When Will I Get My Dividends in my InvestorLine and Investor’s Edge Brokerage Accounts?

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Before I opened a self-directed brokerage account at BMO InvestorLine I owned some shares that I kept in a safe deposit box at the bank. Every quarter, about a week before it was payable, a dividend cheque would arrive from the company’s agent. On the payable date, I would deposit the cheque in my account and could spend my capitalistic largesse immediately. So I was very curious when I first bought stock in my InvestorLine and Investor’s Edge accounts to see when the dividends would appear.

BMO InvestorLine Is Not Too Swift

I was a bit disappointed to discover, and verify over many payments, that BMO InvestorLine takes one full day after receiving a dividend on my behalf to post it to my brokerage account.

For example, Cineplex, which pays a monthly dividend which is great for income seekers, paid its June dividend on July 31 this month. If I had received a paper cheque in the mail, I could have cashed it and spent the money going to a movie that night. With InvestorLine, however, the money doesn’t appear in my account ready to spend till the morning of August 1.

Frankly given this is all done electronically, I’m a bit surprised by the delay. Since the paper cheques are mailed and delivered to my home several days before the payable date, one would think the electronic file would be available ahead of time too.

Now let’s look at Investor’s Edge.

CIBC Investor’s *Edge* Isn’t a Faster Dividend Payment

CIBC may be trying to give investor’s an edge but if they are it’s not by paying them their dividends on the day they are earned. Just like BMO, CIBC is taking one full day after receiving a dividend on my behalf to show it in the transaction history and cash balance of my brokerage account.

Is There a Benefit to Brokerages In This Delay?

Having a nasty suspicious mind, I wonder whether there is any benefit to the brokerages in this delay. Where is the money during the missing one day? Still in the issuing company’s bank account? Or sitting in an undisbursed slush pile in my brokerage? I think I should send a secure email by MyLink to BMO InvestorLine and ask them.

Checking Your Transaction History for Your Dividends

I’ve mentioned before that BMO InvestorLine back dates dividend payments to when they should have been made in the Transaction History.

CIBC Investor’s Edge does the same thing in its Transaction History.

Why Does It Matter If the Dividend Shows Up a Day Late?

For ultra conservative slow poke investors like me, it doesn’t particularly matter if the dividend payment is made a day late. But I can see how it might matter to others:

  • if there is a great buy available on the day the dividend money should have been available, it must hurt to watch it slide out of reach while waiting one more day: even GIC rates flutter day by day
  • if someone is using the dividend income to pay bills, even a day’s delay might cause problems depending on how the dates line up between bills and dividend payments

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When does your brokerage pay your dividends? Remember you can’t always tell by the Transaction History. You may have to actually check your cash balance on the day the money should have appeared. Please share your experiences with a comment.

8 thoughts on “When Will I Get My Dividends in my InvestorLine and Investor’s Edge Brokerage Accounts?”

  1. Hi, thanks for sharing such an informative article. Generally these kind of information nobody can get easily but everybody want to know specially an investor……..Please keep us updated…:)

    • Interesting, indeed! Thank you very much for the insights into these brokerages. I’ll be quite curious to see which ones pay same day and which ones don’t: and why!

  3. I just experienced a delay in payment of a dividend payment date august 14 2015 …..and yes I wanted to pay a bill with my dividend and CIBC said the dividend will probably be in my account on the monday august 17 2015 ………guess what was not in my account on monday august 17 my dividend ……..where is it I phoned ? reply it might take a few days more

    • Ouch! I’m sorry to hear you’ve had such a long delay. Sometimes when I have purchased a new holding, the first dividend payment has taken over a week to get properly booked, but after that I’ve only spotted a typical InvestorLine delay of 1 business day. I hope that they improve your dividend payment date for any and all future payments!

  4. This delay in Investorline dividend payout persists. My spouse holds BMO stock with TD and mine is held with Investorline. He consistently receives his dividend 2 days earlier. Today is March 2nd and my dividend has not yet been posted to my account. My husband received his on February 28th. Quite frustrating and presumably benefitting Investorline with holding onto funds as long as possible. I followed up with them in the past but their rationale was unclear and not satisfying.

    • InvestorLine (and most brokerages) does not actually manage the dividends themselves. Another company does and sends an electronic file to InvestorLine telling them what to deposit in the accounts. InvestorLine’s biggest slow down is it does not display your updated balance immediately. When I called them about this, I was told I could go ahead and spend the money even though it is not displayed yet.

      I agree with you that it is very annoying not to have the dividends updated in “real time.” !

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