You can open:

• Up to 10 portfolio (managed investing) RESPs
• Up to 8 self-directed investing single-owner family RESPs
• Up to 8 self-directed investing joint-owner family RESPs
• Up to 8 self-directed investing individual RESPs for yourself

All registered accounts (such as a TFSA or RRSP) must be registered with the CRA. In order to register these accounts with the CRA, we require your SIN. Additionally, all non-registered accounts require that we verify your identity with a third-party credit reporting agency to follow FINTRAC identity verification rules, which also requires your SIN.

No, RESPs are accounts created by the Canadian government for residents of Canada. If a child doesn't reside in Canada, they're unable to be the beneficiary of an RESP.

You'll need your full legal name, your social insurance number (SIN), and your date of birth. If you're 18 years old and live with your legal guardian (usually your parents), you'll also need the name and email of one of your legal guardians.

No. However, you can create a new Family RESP with the beneficiary listed on the Individual RESP, and then have the holdings transferred over to the new account. Once this has been done, you can close your original Individual RESP and make contributions going forward to your new Family RESP. To do this, please contact our support team.

You must contact our support team to open a fully managed Family RESP. Only Family RESPs are supported in fully managed accounts.

Anyone with access to the beneficiary's SIN can open this type of RESP. You don't need to be a blood relative – you can be a grandparent, aunt, uncle, family friend, or anyone else who wants to save for a child's education.

You'll need the following details for the beneficiary:

• Full name
• Date of birth
• Province of residence
• Social Insurance Number (SIN)
• Gender
• Residential address

You'll also need:

• The name of the beneficiary's primary caregiver or legal guardian
• To confirm your relation to the beneficiary

You can still open an Individual RESP for someone else at Wealthsimple. A beneficiary can be named in more than one RESP, but there are annual and lifetime grant contribution limits that apply across all RESPs for that beneficiary. We recommend confirming existing contribution room before opening.

If the beneficiary is under 18 and you're not their primary caregiver or legal guardian, you'll need to complete a few steps, including identity verification and signing a government form, before you can fully open the account. See How to open an RESP for details.

A primary caregiver is the person primarily responsible for the day-to-day care of the beneficiary – typically the person who receives the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) for that child. Government grants for an RESP, like the Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG), require a PCG designation on the account. If you're opening an RESP but you're not the beneficiary's PCG, that person needs to consent and sign a government form before the account can be fully opened. You can find out more about who is considered the primary caregiver on the Government of Canada website.

A legal guardian is a person who has been granted legal responsibility for a child. If the beneficiary has a legal guardian who is different from the account subscriber and the primary caregiver, that person also needs to complete a consent step before the account can open.

Annex B is a government form required to apply for education grants on an RESP. There are two versions: Annex B-1 for the primary caregiver, and Annex B-2 for the legal guardian. Wealthsimple automatically routes the correct form to the right person based on their role.

After you provide their contact information, they'll receive an email invitation to complete a few steps in the Wealthsimple app or on the web. If they're new to Wealthsimple, they'll need to verify their identity first. They'll then review the beneficiary's information and sign the Annex B form. The whole process happens in-product.

No. They only complete a required consent and signing step. They won't be able to view your account balance, make trades, or move money. Their access is limited strictly to completing their required actions.

Ask them to check their spam or junk folder first. If the email still isn't there, contact our support team and we can look into it.

There's no strict deadline, but your account can't be fully opened until they complete their steps. You can track what's pending from the in-product banner. If they haven't received the invitation, ask them to check their spam or junk folder. If you need further help, contact our support team.

If the invitation hasn't been completed yet, contact our support team and we can help you find the best path forward. Note that invitation resending isn't available at this time – in some cases, the best option may be to close the account and open a new one to send a fresh invitation. If they've already signed their form, contact us to discuss next steps.

The government transactions only have one field for the Legal Guardian, which is why when you fill out the online application, you're restricted to inputting just one legal guardian/custodial parent. This information has no effect on the government application and it doesn't represent your familial situation in any way.

You can open a joint family RESP, which allows you to add a spouse or common-law partner as a co-owner when you initially set up the account. Once the account is open, you can't add a co-owner to your existing account. However, if you contact our support team, we can help you open a new co-owned family RESP and transfer the funds from your initial account to the new one. We'll invite your co-owner by email to set up a Wealthsimple account if they don't already have one.

Once their profile is set up, they can Review agreements under the RESP to sign off on the agreements. If your co-owner already has a Wealthsimple account, they can log in to their Wealthsimple profile and Review agreements under the RESP to sign off on the agreements.

Yes, though you must wait until all grant payments are deposited into your account before initiating a transfer out of your self-directed RESP. This ensures we comply with government grant regulations and avoid any loss of grant eligibility. We recommend waiting 6–8 weeks after making a deposit before initiating a transfer.

It's free to open an RESP in a Wealthsimple Portfolio. If you're eligible for and receive the CLB grant, we'll also waive our management fees on your RESP account. Wealthsimple's standard management fee is 0.5%. For accounts over $100,000, this fee drops down to 0.4%. You can learn more about our fees.

Yes, you can hold USD in single and joint-owner self-directed RESPs if you have an active USD subscription.