Recently, I finished setting up RESPs for our boys and for new parents who cannot wait to start saving for their kids’ education, here are the steps to getting started:
- First a Statement of Live Birth form should be completed and filed with the city where the hospital is located.
- Three to four months later, a Notice of Birth Registration arrives in the mail.
- Using the information in the Notice of Birth, apply for a Birth Certificate from the provincial government. In Ontario, the Ministry of Government Services accepts online applications with guaranteed service times.
- With a birth certificate, apply for a Social Insurance Number for your child at a local Human Resources Development Canada office.
- I decided on a self-directed RESP and I think TD eFunds are perfect for such accounts. I first opened a TD Mutual funds RESP account, parked the initial contribution in a money market account and then converted it into an eFunds account.
- As soon as the eFunds account was open, I bought index funds to match my target asset allocation of 20% bonds, 20% Canadian equity, 35% US equity and 25% International equity.
See also:
MoneySense magazine’s excellent RESP article.
Frugal Canadian’s post on RESP basics.
Canada Revenue Agency’s RESP publication.
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3 responses so far ↓
1 Canadian Capitalist » RESP Basics // Nov 9, 2006 at 11:21 pm
[...] Related Post - RESP: Getting Started [...]
2 Vancouver Dad - Fatherhood in Vancouver, British Columbia » Blog Archive » RESPs - Help Your Kid Avoid Early Bankruptcy // Mar 9, 2007 at 4:09 pm
[...] The Canadian Capitalist on RESPs [...]
3 Investing in TD e-Series Funds for Your RESP // Nov 6, 2007 at 11:38 pm
[...] opening a RESP account is a little bit more complicated [Note: You’ll need a SIN number for your child for opening a RESP account] because you have to first open a TD Mutual Funds RESP account and then [...]
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