The Voice - Brandy Gassner - RDSPs with ATB

Join VAD as we talk to Brandy about RDSPs and how they help individuals with a disability save for retirement.  Learn about the ins and outs of what you need to start an RDSP and how to get a hold of Brandy directly.

Transcript

Teresa Makarewich - Program & Services Manager @ VAD 

Welcome to the voice of Albertans with Disabilities podcast for June 2023. I'm Teresa Makarewich, your host and VAD's program and service manager. Thanks for joining us today. In today's podcast, I'll be talking with Brandy Gassner, financial adviser with ATB wealth, about RDSP's. I wanted to get Brandy on the podcast to discuss the ins and outs of RDSP's and how they can help as a disability savings plan. Together, we hold the power. Please welcome Brandy. Hello.

Brandy Gassner - ATB Wealth: RDSPs 

Thank for having me. So yeah, I'm Brandy Gassner. I'm a financial advisor with ATB Wealth, as an advisor, I work with a lot of different clients, you know, from retirement planning to people setting up for education, savings for houses, lots of things. But based on my personal experiences, because I have a daughter who has multiple disabilities and I've taken her from being a young child into adulthood and having to navigate all the different programs like FSD and PDD and AISH and guardianship and Trusteeship, I have that real personal, intimate knowledge of supporting families with disabilities. And because of that, I'm really passionate about helping Clients and families. Not just the client, but the whole family with working on the financial plan for that person with the Ability because like I always say myself, I have to look after my daughter and her financial health  But I also have to look after me someday  I want to  Retire, right? And I have to look after my son's post  secondary university education. So there's so many different moving parts. And I have such an intimate knowledge of it  But this is where my passion lies, is helping families with disabilities. ATB wealth has been amazing and supporting me and working with this because it's such a complicated Aspect of financial planning that a lot of advisors don't want to take it on because there's so much going on and I'm like, yay, let me do it. I want to do It. I want to do  It. so that's kind of a little bit about me in a nutshell. And what I do outside of work and things like that  You know, I'm a mother of two. My husband and I have a business in Airdrie. We live in crossfield. In my free time, we like to fly our airplane. My husband's a private pilot. I'm working on mine. We like to camp and basically what you see Is what you get. I'm an Old Bard, I don't fluff - I've been called brutally honest with the candid honesty. Some people appreciate it. Some people don't, but because of my life experiences and working with disabilities, I know a lot of other families They just don't have the brain power for other stuff. Just tell me what I got to know, What I need to do, let's move on because  There's so many  Moving parts, so yeah, that's me in nutshell. 

 Teresa Makarewich - Program & Services Manager @ VAD 

That's awesome. Thank you. I have a few questions about RDSP's to gather information for our listeners and you kind of touched on this a little bit, but can you tell us about ATB wealth? 

Brandy Gassner - ATB Wealth: RDSPs 

Yeah, so ATB Wealth is another arm of ATB financial, and as everybody knows, we're a bank here in Alberta. The exciting thing is, is ATB, wealth, I'm able to before we used  To be primarily  Just Alberta based, but I am able To start working  With clients outside the province as well. I received approval to work with families with disabilities outside of Alberta, which I'm really excited about. But ATB wealth we do have, you know, lots of advisors from junior advisors up to senior advisors and yeah, we work primarily with Anybody who needs to invest and work on any type of financial plan, like I said earlier, Whether it's with Disabilities, Education Savings plans, saving for a house, retirement planning business, succession, you name It we do it. 

Teresa Makarewich - Program & Services Manager @ VAD 

Nice, So you cover a whole gamut there. We're going to touch on RDSPD's today. Can you tell us what an RDSP is? 

