Monday 9 January 2012

DRIPing with Questrade


I recently received dividends from my position Sun Life Financial and the amount was high...too high. In fact, the distribution was high enough to cover one share of SLF which means the DRIP that I set up wasn't actually set up. I contacted them through their online chat to see what was going on. Turns out that I wasn't enrolled in the DRIP (this was probably because I filled out two DRIP forms when I went in to their offices; they may have misplaced one). No problem though because the agent enrolled me in the DRIP and even bought a share for me and reimbursed me the commission charge. Great service although it did take awhile before I was connected to an agent.

One thing to note for people who plan to use DRIPs with Questrade is that they buy all the additional shares on the open market and not directly with the company. This means that all the discounts that the companies offer on their DRIPs will not be applied. The discount was a large incentive for me to start DRIPing so I'll have to reevaluate whether or not it's worth it for me. For now I'll just let my SLF DRIP run.

-the Paperboy

2 comments:

  1. hey do you still use Questrade for driping? im trying to find a transfer agent any ideas or recommendations?

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    Replies
    1. Hey Whale Shark thanks for commenting! I still in fact use Questrade for DRIPing, although to be honest, I haven't actually received a share yet because of a miscommunication the first time around and the fact that I transferred into my TFSA for the second time. Now I have to go and fill out some more forms.

      I feel that DRIPing with my broker is more convenient and because of the new IQ platform that they have, I can toggle between my TFSA and non-registered accounts quite easily. DRIPing with them as well means that everything is in one place.

      I personally have never dealt with transfer agents but the two that seem to pop up in all the blogs I follow are Computershare and CIBC Mellon (which I believe is now the Canadian Stock Transfer).

      If you would like more information on DRIPs and transfer agents I suggest reading this series by My Own Advisor and the Dividend Ninja:

      http://www.dividendninja.com/getting-started-with-drips-and-spps-1

      If I had the time I would like to go through a full DRIP because the discounts are very enticing so let me know how it goes!

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