Episode #13 - Two Minutes to a Better RSP: The Benefits of Consolidating
Announcer: Welcome to The Money Clip podcast series from The Vault, Scotiabank’s online guide to helping Canadians get ahead financially. Listen in to gain a deeper understanding of your personal finances and find out how a few small changes to the way you manage your money can make a big difference.Michael Seaton: Thank you for joining us on The Money Clip podcast series from Scotiabank. I’m your host, Michael Seaton, and with The Money Clip we provide Canadians with a deeper understanding of personal finance and money-related matters. This is our series titled “Two Minutes to a Better RSP”. We hope to put you on the path to maximize your retirement savings plan as the deadline approaches. This is our seventh episode in the RSP series, and our subject today is the benefits of consolidating your RSP investment holdings. If you think back to when you first started investing, you may have purchased your first GICs where you banked, you may have opened an RSP at a different financial institution, and along the way added a mutual fund here or there, and perhaps even another RSP account somewhere else. Now, accumulating investments in this way seems natural enough. Indeed, it is the path that many of us likely followed. But being diversified does not mean having a number of different accounts in different places. In fact, there are good reasons to consider consolidating your RSP holdings under one plan. Here are a few reasons why: First, having only one RSP account reduces the number of statements you receive every quarter, meaning there’s less paper and less clutter. And at tax time, you only have to wait for one receipt for your RSP contributions. Second, it’s much easier to know where you stand today – and the net worth of your total portfolio – when you have only one RSP. And finally, if you hold a number of mutual funds in different RSPs, it can be very difficult to spot areas of duplication. Your different funds may overlap and hold similar investments, so a consolidated view can help you steer clear of this problem. As always, it’s a good idea to speak to your advisor about the benefits of consolidating your RSP holdings and also to get a second opinion on your investments.
This has been another Two Minutes to a Better RSP podcast. Keep listening for more in this series as we take two minutes to review tips and suggestions to help you reach your retirement goals. Thank you for listening.
Announcer: Do you have any thoughts on today’s show? We’d love for you to get involved and become part of the conversation. Send us your questions, comments or money management tips so that we can address them in future podcasts. Our email address is themoneyclip@scotiabank.com and our call-in number is 1-866-652-5333. The Money Clip is brought to you by The Vault at Scotiabank. Be sure to tune in again next time.