GICs through discount brokers | Page 2 | GIC discussions | Discussion forum

Briguy, yes, you would have one additional level of exposure with a deposit broker as opposed to DIY. They act as the agent for the FI issuer, so they need your ID just as if opening an account directly, but Norman is correct in what he says.

It is perhaps best compared to an investment broker as they too add another layer.

Deposit brokers are a convenience when you deal a lot in GICs, just like investment brokers are for other kinds of portfolios. You can usually do a bit better on your own if you have the time and energy, but the gap between deposit broker and discount broker rates is normally larger than the one between deposit brokers and DIY.

I hope your ID at Desjardins is safe!

So, I gather that what you are trying to find out is how much Canadians have in GICs, and probably to compare that to what they have invested elsewhere. I agree it would be interesting to know but not essential.

On looking again at that chart, I suppose GICs would have to be included in Deposits in Financial Institutions, in which case I would have a very significant amount, excl TFSAs. (I had thought they meant savings accounts.) The chart is useful but doesn't really help with the question of how much people have in such Deposits. The figure given is a median, so half will have amounts higher than 5K, the specific amount or range unknown.

If you keep only $35,000 per $1,000,000 in GICs, then it may be fine to just accept the lower rates available through your discount broker as it isn't going to make that much difference (especially if you have it laddered) unless you have many millions of dollars total.

I don't see that it's that difficult to assess the difference in likely returns between deposit brokers and discount brokers for GICs. The figures I presented are fairly typical in terms of how they relate to other rates on offer. I used a different deposit broker many years ago and it was basically the same situation then. I didn't use them for quite a few years but it wasn't because the rates they offered had fundamentally changed.

I don't think the issue of insurance coverage is significant unless you are very wealthy. Deposit brokers often have arrangements with a wide variety of FIs, many of which are not normally visible or available to DIYers and probably don't appear on discount broker lists either. For example, someone on this forum (I don't remember who) posted a while ago that he could get GICs issued by BC CUs even though he lives in Ontario and wouldn't normally be able to access them, by using his deposit broker. I think there are a lot of options before one has exhausted the insurance system. And, even so, different deposit brokers will have different offerings.

From what I've seen, there can be no serious doubt that the consumer would do better with a deposit broker than with the rates offered through an investment broker, and 50 bps would not be unreasonable. That would be $5000 per $1million per year compounded. (I'm just using $1million because it provides nice round figures which can be prorated or extended.)

The additional benefit of using a deposit broker is that GICs are a core business for them, and they act accordingly.
They won't sneer at you for having a larger than "balanced" portion of your funds in fixed income; they will monitor when your GICs are coming due and tell you what is on offer at that time so that you can choose; and they will arrange all the paper work, send courier packages at their expense or even sometimes come to your house. You don't really have to do anything except say yes or no, indicating what you want done.

I can't speak for what other people want out of their fixed income and how they will get it. I can afford the slight drop in income from using a deposit broker as opposed to DIY when the time comes, but would not put up with the gap between deposit broker and discount broker as I see no reason to leave money on the table when it's so easy to deal with a deposit broker.
I suppose that for those who are heavily weighted in equities etc., it might not matter very much, but most people will not be so weighted by the time they are willing to throw in the towel at micromanaging their money, except perhaps if they are very wealthy and it really doesn't matter as they are looking at intergenerational planning. I'm not into that and would not want to leave anyone with equities as they are not predictable. I wouldn't want to take the risk of dying during a recession as they might end up with far less than I intended; and a major durable recession looks very likely to me. But, each to their own.

Although Norman's chart is merely a slice in time and these numbers will fluctuate, it is perhaps noteworthy that for people who are laddering, the discrepancies are greatest for the longer terms, even though there isn't a huge difference between the terms. When and if rates pick up, these discrepancies might expand accordingly.

Another sample, two weeks later:

Almost a month later, after the rate drops from Oaken and Hubert:

Norman1 said
The relationship between discount broker, deposit broker, and rate chasing still holding, almost two months later, after the rate drops from Oaken and Hubert:

	Scotia iTRADE	GIC Wealth ($25,000+)	Rate Chase
			EQ Bank	Oaken	Hubert
1 year	2.23%	2.42%†	2.45%	2.50%	2.40%
2 year	2.31%	2.43%†	2.50%	2.60%	2.45%
3 year	2.34%	2.45%†	2.55%	2.65%	2.50%
4 year	2.34%	2.50%	2.57%	2.75%	2.55%
5 year	2.39%	2.60%	2.65%	2.85%	2.65%
† $50,000 minimum

  

Well done Norman1!

Just asking....is GIC Wealth a broker and are they usually offering the better rates than other brokers? And do you consider iTrade as a broker too?

I have iTrade and have rarely ever found them to have good rates vs Hubert or Oaken.

GIC Wealth is a deposit broker. I see them as indicative of what is available through deposit brokers rather than the highest that is available.

There isn't a central exchange, like stocks have, for GIC's. So, each deposit broker has arrangements with certain deposit taking financial institutions. A deposit broker may not have an arrangement with the financial institution that happens to offer the highest rate for that day.

Scotia iTRADE is a discount investment dealer which now does deposit brokering and offers GIC's from a selection other financial institutions.

True, one often can do better going through a deposit taking institution's direct channel. Through a broker or dealer, the institution has to pay a commission. The customary deposit commission is ¼% for each year of the GIC's term.

In addition, deposit brokers sometimes are able to offer rate Specials with a particular FI which are as good as or better than what you can get through independent rate searching. I can't say whether iTrade etc does that but don't recall anyone ever reporting that they did.

Last Spring, for instance, GICWealth had a special deal with Habib Bank for 3.6% over five years, which was significantly more than anyone else was offering at that time and higher than what Habib Bank was offering direct to customer. It was reported on this forum and only lasted a few days.