Which Self-Directed Brokerages Handle Which RESP Grants, Bonds and Incentives?

Most online self-directed brokerages offer RESPs within which you can receive the Canada Education Savings Grant, CESG. There are other grants and incentives available for some children, however, that not all brokerages are set up to handle. This is gradually changing as brokerages improve their offerings, so for the most up to date information, always speak with the brokerage you are considering. As of May 2014, however, this list summarizes which RESP grants, incentives and bonds are supported by which of the bigger self-directed brokerages.

What Government Grants, Bonds and Incentives Are on Offer for Children’s Education Savings?

I found information about the following federal and provincial government grants, bonds, incentives and programs to help save money for children’s higher education. There may be other programs: if you know of one, please add a comment to this article.

Federal Government Education Savings Programs

Provincial Government Education Savings Programs

Government Education Funds and Self-Directed Brokerages

In order for your child to get paid various government funds for higher education, the financial institution managing your child’s RESP must set up systems that meet the various government requirements. Not all brokerages have set up the required computer systems so they don’t all support all of the possible government programs available.
Before you choose a brokerage for your child’s RESP, one factor to consider is whether that brokerage supports the grants, bonds, programs and incentives your child is entitled to receive.

(Other factors may include things like

  • whether there is an annual fee for the account;
  • whether both parents can be subscribers and share rights to the account;
  • what the costs are to make various types of investments;
  • how easy or difficult it is to withdraw funds from the account when your child starts post-secondary education;
  • etc.)

The brokerages are listed in alphabetical order.

BMO InvestorLine RESPs Can Receive

the

  • Canada Education Savings Grant, CESG *
  • Additional Education Savings Grant, AESG *
  • Canada Learning Bond, CLB *
  • Alberta Centennial Education Savings Plan, ACES *
  • Quebec Education Savings Incentive, QESI, Basic and Additional Amount

Source: https://www.bmoinvestorline.com/home/getting-started/il/accounts/resp
*This information is also listed on the gc site.

There is no mention on the BMO website about whether they can receive the Saskatchewan Advantage Grant for Education Savings, SAGES. On the gc website, it does not report that InvestorLine can manage this grant.

CIBC Investor’s Edge RESPs Can Receive

the

  • Canada Education Savings Grant, CESG
  • Alberta Centennial Education Savings Plan, ACES
  • Quebec Education Savings Incentive, QESI

Investor’s Edge is not listed on the gc site at all.

I used the LiveChat feature to ask a CIBC Investor’s Edge representative what grants were supported. The agent replied: “CIBC Investor’s Edge currently offers the basic CESG, Alberta Centennial Education Savings Plan (ACES) and Quebec Education Savings Incentive (QESI).”

If you needed to receive the AESG or QESI additional amount I would suggest you confirm with CIBC IE before opening an account. It sounds like they may not be offered at this time (May 2014.)

Questrade RESPs Can Receive

the

  • Canada Education Savings Grant, CESG *
  • Additional Education Savings Grant, AESG *
  • Canada Learning Bond, CLB *
  • Alberta Centennial Education Savings Plan, ACES *
  • Quebec Education Savings Incentive, QESI

* This information is listed on the gc site.

The Questrade site only mentions the CESG, AESG and CLB. So I used Questrade’s online chat to ask an agent what is supported. He replied that all of the above government programs are supported and that they do not yet support the SAGES grant.

RBC Direct Investing RESPs Can Receive

the

  • Canada Education Savings Grant, CESG *
  • Quebec Education Savings Incentive, QESI

Source: http://www.rbcdirectinvesting.com/resp-account.html
*This information is also listed on the gc site.

I confirmed by sending a question via LiveChat that at this time in May 2014 those are the only grants RBC Direct Investing is supporting.

Scotia iTrade RESPs Can Receive

the

  • Canada Education Savings Grant, CESG
  • Additional Education Savings Grant, AESG
  • Canada Learning Bond, CLB
  • Alberta Centennial Education Savings Plan, ACES
  • Quebec Education Savings Incentive, QESI, Basic and Additional Amount

Scotia iTrade is not listed on the gc site at all.

I wrote an email to the iTrade support team. They don’t seem to have live online chat and I couldn’t find any details easily on their website. They replied 1.5 days later with the above information. The representative said that at this time (May 2014) they do not support SAGES.

TD Direct Investing RESPs Can Receive

the

  • Canada Education Savings Grant, CESG
  • Quebec Education Savings Incentive, QESI

Source: http://www.tdwaterhouse.ca/products-services/investing/td-direct-investing/accounts/resp/#content3 which states:
“TD Direct Investing offers only the Canada Education Savings Grant and the Quebec Education Savings Incentive, not any other federal or provincial grants or incentives.”

TD Direct Investing is not listed on the gc site at all.

The gc site is at: http://www.esdc.gc.ca/eng/jobs/student/promoters/list.shtml#B

The Master List of Banks, Credit Unions and Brokerages and Which Grants, Bonds and Incentives They Support

There is a massive online list available from the federal government of which institutions support which grants, bonds and incentives. It does not list the Quebec Education Savings Initiative, QESI, but it does list the CESG, AESG, CLB, ACES and Saskatchewan Advantage Grant for Education Savings, SAGES.

Transferring RESPs Between Institutions

Be VERY CAREFUL if you transfer RESPs between two institutions. There may be special paperwork required before the transfer is initiated to ensure the grant, bond or incentive monies do not have to be given back to the government that issued them. Discuss the move in detail with both institutions before you start it!

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Do you receive any grants in addition to the CESG for your child’s education? If so, is your RESP at a brokerage? Please share your insights into maximizing your RESP value with a comment.

