As most of you know, I have my son’s RDSP with TD, and it has been a learning experience for myself and I suspect for TD as well (we were very early adopters of the program), so I have gone back to TD to find out whether they have fine tuned their system to make it easier for parents of children that have disabilities (or loved ones).
I first asked TD via an e-mail, but I received a response which told me they could not reply to my query and that I should call the TD Waterhouse Customer Service line.
As a reminder currently the way I can put money into a TD Waterhouse RDSP (I believe the only RDSP possible with TD, currently) is:
- Place money into my TD Waterhouse “Normal” trading account
- Usually this is done by transferring money from my TD Chequing account to this account, if I do this, it takes a day or two to “clear”
- Call the TD Waterhouse folks on the phone, and ask for the money to be transferred to my son’s RDSP account. This normally does not happen instantaneously either, so another short wait.
- If I wish to buy ETFs, Index Funds, Bonds, GICs or whatever, I must then call back once the money has cleared, or tell the rep I am talking to when I make the transfer what I want to do with the funds being transferred in.
- When the Grant part from the government arrives (usually within a few months), if I wish to use the money to invest, I must then call back and instruct the TD Waterhouse rep what to do with the money.
No, this is not incredibly painful (i.e. I don’t have to go into the branch, I at least can do it in my house), I would prefer if:
- I could set up an “auto-saving” vehicle that purchases an Index Fund (or something similar) every two weeks (when I get paid), thus making saving automatic.
- If I could at least transfer and purchase equities on-line without having to talk to the nice folks at TD Waterhouse (i.e. do this all on-line)
Neither of these options are now available.
Last week I called TD Waterhouse Customer Service line and got a hold of a very polite chap called Rob, who listened to my questions, excused himself to go check with his supervisor and returned to tell me that nothing had changed, the system is still not optimum (in my opinion). I thanked Rob as he was sympathetic and very courteous with me (I think I was polite as well, but I can’t say for sure).
So here I sit, in the same place as I was in January, using a technically cumbersome system to try to set up a life savings program for my disabled son. If anyone else from TD wishes to comment or contact me I am available (you guys have already called me at work, so you know who I am).
Other RDSP Posts to Read:
- RDSP Completion of Initial Work which sums up what had to happen to set up my son’s RDSP with TD
- Registered Disability Savings Plan an introduction to the program.
- New Financial Programs are Never Easy I outline the steps we took to actually set up the account with TD
- No You Are Not Married to Him outlines the issues we ran into with my wife’s identity that got tripped by applying for the program
- RDSP the Journey Continues continues the saga of attempting to put money into the RDSP.
- The RDSP The Journey Continued is me ranting about how long it took to actually transfer money to the account (while watching the Monaco Grand Prix).
- RDSP: The Other New Government Savings Plan which is a guest post written as an overview of the program as well.
- RDSP and TD Aggravations is where I stood at the start of this year
Hi There, just wondering if you can do an update on your experience with TD? I am looking at opening a RDSP for my daughter and notices that only TD and National Bank have direct investments accounts for RDSP and TD is the only bank that doesn’t charge an annual maintenance fee.
Many thx!
Sue
I have done a yearly update, not much has changed. You can’t directly put money into it, it has to go via a “Trading Account”, but I am using the E-series mutual funds in the trading account, but yes, I will most likely write a follow up. This article is my latest update on TD (and it is only about 8 months old).
Hi
I really appreciate this article. I’ve been looking for a place that does direct investing for rdsp. I’m currently with rbc and all they have is their gics and mutual funds.
It’s too bad td doesn’t have automatic withdrawals from your account though. Does that mean you have to pay a $9.99 trading fee every month when you buy index funds or etfs if you manually do the rdsp transactions every month?
Thanks
I’ve had my RDSP account for a few years and I’ve been really annoyed that I have to use the telebroker service in order to make a trade on my TD Waterhouse account. They will charge like $43 or more for a simple trade when everyone else can use the $9.99 flat trading amount on their RRSP and TFSA accounts. Is there any way you found to get the fees down on your account?
I have never been charged that much for my RDSP, but I also have a whole bunch of account with TD Waterhouse as well, so I may be “haloed” by that, but I would check with TD Waterhouse, because they are now claiming EVERYONE gets $9.99 per trade, maybe you get cheap rates too?
I am 35, and I have a Ankylosing Spondylitis. I chose TD Direct Investing because it was the only institution where I could make in-kind contributions of securities. BMO (my primary bank) wanted me to buy GICs and Mutual Funds. I’m in the process of moving over $25000 in cash and securities from BMO Investorline. I opened my RDSP in early August. At the end of August I received my $6000 RDSP Bond. Last week, my cash and some of my securities arrived at TD and subsequently I made an in-kind contribution of one securities holding. I’m planning on making additional contributions to my RDSP before the end of the year. Does anyone know if I’ll receive my first RDSP Grant on October 31st?
You’ll know when it’s there?!? That is the only way I ever find out.
As a financial planner and somewhat of an RDSP expert I have opened many RDSP plans for my clients. The best and most accessible plans i have opened are at BMO where i can purchase equity as fixed income mutual funds as well as some ETF’s. I am able to set up automatic deposits for the grants, bonds and contributions. I have also checked out other suppliers of the RDSP but have found BMO to be the most reasonable and accessible. If you would like more info from me please don’t hesitate to email me or call 306-525-2561 X-7603
Thanks for this information – RDSP certainly not a simple topic. Question: Do you know if one is able to set up a regular Mutual Fund account at TD as RDSP? We have all our RSP, RESP in e-Series portfolios in non-Waterhouse accounts. Any idea if can do similar with RDSP?
I will check but I chose the Waterhouse route because at the time that was all that was offered .
I will be managing a TD RDSP account for my sister, but have not made any fund purchases at this point. What kind of fees do you have to pay for a broker assisted transaction?
I pay $9.99 with Waterhouse, however you may pay more.
Then bank will do or not do as it chooses, without regard to your comments. The most you’ll get out of them is ‘polite’, and even thatt’s not a certainty – in fact it’s rare enough that you commented on it.
Agreed, but I must try to change things.