How to Invest in the HISA AAT770 in Your InvestorLine RESP Account

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OK, you’ve had a RESP set up at BMO InvestorLine for years. Your combination of low-fee market-index-mirroring ETFs and a GIC ladder has been ticking along earning a reasonable profit. Now, with a shock, you realize it’s the spring of the year that your eldest child is starting post-secondary education in the fall. It’s time to have some cash ready in the account for those first horrific bills. You have 2 GICs that just matured. What should you do with that cash? Here’s how you can invest it within your InvestorLine account in the high interest savings account fund AAT 770.

Another Reason to Move your RESP to a Self Directed Brokerage Account

I just realized that this HISA fund is yet another reason why you should consider moving your RESP to a self directed brokerage account once you have enough money within it to not need to pay a minimum account balance fee.

In January 2014, for their regular RESP accounts, BMO was paying 1.0% interest.

In contrast, BMO InvestorLine was paying 1.25% on its high interest savings account fund AAT 770.

To be fair, BMO is paying 1% on any amount invested from $1 up. BMO InvestorLine requires you to buy a minimum of at least $5000 of AAT 770. UPDATE 2017 10 03, the minimum purchase is $1 000. And InvestorLine pays 0% on cash account balances.

Still, if you have the $5000 1 000 or more, you can get an extra 0.25% at InvestorLine.

And at other brokerages

NOTE: A self-directed RESP brokerage account at CIBC Investor’s Edge does not have any annual fee nor any minimum balance. (This is as of the time of writing in February 2014. Check the terms again before signing up.)

How to Park Your RESP Cash in the High Interest Savings Account Fund AAT770 at InvestorLine

  1. Sign in to your InvestorLine account/s.
  2. From the drop-down list at the right side of the screen, select your RESP account.
  3. From the Trading tab, select Fixed Income.
  4. Under the Inventory Search section, select High Interest Savings.
  5. If you’re not familiar with this product, under the heading
    BMO High Interest Savings Accounts in CAD,
    click on the Terms and Conditions link and read the details.
  6. If you’re sure you want to invest in AAT770, click on the link:
    BMO CAD HIGH INTEREST SAVINGS ACCOUNT
  7. From the drop-down Action: list, select Buy.
  8. Click on the Recent Closing Price button to confirm that AAT770 is a no load fund priced at $1.00 per unit.
  9. In the Amount in Dollars: field, type in what you want to buy.
    You have to purchase at least $5 000 $1 000 for your first purchase.
  10. For the Dividend Option: select either Cash or Reinvest.
  11. In the Contact Phone #: field type the number you can be reached at.
  12. Click on the Review Order button.
  13. If you’re putting the order in after 2 p.m. ET it will display a message:
    Warning: This order will receive today’s price on a best efforts basis.(14603)
    If that’s ok, click on the Accept All Warnings button.

The Mutual Fund Order Review screen will open.

  1. In the Please enter your password in order to submit your order: field, type your trading password.
  2. Click on the Submit Order button.
  3. Copy and paste the Mutual Fund Order Confirmation into a document and save it to a secure disk or stick for future reference.
  4. If you are finished with your InvestorLine account, click on the Sign Out link.
  5. For increased security, clear your browser cache and close your browser session.

You’re done! Now you just have to wait for that first huge bill this fall. Sigh.

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Do you hate seeing your RESP cash sitting at almost no interest? Do you have any suggestions other than a HISA fund? Please share your experiences with a comment.