Investing for Beginners: Don’t Buy Stocks, ETFs or Mutual Funds in a Non-Registered Investment Account Unless You Know How to Calculate an ACB

It’s tax time again and reading some of the posts on various financial chat boards has led me to a conclusion: There are quite a few people who invest first and then try to figure out their taxes second. This isn’t the best idea for many of us. So my suggested rule is: ”Don’t buy investments which can earn taxable capital gains (or losses) unless and until you know how to calculate an Adjusted Cost Base, ACB.”

And I’d continue that rule with “Especially if you intend to use a Dividend Reinvestment Plan, DRIP.”

Why It May be Simpler for Beginners to Invest in a TFSA or RRSP

Investing in registered accounts is quite different than investing in non-registered accounts has some drawbacks:

  • Investing in a TFSA or RRSP means that you will not be able to claim any Capital Losses on your income tax return. So if the value of your stock, ETF, or mutual fund drops between when you bought it and when you sold it you will not get any tax break for that lost money.
  • [If you invest in a non-registered account and you suffer a Capital Loss, you can use it to “cancel out” a Capital Gain. This reduces the amount of tax you need to pay on a Capital Gain.]
  • Also, counter intuitively, it’s not great to make a profit by selling your stock, ETF or mutual fund in your RRSP. If
  • If you make a Capital Gain by selling an investment in a non-registered account, you only pay tax on part of the profit [currently 50%.]
  • Fortunately, If you make a Capital Gain in a TFSA, you get to keep all of the profit tax free.
  • If you make a Capital Gain in your RRSP, when you eventually take the money out of your RRSP/RRIF in the future, it will be taxed as if it is regular income. You will pay tax on the entire profit. [Note that part of that investment and profit really belongs to your “silent partner” the CRA.]

For many beginning investors it may be preferable to buy stocks, ETFs and mutual funds in a TFSA or RRSP rather than in a non-registered account. That’s because you will have to report all Capital Gains and Capital Losses for investments held in a non-registered account on your annual income tax forms. To report those gains and losses you will need to know the Adjusted Cost Base for your investment.

Do you?

T3 and T5s Lull Unsuspecting Investors Into Expecting a Tax Form for Everything

If you invest in a GIC in a non-registered account, you get a T5 from your financial institution telling you how much interest income to report on your taxes.

If you invest in a mutual fund or ETF in a non-registered account, you usually get a T-slip (T3, T5, etc.)  that tells you how much to report on your taxes for any interest paid, dividends paid (eligible and non-eligible, grossed up and straight), return of capital, capital gains and capital losses.

If you invest in a stock in a non-registered account, you often get a T-slip (T3 or T5 etc.) that tells you what dividends (eligible and non-eligible, grossed up and straight) to report.
This leads many new investors to assume that someone else will provide them with a helpful form telling them exactly what to report on their income taxes for all situations.

Unfortunately, that isn’t what happens.

How Do I Know What Capital Gains or Losses to Report on my Income Tax?

When you sell your stock, mutual fund or ETF, you will most likely sell it for at least a few cents more or less per share or unit than what you paid for it. That means you have to report your Capital Gain or Loss on your annual income tax. Do you know how much to report?

But, you may say, they reported my capital gain or loss on the slip I got for my mutual fund or ETF.

Did they?

One thing that definitely is reported on your T-slip is the capital gain or loss that occurred *within the mutual fund or ETF during the year. What I mean is, the manager of your mutual fund or ETF probably bought and sold some shares of the companies held by the fund. When that manager did so, the fund incurred a capital gain or capital loss. Because the fund itself pays no taxes directly, those gains and losses flow through to the investors who then have to claim them on their income tax returns.

Did your institution also report the Capital Gain or Loss from your sale of the asset?

I suppose it is possible that a financial institution will also report to you the capital gain or loss you incurred by selling your shares or units. But it does not have to report this to you, nor is it necessarily capable of reporting it correctly.

For example, if you bought shares at BMO InvestorLine, then transferred them to RBC Direct Investing, then RBCDI will not necessarily know what price you paid when you bought them. In they don’t, they can’t possibly issue you a correct T-slip for the gain or loss.

For another example, in the past I owned some shares of a company which were so old I had the paper share certificates in my safe deposit box. Through a strange coincidence, I came to be working for that same company. I was paid some additional shares in that company through a company savings plan program. When I sold the savings plan program shares, I could not just claim the capital gain on those particular shares. Instead, I had to calculate my adjusted cost base on all of my shares of the same company, then calculate the capital gain (which was unfortunately much higher) on the few shares that I sold, and pay tax on that higher capital gain.

The financial institution managing my savings plan program could not have reported an accurate capital gain to me on a T-slip  because they had no way of knowing that I held more identical shares of that company in another non-registered account.

Couldn’t I just have cheated and not used the real ACB when calculating my capital gain?

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. No.

I have absolutely no interest in trying to cheat on my taxes whether I am likely to get caught or not. And since the government does get official reports of the dividends I received for the shares in my safe deposit box each year, frankly, I would get caught.

So as I’m trying to show by use of these examples, in general brokerages will not report the capital gain or loss from the sale of your asset.

You Must Track Your Own Assets and Their ACBs to Calculate Your Capital Gains and Losses

There is no easy out. You really do have to track your own investments and all of the expenses you incur managing those investments if you hold stocks, mutual funds or ETFs in a non-registered (trading) account.

If you don’t know how to do that, learn *before* you start investing!

I’ll try to write some articles explaining what you may need to do.

In the meantime, you can start reading the information on the CRA website about Capital Gains. Or order their booklet to read, highlight, doodle on, and read again. It’s free.

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Did you, or someone you know, make the mistake of not tracking their investments and then have conniptions trying to figure out their ACB and Capital Gains? Please share your experiences with a comment.