Canadian Capitalist

The more I learn about group RESPs, the less I like them. In the comments thread on an earlier post on Group RESP plans, a reader referred to the prospectus for the years 2000 to 2007 filed by the Canadian Scholarship Trust filed with SEDAR. I was initially excited to lay my hands on so [...]

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RESPs are already the best way to save for a child’s education. In most instances, a RESP beats out other alternatives - it is better than a RRSP, it will be better than the TFSA and it is certainly better than saving in a taxable account. Bill C-253 introduced by MP Dan McTeague proposes to [...]

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Where does the introduction of TFSA to our savings options leave the RESP? Contributions to both TFSA and RESP are made with after-tax dollars and both offer the benefit of tax-deferred growth. RESPs have the advantage of attracting the CES Grant of at least 20% but the grant and all the growth within the RESP [...]

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I have received a couple of emails that the process of opening a new TD Mutual fund account in order to buy the e-Series index funds described in this post is not very clear. I regret that I did not do a better job of explaining and hope to make the process clearer in this [...]

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Mike of Four Pillars blog commented that the RESP information on the Government of Canada website that I referred to in yesterday’s post has not been updated with RESP changes introduced in the 2007 Federal Budget. As the RESP rules are confusing and widely misinterpreted at the best of times, I hope to provide comprehensive [...]

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Many readers have e-mailed me asking about how to set up self-directed RESPs. We’ve discussed RESPs in many earlier posts and you can find everything you need to know about RESPs and the Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG) on the Government of Canada website. For the purposes of this post, I’ll assume that you are [...]

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First off, I would like to thank frequent commenter Mike for suggesting this topic. Though I have set up a self-directed RESP for my boys, I had not researched scholarship plans in detail. The little I did read about them suggested that I should stay away. Nothing that I learned while researching this post made [...]

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Rob Carrick discussed the implications of the removal of RESP contribution limits in a recent column in The Globe and Mail. Does it make sense to make a big contribution to the RESP even if you don’t get the 20% matching grant? While this is not an issue that most people will face, it poses [...]

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Reader Alex left the following comment on how to get started with a RESP for his soon-to-arrive baby:
Do you have any RESP accounts that you recommend? Most I’ve seen charge an administration fee, and I’d like to avoid that.
I have set up a RESP for my boys with TD eFunds, which doesn’t charge an [...]

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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 [...]

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