How to Transfer Your RESP from Aviso (or Any Paid Manager) to Wealthsimple
You can move an RESP from Aviso or any advisor-managed plan to a self-directed platform like Wealthsimple without losing a dollar of government grants, as long as you do a direct plan-to-plan transfer instead of withdrawing the money. Same child, same grants, far lower fees. The catch is doing it the right way, and that is what this guide covers.
Why move an RESP away from Aviso or an advisor in the first place?
The honest answer is fees. An advisor-sold RESP, including the ones credit union members hold through Aviso Wealth, is almost always invested in mutual funds. Those funds carry a management expense ratio that quietly comes off your returns every year, and many also pay the dealer a trailing commission baked into that same fee. On an equity fund, the all-in cost commonly sits above 1.5% a year. You never see a bill, which is exactly why it is easy to ignore.
A self-directed RESP flips that. You hold stocks and ETFs directly, trade them commission-free, and pay only each ETF's own fee, which for broad-market index ETFs is a fraction of a typical mutual fund. Over the fifteen-plus years an RESP often stays open, that gap compounds into real money for your child rather than the fund company.
There is a quiet irony worth naming. Aviso owns Qtrade Direct Investing, a self-directed brokerage we rate well. So the same parent company that sells you the high-fee managed plan also runs a do-it-yourself platform. You are not locked into the mutual fund version, and you are not locked into Aviso at all. Wealthsimple is simply the most popular low-cost destination for Canadians making this move.
Will you lose your government grants if you transfer the RESP?
No, not if you transfer correctly. This is the fear that keeps people stuck, and it is misplaced for the common case.
Under Canada Revenue Agency rules, property can move tax-free from one RESP to another when the receiving plan names the same beneficiary. That is precisely what a provider switch is: the same child, the same plan, a new home. The Canada Education Savings Grant, the Canada Learning Bond, and any provincial grant ride along with the contributions. Nothing is clawed back, and there is no tax penalty.
The way people actually lose grants is by withdrawing instead of transferring. If you collapse the plan or pull contributions out while no one is enrolled in school, the government claws back the 20% CESG tied to that money. So never take the cash yourself and re-deposit it. Always do a direct promoter-to-promoter transfer, where the two institutions move the funds between themselves. Wealthsimple handles that for you once you start the request.
Two technical conditions matter. The receiving plan has to be registered before any funds move, so you open the Wealthsimple RESP first. And a transfer cannot happen after an accumulated income payment has been taken from the old plan, which is a rare situation that only applies if you have already started pulling earnings out for non-education reasons. For a normal family saving for a kid, neither is an obstacle.
Does Wealthsimple even offer a self-directed RESP?
Yes, since 2025. For years Wealthsimple only offered a managed (robo) RESP, so this is recent enough that plenty of people still think it is not possible. The self-directed RESP lets you buy and sell stocks and ETFs, including fractional shares, commission-free, inside the account.
A few current limits are worth knowing before you start. The self-directed RESP supports a family RESP with a single or joint owner. If you hold an individual RESP, it can currently be moved into a managed Wealthsimple RESP but not a self-directed one, though you can ask their support team about options. The account owner also has to be the beneficiary's legal guardian and primary caregiver during this stage. These are the kind of constraints that loosen over time, so check the current state when you go to open the account.
Grants are fully supported. Wealthsimple is a registered promoter and applies the CESG, the Additional CESG, the Canada Learning Bond, and the British Columbia grant, so moving does not cut you off from future grant money. You can compare it against the rest of the field on our broker comparison table, and the full breakdown lives in our Wealthsimple review.
How do you transfer an RESP to Wealthsimple, step by step?
The process is mostly waiting. Your active part takes about twenty minutes.
Open the Wealthsimple RESP first. Log in, open a new RESP, and match the structure of your current plan, including the same beneficiaries. The receiving plan has to exist and be registered before anything moves.
Start the transfer from inside Wealthsimple. Choose your old institution and the account you are bringing over. Have a recent statement handy, as you may need to upload it.
Pick how the holdings come over, in-kind or as cash. More on that choice below.
Sign off. If the plan has a co-owner, they get a separate signing request and must approve it before the transfer proceeds.
Wait. Wealthsimple contacts your current promoter and coordinates the move. RESPs run slower than other accounts, generally four to eight weeks, because the receiving institution has to confirm the grants and contribution history with your old provider.
Wealthsimple does not support partial RESP transfers, so this is an all-or-nothing move of the plan. If you want to keep a foot in both camps, that option is not on the table here.
How much does the transfer cost, and who pays it?
