This was written the day we tried to set up my son’s RDSP at the local Barrhaven TD Branch. I will leave it as I wrote it (a bit raw), but it reflects my frustration with the TD RDSP setup, which is a new system, and how the Bank and the Government seemed hell-bent to make the RDSP as hard as possible to use.
My wife and I spent about an hour working with our TD/Waterhouse rep attempting to do an TD RDSP setup for my son. Luckily the rep had already pre-read as much information was available from TD about the RDSP (i.e. not very much), and so we spent 45 minutes filling in paper forms (yes, it is all paperwork, nothing can be done on-line).
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 relation of the exact same information
The number of times, my wife’s name, address, and other info was 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 superfluous. 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. This made the TD RDSP setup system quite complicated. 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.
My Opinion of the RDSP TD Waterhouse System
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.
CIBC really had no clue about RDSP plans. They insisted that my daughter (28) review and make decisions about mutual fund risk and they want to do all the business by PHONE (everything by phone). I told them not possible but they wouldn’t stop. I asked how do they deal with someone who can’t speak, hear or make decisions about their life with the CIBC; they were clueless to how to handle it. The bank manager and mutual fund manager said, “Not our business, we don’t have a license to talk to you.” I fussed so much, they would tape my conversations and tried to get me to sign a paper saying I wouldn’t ask for any payment because of their mistakes – I didn’t sign. Two years and now they want the same thing, my daughter to make decisions about this acct. All I wanted was a protected plan for my daughter – a simple account would have been easier for all.