · checked 29 September 2026
Planswell closed in 2019, came back in 2020 and went into receivership in 2026.
A Toronto free financial planning company that laid off all 57 staff in November 2019, returned within months under a new company formed by its chief executive, grew again, and entered receivership in April 2026.
Planswell's card on Stompstart's fintech page, captured in September 2019, promised "free, unbiased financial plans in under 3 minutes." The Toronto company called itself "a free financial planning company" that built each client a plan tying together investments, insurance and mortgages, "so you can maintain your lifestyle throughout work and retirement."
Seven weeks after that capture, it shut down. On 4 November 2019 BetaKit reported that a notice on Planswell's website said all 57 employees had lost their jobs. The company had raised just under $18 million, including $4 million from two Fidelity mutual funds in 2018 and $300,000 plus $4 million in warrants from Sun Life, and had claimed to have built more than 150,000 financial plans for Canadians. Sources told BetaKit that despite the recent funding, Planswell had essentially run out of money.
Planswell Holdings filed for bankruptcy on 25 November 2019. In February 2020 BetaKit traced what happened next. All three lots of the company's assets were sold to Mobd Inc., a software company founded by Planswell's co-founding chief technology officer, Eric Rogness, and one lot was quickly resold to another company. Meanwhile co-founder and chief executive Eric Arnold had incorporated a company called Linearxy Inc. on 11 November 2019, a week after the shutdown, and renamed it Planswell Corp. on 20 January 2020. In late February the Planswell website came back online with the same services, domain name and interface, now naming Planswell Corp. as its owner. Instead of employing its own advisers, the new company would partner with outside ones. On how the deals were done, Arnold told BetaKit: "Everything that we do is under non-disclosure agreements when we do deals like that."
The second version grew. In March 2024 Wealth Professional reported the company's figures: more than 8,000 partner advisers and insurance agents in Canada and the United States, more than a million households using the platform, and plans to expand into Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Panama.
Two years later Planswell was in default. In late April 2026 FVP Servicing, an administrative agent for a lending fund managed by Feenix Venture Partners, obtained an order from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice appointing a receiver, the Globe and Mail reported on 19 May. Planswell owed its lenders about US$1.85 million, the paper said; according to court records, it had drawn US$1.75 million from a US$3 million credit facility and had missed repayments in March and April. At the start of the year it had around 25 employees in Canada and about five at its US subsidiary. Arnold told the paper that he plans to buy Planswell back.
Planswell.com still loads, offering free retirement projections and a free plan review with an adviser, under a 2026 Planswell Corp. copyright. We could not find the outcome of the receivership.