Your old institution will likely charge a transfer-out fee, commonly $50 to $150. Wealthsimple does not charge anything to receive a transfer, and it reimburses one administrative transfer-out fee for every $25,000 you move in. The reimbursement is automatic, lands in your cash balance after the transfer completes, and the account needs to stay funded for ninety days. Note that the qualifying threshold rose to $25,000 in April 2025, so older articles citing $15,000 are out of date.
Deferred sales charges used to be the nasty surprise on mutual fund exits, where selling early triggered a redemption fee. New deferred sales charge sales have been banned across Canada since June 1, 2022, and the old redemption schedules ran for several years before fading out, so by now most plans clear of them. If you have any doubt about a specific fund, ask your current advisor what the redemption fee is before you sell.
One more cost to expect: if your mutual funds have to be sold to move as cash, your old provider may charge trading fees on the sale. That is separate from the transfer-out fee and is not reimbursed.
In-kind or cash, which transfer type should you choose?
In-kind means your holdings move over as they are. Cash means they are sold first and the money moves. For an RESP coming from an advisor, the answer is usually forced rather than chosen.
Most advisor-sold and credit union mutual funds are proprietary or are share classes a self-directed platform does not carry. If Wealthsimple cannot hold the fund, it cannot come in-kind, so the plan moves as cash. That means your old provider sells everything, and you rebuild the portfolio in ETFs once the money lands. If you happen to hold ordinary stocks or widely available ETFs, those can often move in-kind and stay invested through the transfer. Because an RESP is tax-sheltered, selling inside it does not create a taxable event, so a cash transfer here does not cost you tax the way it might in a non-registered account.
What about group RESPs and scholarship plans?
This is a different animal, and the warning is sharper. Group or pooled scholarship plans, sold by dealers such as the well-known education savings foundations, are not advisor mutual fund accounts. They often carry enrolment fees, sales charges, and rigid contribution schedules, and leaving early can mean forfeiting fees you already paid and sometimes a share of the pooled earnings.
You can still transfer a scholarship plan RESP to a self-directed plan, and the grant rules above still protect your CESG on a direct transfer. The difference is that the exit penalties are built into the scholarship plan contract, not charged by a bank. Read your plan agreement, or call the provider and ask exactly what you forfeit by transferring out, before you pull the trigger. The fee savings usually still win over a long horizon, but go in with eyes open.
The bottom line
If you are paying an advisor or a managed plan to hold index-fund-style investments in your child's RESP, you are very likely overpaying, and the fix is straightforward. Open a self-directed RESP at Wealthsimple, start the transfer from their side, choose a direct transfer so your grants stay intact, and let the two institutions do the rest. Keep the plan funded, expect four to eight weeks, and pocket the transfer-fee reimbursement if you are moving $25,000 or more. The one real homework item is checking any exit penalty on a scholarship plan, or any leftover redemption fee on an old fund, before you sell. If you are still deciding where to land, our guide on how to choose a Canadian online broker walks through the trade-offs.
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FAQs
Can I transfer my RESP to Wealthsimple without losing the government grants?
Yes. A direct RESP-to-RESP transfer for the same child keeps your CESG, Canada Learning Bond, and provincial grants intact, with no tax penalty. Grants are only clawed back if you withdraw or collapse the plan instead of transferring it. Let Wealthsimple move the funds directly from your old provider rather than taking the cash yourself.
Does Wealthsimple offer a self-directed RESP?
Yes, as of 2025. You can buy and sell stocks and ETFs commission-free inside the account, including fractional shares. Self-directed RESPs currently support a family plan with a single or joint owner. An individual RESP can be moved into a managed Wealthsimple RESP for now, so contact their support team if that is your situation.
How long does an RESP transfer to Wealthsimple take?
Generally four to eight weeks, which is longer than other account types. The receiving institution has to confirm your grant and contribution history with your current provider before the plan is fully settled, and that verification step is what adds the time.
Will I pay a fee to move my RESP from Aviso or my bank?
Your current institution will likely charge a transfer-out fee, commonly $50 to $150. Wealthsimple charges nothing to receive the transfer and reimburses one administrative transfer-out fee for every $25,000 you move in, automatically, provided the account stays funded for ninety days.
Do I have to sell my investments to transfer the RESP?
Often, yes. Proprietary or advisor-only mutual funds usually cannot move in-kind, so they are sold and the plan transfers as cash, then you rebuild in ETFs. Ordinary stocks and common ETFs can sometimes transfer in-kind and stay invested. Because an RESP is tax-sheltered, selling inside it does not trigger a tax bill.
Can I transfer a group or scholarship plan RESP the same way?
You can, and the grant protection still applies to a direct transfer. The difference is that scholarship and pooled plans often have contractual exit penalties, such as forfeited enrolment fees, that a bank account does not. Ask the provider what you give up by leaving before you start the transfer.
