[Mookie]

Has anyone here in BC heard of the British Columbia Training and Education Savings Grant (BCTESG)? My wife just discovered this one. It is a fairly new additional grant that was added to the RESP program last year. There seems to be very little advertising about this grant, so I’m sure a lot of eligible folks are missing out.

It looks like a really sweet deal for those that qualify, but I’m not sure why the program is so restrictive – it’s only open to kids born in 2006 or later, and you must apply for the grant between their 6th and 9th birthdays (with some minor exceptions).

The link below has more info, but is a bit short on details. It seems you can receive the $1200 grant by applying for it so long as you have an RESP account for a kid that is of the right age. All this is on top of the existing 20% CESG that you get for the first $2500 in contributions per year, per kid.

My kids are too old to take advantage of this additional grant, but for those of you living in BC with kids of the right age, you would be crazy not to take advantage of this free money.

http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/support/bc-training-and-education-savings-grant

 

[none]

Yup but mostly only credit unions are signed on the allow it. The bigger banks are hopefully later this summer.

 

[Tawcan]

Interesting stuff, haven't heard this, my kids are still too young for us to apply though. Will have a look into this in a few more years.

 

[Woz]

Looks like it's offered at all of the big 5 except CIBC. Although not necessarily their brokerage arms.

http://www.esdc.gc.ca/en/resp/promoters_list.page

I'd also note, you can open an RESP without making any contributions and the eligibility doesn't list a contribution as mandatory so there's really no reason not to take advantage of it, even if you don't have money.

 

[none]

NIce - looks like they updated the site 2 weeks ago. TD wasn't set to start it until end of this summer.

EDIT:

Nope. See: http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/e...pport/bc-training-and-education-savings-grant

Institutions Coming Soon:

HSBC Bank Canada – July 2016
Investors Group Trust Co. Ltd. - Summer 2016
Mackenzie Financial Corporation - Summer 2016
Counsel Portfolio Services Inc. – Summer 2016
Quadrus Investment Services Ltd. - Summer 2016
Canadian Scholarship Trust Foundation – Fall 2016
The Toronto-Dominion Bank – Late 2016

 

[fraser]

Alberta has something similar..at least they did two years ago. There was talk of eliminating the program because so few people took advantage of it. We did..for our grandson.

The deal was that IF you started an RESP for a child under 2 years old, the Alberta Gov't would kick in a one time only grant of $500. No one told us about it, we found out about it on our own. Ralph Klein started it to encourage people to start an RESP plan early with the hope that they would keep contributing every year.

 

[nobleea]

Alberta has something similar..at least they did two years ago. There was talk of eliminating the program because so few people took advantage of it. We did..for our grandson.

The deal was that IF you started an RESP for a child under 2 years old, the Alberta Gov't would kick in a one time only grant of $500. No one told us about it, we found out about it on our own. Ralph Klein started it to encourage people to start an RESP plan early with the hope that they would keep contributing every year.

They did. I believe it was 500 at birth, 200 at 8? yrs and 100 at 12 or something like that. I believe it was phased out last year as there was no appreciable change in RESP takeup.

 

[fraser]

Yes, we grabbed the $500. a few months prior to the planned program end. We had to email details to our financial institution, PHN, so that they could initiate the paperwork. The person we dealt with was familiar with RESP's but had never had an application for the Provincial grant. Seems odd to me.

 

[darylshriver]

Yeah, residents of BC are very fortunate to receive this grant - it's too bad that Ontarians don't have an equivalent. My brother who lives out in BC applied for the BCTESG with Knowledge First: http://info.knowledgefirstfinancial...ion/british-columbia-education-savings-grant/

 

[ian]

It is an excellent program.

It is surprising how few people take advantage of the RESP programs-government match and tax free growth. Seems like a no brainer to us. We did it for our children and have started a family plan for our grandson. Tuition rates seem to be increasing at a faster rate than inflation. Why walk away from free money and tax sheltered investments?