The best RRSPs in Canada for 2024 + MORE May 23rd

RRSPs

The best RRSPs in Canada
We’ve rounded up the best RRSP rates on savings accounts and GICs, as well as the best RRSP investment accounts.

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By Rebecca Cuneo Keenan and Keph Senett on May 23, 2024Estimated reading time: 19 minutes

Why should you open a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP)? This account type is often described as “tax-advantaged,” meaning it offers a tax-efficient way for savers and investors to build wealth for the future, usually for retirement. To maximize its potential, it helps to know the differences between an RRSP and other kinds of registered accounts, like the tax-free savings account (TFSA) and first home savings account (FHSA). Plus, not all RRSPs are built the same—you’ll want to compare the saving and/or investing options they offer, as well as their interest rates and fees…

TD Bank Group’s second-quarter profit fell 22% from last year as it booked costs related to a high-profile failure of its U.S. anti-money laundering program. The bank had warned of the $615-million initial charge it was taking in connection with its talks with U.S. regulators, allowing analysts to adjust projections that the bank then handily beat. “It was a strong quarter for TD with all of our businesses outperforming expectations,” said chief executive Bharat Masrani on an earnings call Thursday, after reiterating the bank’s mea culpa on its anti-money laundering controls. (Is TD a good stock to buy right now?)

TD’s response to money laundering questions

Despite repeated questioning from analysts, the bank didn’t provide any new information such as timelines or expected penalties on the multiple investigations it faces in the U.S., but Masrani said the bank is doing all it can to help wrap them up.

TD’s earnings highlights
News from TD’s earnings call on Thursday, May 23…

The United States market accounts for a whopping 60% of global stock market capitalization, so it’s impossible to construct a truly balanced portfolio without substantial exposure to the U.S. It has also been the most consistently rewarding of the major investing regions over the past decade. And you can enjoy rock-bottom fees on index funds.

The real question around choosing a U.S. equity core fund revolves around how you want to slice and dice it. Some investors like the plain-vanilla S&P 500. Others prefer to torque their Magnificent 7 exposure with a Nasdaq-focused fund. Still others want broader exposure that includes small and mid-caps. 

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Earn up to 4% interest on your savings. Plus, use the pre-paid card for everyday purchases and free ATM withdrawls.

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Online brokerage

Low-fee stock and ETF trading, with access to stock analysis tools and real-time data…

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offer Canadian investors a way to grow their money and diversify across multiple asset classes while paying minimal fees. All you need is a brokerage account and a bit of money to get started. In less than an hour, you can put together an investment portfolio that could perform as well as most professionally managed accounts.

The trouble with ETFs, though, is abundance. 

As of March 31, 2024, there were 1,129 ETFs from 40 fund sponsors trading on Canadian exchanges, according to the Canadian ETF Association. Together they held around $423 billion in assets under management.

Our objective all along with this annual “Best ETFs” report—now in its 12th edition—has been to narrow down the list of options for do-it-yourself investors to construct a well-diversified, low-fee portfolio that will likely perform as well or better than most professionally managed ones. This year we enlisted 11 professional advisors, financial planners, investment analysts and bloggers from across Canada to nominate and judge what they consider the best ETFs in seven categories…

Many in the media and the investment community dismiss Canadian equities, which definitely have underperformed U.S. stocks over the past decade. And, true enough, Canadian retail investors too often have a strong home-country bias, considering that stocks listed here account for less than 3% of global market capitalization.

But, there are still good reasons to hold Canadian equity exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in your portfolio. 

For one, they are tax-efficient in non-registered accounts because the dividend distributions they pay enjoy a lower tax rate than foreign dividends. Secondly, their dividend yield is higher (close to 3% right now) than either U.S. or international equity index ETFs. And finally, they offer diversification in the form of commodity exposure, which can be an inflation hedge.

This category used to be owned by the big three of index investing—iShares, BMO and Vanguard—but an interloper, TD’s Canadian Equity Index, vaulted to the top of our voting this year, thanks to its ultra-low management expense ratio (MER) of 0…