By Tom Bradley

I’ve written about RRSP transfers a few times and will continue to do so because the way some large institutions treat their investment clients is ridiculous, abysmal, maddening, inexcusable, disrespectful, unnecessary, unethical, despicable, appalling, dishonorable, preventable, indefensible ... you get the picture.

To summarize the issue: If you transfer money to a firm, they will help you get it invested within minutes. They’ll jump through hoops to get the right forms filled out and the account set up. If you transfer out, it can take a month or more, even though the process is much less involved.

We have 6+ years of experience doing RRSP transfers and always have a large number of files in progress. What we’ve learned is that many firms have elevated their ‘foot dragging’ strategy to a fine art. Some of them don’t even start the process for a couple of weeks. No amount of ‘encouragement’ from Sher or Jennifer seems to help. And to add insult to injury, some firms will charge a transfer fee (up to $125) while sitting on the paperwork.

This is truly an industry embarrassment. The industry associations and SRO’s complain bitterly when regulators bring in new rules, and yet, they won’t clean up their act until said regulators force them to.

Note: We treat a transfer ‘out’ the same way we treat a transfer ‘in’ – same day. That’s not remarkable, it’s just expected.