Brandy Gassner - ATB Wealth: RDSPs 

Yeah, so an RDSP - the easiest way to think about it is a long term savings plan for people with disabilities. OK, it's not there to save for education or for a house or anything like that. You can think of it similarly to an RRSP Or  you know you're working average person, a retirement savings plan. The RDSP is set up for that long term financial health to help people with disabilities In the retirement with a source of income because  Once you hit 65, you know your income generally stops. People think of retiring CPP and OAS starts kicking in A lot of people who have disabilities don't have as much CPP and RRSP's and Things like that saved up. So this is in place to provide them with that income and the cool thing with RDSP's is based on whether or not you know your family income and all these other moving parts, the government will actually contribute up to $90,000 worth of grants and bonds into this account for you based on income and things. So it's a substantial amount and even if you're low income and you don't have a high income, you get that bond contribution for you. So even if you're not working, you can still open one up and get that bond contribution and have that grow over the years to help with your income down the road. 

Teresa Makarewich - Program & Services Manager @ VAD 

What is the difference between a trust and an RDSP? And how do they compare? 

Brandy Gassner - ATB Wealth: RDSPs 

OK, so this is this could Be like a whole series that we could do. So I'll try and keep it Short and brief. And RDSP is a Registered savings plan that is registered with the CRA and everything And you get the grant and bond contributions. A trust is more of a legal agreement, that is specifically with people with disabilities, you have the qualified disability Trust or Henson Trust. There's lots of other forms of trusts as well, whether they're living or trust Many things like that. Trusts you don't get that government grant or bond contribution into. They only apply for the RDSP product and Trusts are their own tax entity in a very basic way, so they’re taxed differently as income sources. To work with an RDSP basically You need to work with an investment company, an advisor like myself or you Know in our - one of the big 5 banks, credit unions, wherever trusts you generally go to your lawyer and your accountant to set up, not your bank.  Thoe are some of the key highlights between the Two, when it comes time for opening up an RDSP you can't  Just walk into a bank and talk to the person on the front line helping you. You have to do sit down with an advisor because they need to talk to your lawyer to set that up. 

Teresa Makarewich - Program & Services Manager @ VAD 

And just a little plug for us in order to get an RDSP, you must qualify for the disability tax credit and VAD can help with that. 

Brandy Gassner - ATB Wealth: RDSPs 

Yay because that can be a very Complicated process for a lot of people. I've heard of nightmares for that, so I'm so glad that your organization helps clients with getting through that process because it Can be very Overwhelming and very complicated, so I'm very happy to hear you guys can Help with it, yay.

Teresa Makarewich - Program & Services Manager @ VAD 

Who can open an RDSP? 

Brandy Gassner - ATB Wealth: RDSPs 

So you kind of just touched on that. So to open Up an RDSP, there's a few criteria. One, as you mentioned, you need to have the disability tax credit. Without that, we cannot open up  OK, so that's step one. If you don't have the disability tax credit, don't even bother making an appointment with a financial advisor to start, because we will need that. And in order to get the disability ytax credit You need to have your medical practitioner sign off on it saying that you do have a long term disability. You also need to be a resident of Canada. Pretty straightforward and you need To have a social insurance number. That's pretty much  It so you know, I'm going to age myself  Here a little bit but a Long time ago, we never applied for a social insurance number till we had  To start working right? Now, As soon as your Child is born You can register for social insurance number. And you're going to need that For like I say, the RDSP But also if you ever want to think  About setting up an RESP For your child. Again, you need that social insurance So as long as you have those three things disability, tax credit, Canadian citizen and a social insurance number, you can open up an RDSP. 

Teresa Makarewich - Program & Services Manager @ VAD 

Can I open an RDSP for somebody else? 

