Norman1 said
Distance won't be an issue. Both EQ Bank and Oaken Financial are in downtown Toronto.  

And have some cross-ownership as well... 😉 I'm hoping one of them will offer discounted subscriptions to the Economist!

Unfortunately my transfers to Oaken were from Canada Life (London, ON, requests were probably faster back in the 19th century before the Grand Trunk Railroad was built) and Hubert (Selkirk, MB; I'm convinced Oaken routed requests via Red River carts). The Oaken GIC desk was also swamped from the GIC sale and things sat there for a few days.

It was interesting last year when I brought a small amount of FHSA money from EQ to Wealthsimple, the funds appeared at WS very quickly (next day?) after they disappeared from the EQ side. Might just have been intra-city cheque delivery, but I know WS asked me once to check if Hubert could do Fundserv's ad-hoc A$M money system, so it is possible that they can do electronic transfers of registered cash with certain non-brokerage FIs. EQ->WS would seem a likely pair to be trying stuff like this out.

Oaken would then send the form to EQ. Except between two brokers, this is often done by fax (and mail is not unheard of), and the cash is quite often delivered by a physical cheque. You also have the transfer desks on both sides, and whatever backlogs or delays they might introduce. I know a few years back did a couple of registered transfers to Oaken from a Manitoba credit union during a big GIC sale, and also in December, and the combination of all those above factors made at least one transfer miss the 30-day rate hold on the GIC purchase, and I had to get them to make an exception. With bad luck or Canada Post both ways, some can take longer, but some might be better.

Aside from consolidating remaining things at Wealthsimple, I try and avoid registered transfers for this reason. For RRSP, there isn't really an alternative, but for TFSA, sometimes things can be planned to do a withdrawal at the end of December and recontribute the cash at the beginning of January when the contribution room becomes re-available, saving an official transfer.

Has anyone had experience in transferring registered funds from EQ to Oaken? If so, how long did that take and how smooth was the process?

From what I've seen, every FI has it's own rules about withdrawals, i.e. which account the mandatory amount comes from and whether you can make additional voluntary withdrawals from GICs. They don't seem to be accountable to anyone for how they make these rules. The only thing they MUST do is withdraw the mandatory amount annually from the total value of the RIF(s) that you hold with them.

Without getting into all the whys and wherefores, I can say that we have found Hubert to be the most customer friendly on the RIF front, and it is now basically the only one we use. We don't have the patience for all these piddly rules.

Hubert may not satisfy all rate chasers. It's rates are generally good, not necessarily top of the heap. However, they allow you to change the annual withdrawal date as needed to suit your convenience, and they allow discretionary withdrawals from RIF GICs. I have sometimes made discretionary withdrawals after Dec. 15th and have had no problems. At our age we don't relish the quagmire of convoluted rules.

I would certainly recommend collapsing the "piddly" RIF deposits that remain. It will reduce the clutter. The only exception I can think of is if it moves you into a higher tax bracket or puts you into OAS clawback territory.

Hope this helps.

If automated, it should not be an issue. Spouse, ex-spouse and I have our RRIF minimum annual withdrawals automated with our discount brokerages. I have my MAR scheduled for Dec 15th and my ex has hers scheduled for Dec 24th and there has never been a glitch. Our only obligation is to have enough cash in the account at the time to fund the MAR.

@RetireD. Directing the withdrawal from specific GICS is a good idea. The withdrawal dates … maybe based on the FI. I believe someone posted about buying TFSA’s in late December would be denied….but upon confirmation at one of my FI’s I was advised all was ok up until the last day of year that they were open.

Let's not get people confused between TFSAs and RRIF/RRSP withdrawals. Anyone can put funds in a TFSA or TF-GIC at any time the financial institution is open; the only issue is whether they can get it registered in the correct year.

I was specifically calling attention to the restriction on RRIF withdrawals in the last weeks of a year, after December 15th. Other than that, one can make the transaction whenever within the year one wants to. Obviously, the longer one's cash stays in a tax-free interest-bearing state, the better.

GIC-Fanatic said

Because I am afraid of their not using “interest” for my RRIF payout. But I will ask…and ask to pull out as an extra payment.  

What difference does it make? A dollar of interest is no different than a dollar of principal in a compound interest GIC environment. Future interest is earned on accrued interest AND principal.

I would think you would be indifferent with perhaps one exception when residual principal is no longer large enough to renew into another GIC.

AltaRed said

You are always going to run the risk of a very small GIC residual if the decision making is left to the FI which will apply their specific algorithm 'to the dollar'. Why not control it by placing that 'small' GIC first in line toward next year's withdrawal requirement?  

Because I am afraid of their not using “interest” for my RRIF payout. But I will ask…and ask to pull out as an extra payment.