TD Waterhouse - new account fees

I haven't seen anything about this yet. I wonder if it's only for clients in the full-service brokerage. If not, there won't be many happy people.

My friend just told me the same thing, he banks with TD (RRSP).

Hmm... this is not good, I can see other banks will also follow, then all of us will have no where else to switch to.

wow, i am surprised by this. Getting less and less competitive pricing

TD waterhouse is a rip off but what is a better option. I heard horrible stories from my friends about other non-bank trading accounts and really don't want to take the risk!

With some banks you don't have to pay these fees once you have reached a combined total of say $100k right?

Regardless this is why I use questrade

It sounds like TD is moving away from the total asset value model and will now be charging everyone $50, rather than charging $100 to only those under $25k. This would be bad news for most, I think, because right now their pricing is not bad... if you have $25k+ in your RRSP and a household balance of $100k+, there are no annual fees for RRSP and trades are $10 each.

i just received this letter today and was wondering if the customers of the other big 5 banks got the same? is it easy to move all my rrsps to another bank?

I received this letter from TD Waterhouse Financial Planning as well. It was directed to clients who have a RSP with their Financial Planning arm.

As I understand, one needs to have $100,000+ of investable assets before they would take you on as a financial planning client. At least that is what their website says and what the bank staff said at the time they recommended me to their Financial Planner. I have never had to pay any fees or commissions on funds that I have purchased (unless it was early selling or funds with loads).
TD Financial Planning

I'm not sure if the non-financial planning version of the RSP will still have a fee waiver for over $25,000. But according to the TD Waterhouse website the discount brokerage RSP still state that their is a fee waiver for over $25,000 on the self-directed RSP. Perhaps this will also change? I'm not familiar with any buy/sell commission fees in this account.
TD SDRSP

Now when it comes to tax time my understanding is that an administration fee for an RRSP cannot be claimed as a carrying charge (stated in tax guide Line 221 - carrying charges). CRA Line 221

However, if the fee was an 'Advice Fee' and if I can acquire a seperate receipt for it then possibly according to my interpretation (I'm not sure) it could be claimed as a carrying charge under 'Fees Paid to Investment Councel: IT-238R2 '. In particular paragraph 6. I'm no expert but a Financial Planning account usually means some form of advice or management.
CRA IT-238R2

So questions that remain unanswered:
1. Is the new fee structure only applicable to the Financial Planning accounts? If it doesn't apply to regular TD Waterhouse SDRSP then is this incentive to leave financial planner and move to self directed?
2. As this is a fee associated with a financial planning account can this be classified as an Advice fee?
3. Can such a fee be claimed as a carrying charge? (Need to consult an accountant or CRA)

In my next meeting with my financial planner I'll ask him to clarify the fees and what value he is going to add for $50. After all, the only thing he really does is parrot what his advisors tell him for clients with certain profiles and objectives.

I was with Canadian Western Bank and those son of a b*tches not only had an account fee, but raised them from $75 to $125 in one shot. When the HST comes into effect 13% tax will need to be applied as opposed to just paying the GST on this fee as well.

Do what I did, voted with my feet and left.

Frankie3s wrote: ↑Do what I did, voted with my feet and left.

To where?

Wow this is great news. Brings my annual fee from $75 to $25 with Select Service discount!

EDIT: Hrm stil says $100 on the website... http://www.tdwaterhouse.ca/trading/ascs.jsp#reg

I don't think it applies to discount brokerage.

http://www.tdwaterhouse.ca/trading/ascs.jsp#reg

REGISTERED ACCOUNTS

RSP/RIF/LOCKED-IN PLANS (LIRA, LRIF, LIF, PRIF)
Annual administration fee $100.00

8 Subject to GST or HST where applicable.
9 If registered account balance is $25,000 or over, the fee is waived. Waiver not applicable to clients electing to pay administration fee from outside of their account.

[QUOTE]In my next meeting with my financial planner I'll ask him to clarify the fees and what value he is going to add for $50. After all, the only thing he really does is parrot what his advisors tell him for clients with certain profiles and objectives. [/QUOTE]

That's what it really comes down to. A financial plan costs thousands of dollars from a fee only financial planner and unlike most of the competition a TDW Financial Planner won't ever sell you a front or back loaded fund.

To clarify the fee structure across all of TD Waterhouse (to the best of my knowledge):

Discount Brokerage
$100 per registered plan, waived with a balance of $25K or more

Financial Planning
$50 per registered plan, no fee waiver (used to be $100, waived at $25K account balance or $100K household)

Private Investment Advice
$125 per registered plan, never was a fee waiver

It's in line with the competition. All full service brokerages have annual fees over $100, while you can have free RRSP accounts directly with banks or fund companies but be severely restricted in the types of investments it can hold.

For those who have RRSP's, NOT in waterhouse but invested with easyweb e-series mutual funds are ok??

Jungle wrote: ↑For those who have RRSP's, NOT in waterhouse but invested with easyweb e-series mutual funds are ok??

Of course.

So I'm assuming that the fee structure applies to those accounts that are associated with the full service side.

Most ppl on rfd associate TDW with the discount brokerage side.

That's good news, no fees on eseries funds, for now..

Jungle wrote: ↑That's good news, no fees on eseries funds, for now..

OP clearly stated TDW. TD would never charge for account fees on proprietary MF accounts on their retail side unless the other big 5 go that route and they won't do that as they make very good money on their active managed funds.