Tag Archives: rules

When Will I See My Dividend Payments in my CIBC Investor’s Edge Account?

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A bit over a month ago, May 28 2013 to be exact, I put in an order to buy some Cineplex shares for our Investor’s Edge account. I thought that I had made the purchase the day before the stock went ex-dividend. The sale settled on May 31 as expected. Then I started waiting for the end of June and the first monthly dividend payment. I wondered exactly when I would see my dividend payment appear in my CIBC brokerage account.

Why Test Using Cineplex?

Cineplex was a good stock for this test because it pays a dividend each month to shareholders on record on a date near the end of the previous month. There are quite a few companies that pay dividends monthly which can make a useful income stream for investors as I described in Using Dividend Paying Stocks to Create Monthly Income.

The fact that Cineplex has gone up over $2 a share since we bought was an unplanned but not unexpected bonus. Monsters U and Despicable Me, too, anyone?!

When was Cineplex Due to Pay?

According to their press release, Cineplex said it would pay “$0.12 per share for the month of May 2013, payable on June 28, 2013, to shareholders of record on May 31, 2013.”

So in theory since our shares settled on May 31, we should have received a dividend payment on June 28, 2013.

With BMO InvestorLine the actual dividend payment usually lands in my cash account one day after it was payable. It shows up in the transaction history back dated to the previous day, as I described in What is in the Transaction History for a BMO InvestorLine Account and What Should I Watch Out for?

Did the Payment Appear in my Transaction History on June 28? 29? 30? Canada Day?

No.

I wasn’t surprised that the dividend payment did not appear in my CIBC brokerage account or in the Investor’s Edge transaction history on Friday June 28.

I wasn’t even particularly surprised that it didn’t show up on Saturday or Sunday. And then Monday was Canada Day.

(Dividend transactions do appear in our InvestorLine accounts on the weekend,  though, back dated to the proper date.)

I gave it one last check very early Tuesday July 2. Still nothing.

That’s when I decided I must have somehow missed the Date of Record. Maybe a settlement date of May 31 did not equal a Record Date of May 31. Although I had thought it did.

When Did I Receive the Dividend?

Fast forward to Monday July 8. Refreshed after a few days in northern south eastern Ontario paddling among the muskrats and loons, I sat back down in front of a computer. Logging in to our CIBC account, I was surprised to find we DID receive the payment for the May Cineplex dividend.

How Does the Dividend Show Up in the CIBC Investor’s Edge Transaction History?

The transaction history reports:

  • In the Date column
    • T July 2: I believe that means transaction date, based on other items.
    • S July 2: Settlement date. Ditto.
  • In the Curr column
    CAD
  • In the Type column
    Dividend
  • In the Description column
    Cash div on 100 shares rec 05/31/13 pay 06/30/13
  • In the Symbol column
    CGX:CDN
  • In the Quantity column
    nothing was reported
  • In the Price column
    nothing was reported
  • In the Amount column
    $12.00

I found the dates a bit confusing.

  • Rec does not mean Received. It means Date of Record, May 31, 2013.
  • Pay, though, is not listed as Friday June 28 per the press release, but as Sunday June 30. I’m not sure why it says that.
  • July 2 is apparently when the money was put into our cash account. I didn’t see it there first thing on the 2, but it may have appeared later that day or before the start of trading on July 3.

Possibly the June 30 date was used simply because it is the last day of the month. The Cineplex dividend is usually payable the last day of the month if that day is a business day. If not, they usually move it up to the last business day.

A Probable Explanation for the Delay in Dividend Payment

I suspect the cause of the delayed dividend payment was confusion. This was the first dividend earned by this stock since we purchased it. I expect that second and subsequent dividend payments will be credited much more quickly to our account.

Testing, Testing 1, 2, 3

I guess I’ll have to keep an eye on the account and see what happens this month.

According to the Cineplex Press Release, the June dividend payable to owners on record on June 28, 2013 is payable on July 31, 2013. Since the 31 is a Wednesday, the dividend could appear on the 31, or on August 1 or later.

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When does Investor’s Edge report your dividends? Does it happen the day of, the day after, or several days after the actual payment date? Please share your experiences with a comment.

