Notice #760 – Updated Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) transfer form and updated policy on the use of the transfer form

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• Information bulletin
• Previous bulletin
• Purpose
• Changes to form
• Form number and version date
• Changes to form use and requirements
• Mandatory use date
• Accessing the form
• Contact us

Information bulletin

Number: CESP/PCEE-2017/18-010-760

Date: March 16, 2018

Subject: Updated Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) transfer form and updated policy on the use of the transfer form

Previous bulletin

This information bulletin updates information bulletin CESP/PCEE-2012/13-006-512.

Purpose

The purpose of this information bulletin is to announce the launch of the revised Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) transfer form, to provide an overview of the changes and to announce an update to the policy respecting the use of the form.

Changes to form

Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) consulted with Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) promoters to simplify and streamline the transfer form, and to make it easier and more efficient to use. While there are a number of changes throughout the form, the updated version continues to use three main parts: 

• Part A: Subscriber request
• Part B: Receiving promoter
• Part C: Relinquishing promoter

A new stand-alone Annex 1 (Additional beneficiaries) replaces two separate annexes that were previously included in Part B and Part C. If required, RESP promoters may now use multiple copies of Annex 1 to exchange information about additional beneficiaries when completing Part B and Part C.

Guidelines from all three previous parts were streamlined, updated, and broken down into several sections that appear only in Part A of the form:

• 5 – Your privacy rights
• 6 – Definitions
• 7 – General information
• 8 – Transfer policies
• 9 – Transfer eligibility information

The entire form, including the transfer eligibility information in section 4 of Part B and Part C, incorporates all provincial incentives administered by ESDC.

A checkbox has been added to section 3 of Part A of the form to capture subscriber direction regarding the continuation of an RESP where the full plan balance is being transferred-out.

Improvements to section 6 of Part C should also help promoters facilitate the subsequent transfer of pending applications for incentives that are paid after an RESP transfer has been initiated.

Form number and version date

A new number (ESDC SDE 0100) is assigned to all components of the updated form. An additional suffix identifies the form component, version date (2018-03) and language (E = English; F = French). For example, the following codes appear in the lower left corner to identify each component of the English transfer form:

• ESDC SDE 0100 – Part A (2018-03) E
• ESDC SDE 0100 – Part B (2018-03) E
• ESDC SDE 0100 – Part C (2018-03) E
• ESDC SDE 0100 – Annex 1 (2018-03) E

Changes to form use and requirements

Use of the updated form (SDE 0100) is compulsory to facilitate external transfers (transfers that occur between RESPs held by different RESP promoters that use different business numbers).

Effective immediately, use of the transfer form is no longer compulsory for internal transfers (transfers that occur between RESPs held by the same RESP promoter using the same business number). Promoters may facilitate internal transfers using their own methodology.

As with external transfers, the processing of internal transfers must be verifiable for the purpose of compliance reviews. Promoters that choose to facilitate internal transfers without using the ESDC transfer form will still be required to show that transfer eligibility was confirmed prior to processing and that RESP notional balances were transferred and distributed appropriately between receiving and relinquishing RESPs.

Mandatory use date

Use of the updated form (SDE 0100) will be mandatory (for external transfers) as of September 1, 2018. Prior to September 1, 2018, RESP promoters must either use the updated form or continue using one of the following two alternatives:

1. Complete the December 21, 2012, version of Form A (SDE 0088), Form B (SDE 0089) and Form C (SDE 0090); or
2. Complete the previous RESP transfer form (SDE 0050) in addition to completing areas IV and V of Form B (SDE 0089)

Accessing the form

The updated transfer form is available on the Forms tab of the Canada.ca/RESPresources webpage.

Contact us

If you have any questions regarding this information bulletin, please contact us by e-mail at cesp-pcee@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca or call at 1-888-276-3624. Our hours of operation are from 8:00 to 17:00 Eastern Time.