Category Archives: InvestorLine

Advantages and Disadvantages of Holding a Self-Directed RESP Account at a Discount Brokerage

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When you first start a Registered Education Savings Plan you usually don’t have much money in it. But if you are able to contribute enough each year to receive the maximum Canada Education Savings Grant, and especially if you have more than one child and you can contribute $2500 each per year, within a few years you may have over $10 000 in the account. That’s when many people begin to think about ways to maximize their returns and to resent the fees they often have to pay for mutual funds. One option to consider is opening a self-directed RESP online brokerage account so that you can choose GICs from a variety of places or invest in stocks, ETFs and mutual funds; this article lists some of the advantages and disadvantages of RESP brokerage accounts.

Pros for Holding your Children’s RESP at an Online Discount Brokerage

If you wish to invest in Guaranteed Investment Certificates, you are not limited to the ones offered by a single bank which may only offer low interest rates. For example, if your RESP is at BMO InvestorLine, you can buy GICs from over 10 financial institutions including Home Trust and Equitable Bank both of which often pay rates significantly higher than the major Canadian banks.

You can invest in a mutual fund which mimics a daily interest savings account. The going rate is usually slightly less than paid by online banks such as PC Financial and Tangerine. (For example 1.2% vs 1.3%.)

You can buy units of low fee Electronically Traded Funds, ETFs, that mirror the performance of major stock exchanges such as the TSX or the NYSE

You can usually select mutual funds offered by a large variety of financial institutions with no fee required for the purchase and no penalty for selling the fund after holding it for 90 days (no load funds.) If there is a specific fund you wish to invest in, though, be sure to check that the brokerage offers that fund before opening your brokerage account. Each brokerage offers slightly different investment choices.

You have total control over how the money is invested.

Making new contributions to the RESP is usually as simple as a typing a few numbers on a screen and clicking enter. (No more sitting through sales pitches disguised as contribution meetings at your bank.)

You can check the details of your account and its earnings almost any time. You do not have to wait for quarterly or annual statements.

You can arrange to have contributions made automatically to your account on a monthly or annual basis. (This is also true of RESPs held at banks and of group RESPs managed by private companies.)

Cons for Holding your Children’s RESP at an Online Discount Brokerage

Many brokerages do not allow you to apply for all of the matching government grant programs. If you are planning to apply for grants in addition to the standard Canada Education Savings Grant, CESG, check with the brokerage to find out whether it supports the desired program before opening an account.

You may need to have a large minimum balance to avoid paying annual fees. (There is at least one exception to this.)

No one will provide you with guidance or advice about what to buy.

You will have to choose how to invest your money and if you lose money because of your choices there is no way to recover it.

If you wish to invest in GICs you may find the minimum purchase amount is very large. For example, the minimum at BMO InvestorLine is $5 000 per GIC.

If you wish to invest in a daily interest savings account fund, the minimum purchase amount may be large. For example, at BMO InvestorLine you have to keep a minimum balance of $5 000 in the fund, or sell all of your units.

A mutual fund you wish to invest in may not be offered for sale by your brokerage. For example, no brokerage currently offers the Tangerine mutual funds. Check before you open an account.

Occasionally there may be a minimum investment requirement for a mutual fund. This tends to be set by the mutual fund company, such as Steadyhand, however, not usually by the brokerage. If it’s a concern, check before opening the RESP account.

You will usually have to pay a commission fee each time you purchase or sell shares of a company or units of an ETF. The commissions vary from about $7 – $10 depending on the brokerage. Some brokerages may waive the purchase commission for some or all ETFs.

If you are planning to use a dividend re-investment program for shares or stocks in the RESP, be aware that

  • Brokerage accounts offer a synthetic DRIP. You will only get a new share or shares if your dividend payment is enough to purchase one or more entire new shares of the company. You cannot buy fractional shares in a brokerage account.
  • Each brokerage has a list of stocks and ETFs that for which it offers a DRIP. You may not be able to DRIP all ETFs or all stocks. If this bothers you, check whether the stocks and ETFs you want to purchase are eligible for a DRIP before you open a brokerage account at that institution.

If you transfer in your RESP from another institution, you may or may not be provided with good information easily about how much of the plan comes from your contributions, how much from the government grant/s, and how much from earnings made by the investments. I strongly recommend you keep clear records yourself!

The brokerage usually does not have any mechanism to stop you from over-contributing to the RESP. You should keep accurate records yourself about your contributions and make sure you do not exceed the $50 000 limit per child. Also, it will not warn you if you are contributing more than is needed to get the matching CES grant for that year.