Transferring RRSP Cash from CIBC to a BMO InvestorLine RRSP Account

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I’ve been on a quest to pull our RRSP assets into some sort of organized structure. Like many people, we often bought RRSP investments (usually GICs) at the last moment and from whoever was offering a good rate that day or whichever institution was close by. Then we met, married and had kids. Unlike normal people who manage to stay organized even while raising a family, our RRSPs ended up a disorganized mess. Bit by bit, we’re fixing that. I had one (1!) GIC at CIBC for over 15 years. It was past time to get it consolidated, so I decided to transfer my CIBC RRSP to my BMO InvestorLine account.

Why Banks Really Charge a Fee to Transfer RRSP Assets

I suspect the real reason many banks charge $50-150 to transfer RRSP assets is because it’s a strong psychological deterrent to investors. I had a very small GIC with CIBC. The transfer out fee was (and apparently as of April 3, 2013 still is) $100. It’s emotionally painful to PAY $100 of your measly annual interest to the bank just to get your money out.

Still, after running some numbers, I realized I was being an idiot leaving the money there. In general, even after phoning and threatening and complaining, the best rate I could get on a GIC from CIBC was still 0.5% – 1% lower than what I could get for a GIC using BMO InvestorLine. That isn’t killer but it’s very annoying. I decided to bring it over to InvestorLine, buy a dividend blue chip stock that pays 4-5% a year and mentally earn back the transfer fee that way. (Of course with my luck, the bank stock will then plummet 25%, but at least I feel comfortable holding a bank stock at 4-5% for several years while waiting for a hoped-for rebound.)

Can I Transfer a RRSP GIC from CIBC to BMO InvestorLine

Nope. Unfortunately, BMO InvestorLine does not offer or support this type of CIBC GIC. So the first thing I had to do was wait for the GIC to mature at CIBC. That sounds straightforward, until you realize the term to maturity had another 2.5 years to go. No one said fixing up our RRSPs was going to be fast!

Two weeks before the GIC was set to mature, I visited a CIBC branch. (Not the branch I bought it from: that was 3 moves and 2 houses ago!) I filled out all the required paperwork to create a RRSP Daily Interest Savings account. Then I filled out all the paperwork to have my existing RRSP GIC mature and cash out with the principal and interest to be paid to the new DISA.

Then I started waiting. I had to have the new RRSP DISA account number and know the money was in it, before I could submit the request to move it.

How do I Move the Money from CIBC to InvestorLine

As I’m sure you know, you don’t want to withdraw your RRSP cash to move it. You’ll have to pay tax on it if you do, and you can’t contribute it again unless you have lots of unused RRSP room. You want to transfer it directly from the bank to the brokerage.

To do this, I filled out a BMO InvestorLine T2203 transfer form. It authorized CIBC to release the funds to InvestorLine.

How Long Does It Take to Transfer the RRSP Money from Bank to Brokerage?

I hope you don’t plan to re-invest any money you transfer this way any time soon.

The GIC matured February 28, 2013.

The first week in March, I received a statement from CIBC with the DISA account number and cash balance.

I filled out the T2203 form on 2013 03 15. I mailed it March 16 to InvestorLine.

On April 3, 2013 CIBC sent me a letter confirming the money had been transferred out. (And confirming that it cost me $100 for the honour.)

On April 10, 2013 the cash showed up in my InvestorLine account, back dated to say it had arrived on April 9, 2013. (Don’t ask me where it was for the interim 5 days!)

So all in all, it took me 25 days after I mailed the T2203 before I had the cash ready to re-invest in my InvestorLine account.

Maybe they had to roll the amount in pennies one by one with their nose from one location to the other?

Lessons Learned

  • Try not to invest your RRSP money all over the place like I did.
  • When you realize you’re losing money by leaving your assets scattered hither and yon, get cracking and start consolidating them.
  • Don’t ever expect anything involving two major Canadian financial institutions to happen quickly. (Except perhaps increases in mortgage rates, and decreases in GIC rates.)

Still, at least I got the GIC cashed, and the cash moved from CIBC to InvestorLine. That’s another item checked off my list. If I die tomorrow, I’m sure my husband will appreciate my improved organization.

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Are all your RRSP savings in one or two planned locations? Or do you have a haphazard collection of investments with only the vaguest idea where they all are? Please share your experiences with a comment.