Brandy Gassner - ATB Wealth: RDSPs 

So where this kind of changes is with an RDSP you have the holder, the person who opens the account and you have the beneficiary, the person who has the disability. OK. So if the beneficiary is under the age of 18 parent Or legal guardian can open up the RDSP for that child. OK. If you are over the age of 18 and you are contractually competent, which means you can read legal documentation and understand it, and you have the mental capacity, you can open up your own RDSP. Or for somebody who's over the age of 18, if you have a legal trusteeship in place, so a trusteeship is somebody who is able to make decisions for your financial basis, That trustee can open up the RDSP for them. So there's a few different Ways to do it right. What I always recommend, and again this comes from going through it myself, Is if you are a parent of a child with a disability and the mental capacity is not there to understand financial documents and things like that, it is a lot easier and it's kind of preventative to apply for that legal guardianship and trusteeship before the Child turns 18. once that child is 18, there's a few  Little glitches that can occur, right? So having those documents in place in advance is really helpful because when it does come time for making financial decisions, not just decisions, but helping your child go through everything, it makes life  A lot easier. So a few different people can open it for the beneficiary. The main thing to remember is the beneficiary is the person with the disability. 

Teresa Makarewich - Program & Services Manager @ VAD 

How does an RSSP affect AISH as an exempt asset? 

Brandy Gassner - ATB Wealth: RDSPs 

So it's my understanding now it's been a while since I've looked at AISH guidelines, but it is my understanding that AISH has certain exempt assets that you're allowed that doesn't fall within that $100,000 maximum amount of  Assets You're allowed. So within that list of exempt assets would be your, you know, your primary residence, your vehicle for getting around and in that is your RDSP as well. So quite often what happens with a lot of People, especially if they're Able to work sometimes and their expenses are low because they have family support, They're getting close to that $100,000 Dollar limit with AISH On what you're allowed to have as assets. So that's where we have to work on, you know, maximizing the RDSP to exempt it, but also keeping funds in a TFSA for example, so that they can have access to that, And it's not  I don't want to stay locked in, but it's more accessible. There's not as many rules surrounding taking it out as within the RVSP, so that's why working with an advisor is important to make sure that all those moving parts are within their limits and everything is balanced just right. 

Teresa Makarewich - Program & Services Manager @ VAD 

OK. What age should you open an RDSP? And how long can you contribute until?

Brandy Gassner - ATB Wealth: RDSPs 

Open it as Soon as you qualify, That's basically it. So if an infant is born And doctors sign off that they have a long term disability. You can Open it as soon as possible - as Soon as you qualify for the disability tax credit. The reason I say this is because. When you open up an RDSP and contributions are made, whether that's personal, government grants, bonds, whatever the longer you have to have that money invested and grow, the more money you're going to have at the end, right. So I just worked through a quick little calculator here and I really encourage all of your listeners If you go to rdsp.com/calculator  You can plug into your own numbers. OK, so for an example I just like I say, randomly worked through something. If we have a 5 year old who qualified for the disability tax credit this year and Opened it up  And the family makes a net income of about $60,000 a year. Rounding the numbers, if they were able to contribute $1200 a year, so 100 bucks a month, OK, and they contributed until that child -  Individual at that point was 49. OK, so you're contributing for 44 years. If we invested that moderately before withdrawals started and then dropped down, the investment risk a little bit once withdrawals started. That individual ,OK, we'll get total approximately total lifetime disability assistance payments of $1.3 million. 

Teresa Makarewich - Program & Services Manager @ VAD 

Wow

Brandy Gassner - ATB Wealth: RDSPs 

That's why you want to start as soon as possible to have that time to Have it grow. Now, You can open up an account in up until you're 49 kind of thing, OK, because the government will stop grant and bond contributions at the age of 49 because you  Have to start making withdrawals at the age 60. And the way it works is, again, there's lots of moving parts and everything, but grant and bond money Needs to be  In the account for more than 10 Years  Otherwise it gets clogged. OK. So that's why we generally suggest you contribute to 49 because the grant and bond money will stop at that point. You can contribute after you're just Not going to get the grant bond money and that's where, you know, working with those AISH limits and stuff works. But you have to start withdrawing at age 60. So Long story short, open it up as soon as you qualify. And before you're 50 Basically.

Teresa Makarewich - Program & Services Manager @ VAD 

if somebody has an RESP. And they would acquire an injury and get qualified for the DTC. Can that RESP be transferred over to an RDSP? 