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Do you host your RESP at an online brokerage? Have you run into any other drawbacks that you’d like to warn us about? Please share your experiences with a comment.

How Are My “Defensive” Stocks Weathering the Recent Market Dip?

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Most people invest in the stock market to make money. I invest in it very reluctantly because I am afraid to lose money. However with fixed income investments returning very low returns recently, I have put some money into individual stocks most of which I purchased in 2011 and 2012. I picked stocks based on some professional advice which are considered “defensive.” They don’t have much potential to grow but they are expected to not drop as much during a correction as the overall market. Now in fall 2014 we’re experiencing our first real market correction since my purchases so I thought it was time to check how my defensive stocks are doing during this down turn.

Why Would I Invest in Defensive Stocks Instead of a Broad Market Index?

I actually do have money invested in some “buy the entire stock market” index ETFs. Most of that money is invested through corporate defined contribution pension plans.

I have savings, too, though, which are not necessarily intended for my retirement or even for the long term. With luck, they will stay invested for more than 7 years but if our lives take any unexpected turns they may be needed before then.

This portfolio is NOT intended to produce the same gains as, say, the TSX S&P ETF XIC. By trying to reduce losses I have agreed that I will NOT get the huge positive capital gains that an index like XIC can achieve. My goal is to get a slightly better return than GICs from dividends while not expecting to get much, if any, capital gain but hopefully to also experience little if any capital loss. (Obviously, I’ll experience a large capital loss if there is a major market collapse and I sell my stocks.)

This is NOT a portfolio for someone looking to end up with the most toys before they die. It is my personal choice because I am extremely risk averse but I’m also finding GIC returns unacceptably low at this time.

Yes, I know dividend stocks capital values may plummet as interest rates rise. I will have to accept whatever yield I chose when I bought the stock as potentially my maximum lifetime yield (unless there are dividend increases.) I may not ever be able to sell my dividend stocks to recover my capital. It’s like a type of annuity, though, where I might be able to retrieve some of my capital if I give up the income stream.

Anyway, as I said at the outset, I’m just curious whether they are behaving “defensively” during this market slump or not.

A Review of Some Defensive Stocks Performance During a Market Slump

This is a partial list of some of the defensive stocks I have invested in. For those who are interested, no, it does not actually only show the ones that are faring well: the others are faring the same or better. I’m just not sure whether I would be breaking any rules if I shared the entire portfolio online, so I’m not.

This chart compares prices at the close on October 14, 2014 versus on September 3 2014 when TSX was in the 15 600 range.

Company and Symbol Price at the close on 2014 10 14 Price at the close on 2014 09 03 Percentage change
Bell BCE 47.74 45.27 up 5.5%
Bank of Nova Scotia BNS 67.22 66.30 up 1.4%
Canadian Utilities CU 38.75 39.59 down 2.1%
Enbridge ENB 48.63 55.20 down 11.9% (more than the market)
Fortis FTS 34.57 33.95 up 1.8%
KBro Linen KBL 39.76 39.55 up 0.5%

Those changes don’t mean much, though without a comparison to how the TSX is doing. So I took a look at both the TSX composite and an ETF, XIC.

Company and Symbol Price at the close
on 2014 10 14		 Price at the close
on 2014 09 03		 Percentage change
TSX 14 036.68 15 657.60 down 10.4%

If I had invested $1000 in each stock on September 3 2014, the portfolio would now be worth $5951, which is about a 0.8 % loss. (Not including dividends and distributions)

If I had invested $6000 in XIC on September 3 2014, the portfolio would now be worth $5365 which is about a 10.6% loss. (not including dividends and distributions)

The Outcome of the Defensive Portfolio

So the portfolio is doing its job of making me happy by not losing as quickly as the TSX.

And the steady stream of dividend income has been significantly higher than what I could get from investing in GICs. (Please note that I have not replaced my GIC investing with this portfolio: I have a portion in these stocks and a larger portion in GICs for security.)

Do I Recommend Defensive Stock Picking for Others?

No.

I’m not a financial planner, a financial analyst, or a financial advisor.

I’m just a taxpayer who is writing about what we do with our money. For us, this is a reasonable way to invest. For others, it may be the worst thing they could do short of trying to skydive without a parachute.

You must find your own best investing plan. You may want to talk to a real professional for ideas: Internet websites like this one are only supposed to give you glimpses into other people’s money matters from which you can glean ideas to analyze and (usually) discard as inapplicable.

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Do you have any money invested defensively? How has it withstood this mild market correction? Please share a glimpse of your strategy with a comment.