Not all bank brokerages pay an incentive to encourage referrals of customers wanting to open a new RRSP, TFSA, or investing account at their institution. For example, CIBC Investor’s Edge does not have a reward system at this time. I invest with BMO InvestorLine. [UPDATE: And RBC Direct Investing and CIBC Investor’s Edge.] I’m happy enough with InvestorLine’s services that I could recommend them to my mother and not have to worry about facing her about it at our next meeting. So I wondered, does BMO InvestorLine offer any kind of bonus if I refer them a new customer?

Yes, BMO InvestorLine Has a Referral Bonus Program

The answer was yes! BMO InvestorLine does reward both the person making the referral and the person setting up the new account at InvestorLine. They will pay a bonus for a new

• RRSP
• spousal RRSP
• RRIF
• spousal RRIF
• cash or margin, (individual or joint) investment account (non-registered account)
  corporate account
• sole proprietorship account

This round does not seem to reward opening a new RESP or a new TFSA unfortunately, in 2019 and 2020.

The account must be opened with a minimum of $5000 of net new investment money.

How Does BMO InvestorLine’s Referral Cash Reward Program Work?

Say I’m a happy BMO InvestorLine customer (which I am.) I can give any friend or relative my Referral Code. When they fill out an account application form, they include this referral code.

Specifically, when they visit the BMO InvestorLine website and click on Open an Account, the first Welcome page asks them to select the type of account they wish to open. A bit further down the page it says, “Enter a Promotion Code or Referral Code below.” The Referral Code should be typed into the Refer a Friend Code box.

When they click on Open New Account it will take them to a page describing the Refer a Friend program.

Some of the important details

• to get a reward $5,000 of “net new assets” must be deposited in the new account
• the account balance must remain $5000 or higher for the next 90 business days (3 months)
• no reward money will be deposited by InvestorLine until after 45+90 = 135 days have elapsed
• the bonus money will be deposited directly into the account. So if a person opened a new RRSP it would be deposited in their RRSP account.
• the InvestorLine bonus does not count as a contribution to a registered plan as far as the government is concerned. For example, you don’t have to claim it as an RRSP contribution on your taxes. It’s more like interest earned on an investment.
• the new customer gets a bonus of $50 for an investment of $5 000 new net assets or more in a new account
• the existing customer gets a $50 bonus too
• It only works for one InvestorLine account. If you open more than one account, at any time, only the first account can get a reward.
• The money for the new account cannot be coming from any BMO-related company like Nesbitt Burns or BMO mutual funds.
• The money has to stay in the new account for the entire holding period (90 days) plus the payment waiting period (45 days) to get the bonus. [They must be tired of people opening accounts to get $50 and then transferring the money out. It’s probably why they are excluding TFSA accounts as people can take money out so easily from a TFSA.]

Program terms can change at any time, of course, so it’s always worth checking again before opening a new account.

FinancialCrooks, Can I Use Your Referral Number?

Well, since the only ones reading this blog seem to be my friends and relatives, I guess that means yes, you can use my referral number if you are opening a new InvestorLine account.

UPDATE: As of January 2014, it’s an email address now, not a number. As of January 2019 My Refer a Friend Code is: an email address.

if you take out all the extra spaces and the *** characters

I may find that I can’t keep the address up here if I get too much spam. In that case, if you add a comment to this post, I can email you my email, but I must admit I don’t check for comments every day, unfortunately.

Remember I will get a bonus if you use this code. (And I will have to declare it on my income taxes, unlike you, because I’m sure the government would consider any profit made from this post of mine to be a work-related benefit.)

The referral bonus rules are at

https://www.bmoinvestorline.com/selfDirected/pdfs/raf_tc_e.pdf

Related Reading

• Does CIBC Investor’s Edge have a Referral Bonus for Convincing Friends and Relatives to Open a New Account?
• How to Maximize Your Refer a Friend Bonus from BMO InvestorLine

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Does your brokerage pay an incentive for helping to encourage new customers? Please share your experiences with a comment.