Brandy Gassner - ATB Wealth: RDSPs 

Yes, it can, and RRSP's can get rolled over to And again, there's rules surrounding everything But Long story short, yes, because you know Parents, they plan, right? You have, kids They're young, you Open up an RESP  Because you think they're going to go to university -Horrible accident happens that person can't. Well, we don't want to see that money just disappear, right, and neither does the government. So yes, you can roll over a RESP into an RDSP. 

Teresa Makarewich - Program & Services Manager @ VAD 

Can you share your thoughts on how RDSP's contribute to the disability community to better people's lives? 

Brandy Gassner - ATB Wealth: RDSPs 

Stress relief - number One . Financial stress, money worries is one of the biggest stressors and if you can have the Peace of Mind, either individually or as a parent or caregiver for somebody else, that you have the long term financial health looked after. It can alleviate that stress substantially. Money worries is on everybody's mind, especially in today's economy, right? So anything you can do to help and RDSP's because they need to be opened up with their financial advisor. That financial advisor is also going to look at other facets of your financial life and Anything they can do to Help with anything in your financial situation, they're going to do and that's just Going to help with the stress level. Also, for example, that example I did earlier, you know the average annual income that you're going to get from that RDSP for that child who opened it at 5, it's going to be about $59,000 per year, when you're 65 years old  If you have an income of about $59,000 per year That's going to help. I don't care who you are whether. You have a disability or not, $59,000 a year  Substantially. So that's how it can help the disability community the most is just providing that financial security for the long term, right.

Teresa Makarewich - Program & Services Manager @ VAD 

Awesome, Can you tell us how someone gets a Hold of your services. 

Brandy Gassner - ATB Wealth: RDSPs 

Call me 

Teresa Makarewich - Program & Services Manager @ VAD 

What is your number?

Brandy Gassner - ATB Wealth: RDSPs 

So my direct phone number is 403. 863-3179 that's my Cell number I've always got  It, you can also e-mail me, my  E-mail is bgassner@atb.com and of course you can always call ATB itself. We do have a lot of different advisors that can help. We have our wealth advice center that can help as well, ATB's phone number is 1-800-332-8383. And they can put you in touch with the right person for whatever You need I've Even had people call That one 800 number and say I heard Brandy talk about something  She's an advisor. Can you put Me in touch with her and they can. Lots of people to get a hold of, and if nothing else, you can always just walk into your local branch and say, hey, I need to talk to somebody about an RDSP. But to get a hold of me specifically call, e-mail me and I'm always around. 

Teresa Makarewich - Program & Services Manager @ VAD 

Nice, thanks for your time and energy today Brandy. Your support to the community is a value to all. Is there anything else you'd like to say to our audience today? 

Brandy Gassner - ATB Wealth: RDSPs 

Thank you, I've worked with your organization off and on for about a year and a half now and the support I've received from your organization and vice versa has been really, really valuable. I appreciate all the work that you do to help families with disabilities. You know you're across the board, it's Not like you just help A group with One particular type of disability, So the fact that you help everybody is amazing. RDSP,Basically in summary, if you qualify for the disability tax credit, there is absolutely no reason  You shouldn't open one up. Some people have asked me in the past, you know, I have an RDSP with such and such an institution But I'm not getting the advice can I move it to you? And yes, we can transfer these types of accounts from 1 institution to another. It does take time. It's not an easy process but it can be done. The big thing is if Anybody has any questions, just ask. If we don't know the answer, we'll find out for you. 

Teresa Makarewich - Program & Services Manager @ VAD 

Wonderful! Well, thank you again for joining today's podcast. Voice of Albertans with disabilities is a cross disability nonprofit organization of and for people with disabilities. We are guided by the principles of accessibility, equity and inclusion. Learn about VAD services on our website at vadsociety.ca or call 78048. 89088 For more information. If you have a topic you would like to hear more about in our podcast, please e-mail myself at vad@vadsociety.ca with topic ideas, speak your suggestions or your feedback. Signing off for the. Day together, we hold the power.