Our baby is almost 3 month old and we are looking to invest in RESP for him. We met with 3 different RESP brokers and now are more confused than ever. Each broker says they are better than the other, but to me they're all the same except a few minor differences which they are struggling to explain.
The brokers we met with :
CST - Canadian Scholarship Trust
Knowledge First Financial
Heritage Education Funds.
These companies invest in safe bonds and promise to earn 4-6% a year. However they also deduct a lot in service charges.
We are also considering Wealthsimple mutual funds, but do not know much about it. It’s a relatively new company and I am not sure we can trust it for a long term investment.
Potentially we want to do a part of the RESPs in safer investments and part in more risky one.
In terms of amounts, currently we have $1200 to start with, and we are looking to invest more this year to maximise the government contribution. For the following few years we're looking to maximise the government contribution as well, until we exhaust the government contribution as quickly as possible. Following that, we're not sure how much we want to contribute, but we're open for recommendations.
What is your experience with RESPs in general? Should we go with one of the safer long standing brokers, Welthsimple, or simply choose one of the big banks?