New Financial Programs Are Never Easy
My wife and I spent about an hour working with our TD/Waterhouse rep attempting to set up an RDSP. Luckily the rep had already pre-read as much information was available from TD (i.e. not very much), and so we spent 45 minutes filling in paper forms.
What really had my head spinning was:
- The large volume of paper forms (that will have the same information transferred to a computer later)
- The repition of the exact same information
The number of times, my wife’s name, address, and other info was awesomely bad. The reason we were given is because this is a new program for TD the enrollment is not automated, and hopefully one day they will automate it, because this paper trail stuff is really for the birds. I had to live through this last year when I opened a Retirement Fund, but I believe I have an answer as to why all this paperwork is necessary.
Each group inside of TD (and any other bank I would guess) that is part of the RDSP system (e.g. accounting, trading, web interface, etc.,) want information, so they design a form that will get all the information they want. The better way would be to have a single larger form which is then shared with all the groups involved in the savings vehicle set up, but I would guess, there are no bonuses paid internally at TD (or most other banks) to streamline customer interface systems, thus the problem is unlikely to be solved in the near future.
I was also dismayed to hear that the RDSP will not be hooked into the on line banking capabilities any time soon either.
I see this constantly with large firms, that each individual “fiefdom” of technology or information inside the firm feels they are omnipotent and worse still, isolated, from other groups, so they simply attempt to make their own lives simpler, and figure out what small part of a larger problem they have, and optimize the solution for their purposes only.
I would bet there are a few consultants out there making a bloody fortune wandering around to large firms and telling them to stop letting their individual groups solve issues at the sub-micron level and to start creating Macro solution teams instead.
I don’t mean to pick on TD, but this period of time got me thinking about when I deal with Bell, Rogers, Any Bank, Hospitals and other customer facing industries/companies it is rare you run into a Customer Initiation system that makes it easy for a new customer to be created.
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December 3rd, 2009 at 7:29 AM
Are you sure you were really at TD? Maybe your RDSP contribution is in cash right now in some warm part of the world. Maybe RDSP stands for Registered Deposit-only Savings Plan. Good luck with the withdrawals.
December 3rd, 2009 at 8:07 AM
That was one of the points made, was that we were not sure how money actually came out of the fund, or even how to deposit money, right now we are simply attempting to open the account
Excellent take on the RDSP however, a DEPOSIT ONLY account is an interesting concept.
December 3rd, 2009 at 5:16 PM
No too sure what Michael James meant about a “deposit” account. There are lots of Equity based mutual funds available for the RDSP. And since this is a long term plan for most people, “deposit like” investments aren’t the best choice.
The funds can be accessed for any reason and at any time if your contributions are greater than the government. If not then after a 10 year “holdback period” a “rif like” pension payment can start. Most people will start this payment in their later years or at the latest before they turn 60.
This plan shouldn’t be disparaged as it is a huge step forward for those those with disabilites. As Canadians we should be proud that we are the first country in the world to have this type of plan.
We shouldn’t be proud of the Leafs though….
I’m out like TO hockey…
December 3rd, 2009 at 5:56 PM
I think he was being “whimsical” in the fact that all the rules and such are not well understood by most folks (including the banks offering them as savings vehicles). It looks like a good idea, hence why I am opening one, but as I mentioned I am not too sure if I can even deposit anything easily just yet.
December 4th, 2009 at 6:17 PM
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March 2nd, 2010 at 1:54 AM
[...] our application for an RDSP for our son. We applied in November and the account was set up (see New Programs are Never Easy for more details on that saga), and we thought all was fine (with the exception of being unable to [...]