Gift from Oaken | Page 2 | Oaken Financial | Discussion forum

gicjunkie said
Just got my Oaken chocolates.
Small box, I think the same size as last year, but still a nice touch.

Watch out for it and enjoy!  

Me too! Thanks Oaken.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Mine came again today

Just got my chocolates today, thought they had forgot about me, but I'm in BC so took a little longer. It's always nice getting them.

I believe Oaken is following the comments posted here. If so, then I am expressing my thanks to Oaken for the yearly Christmas mailings of the chocolates to me (I like the dark one in the box) and, as well as, the birthday gift card to McCafe for $5. Thank you, Erica, Christina, Jessica, and Conor, the signatories on the Oaken birthday card, although I do not know them. Thank you again. Julio.

Loonie said
Callebaut is what they have used in the past, and it still tastes the same.  

I don't think a box of chocolates would buy my loyalty:)
I read a review on this bank and found 2 potential problems with it:
1) GICs are uncashable unless you can prove extreme financial hardship or death, and
2) if they go bankrupt and you are depending on RRIF monthly payouts they could take a while to resume, even if you are within CDIC guarantee limit.

Norman1 said

Briguy said

1) GICs are uncashable unless you can prove extreme financial hardship or death, and …

That's a step up actually. GIC's are usually uncashable unless all the holders are dead. For financial hardship, the issuing bank will offer a loan with the GIC as collateral.  

That's a good point, but the wording of "extreme" financial hardship means they are very unlikely to cash for you. I'm not sure if other institutions would be as sticky. There are a couple of institutions who give good interest rates for cashable GICs:

Hubert 1 yr GIC is cashable on a quarterly basis and pays 3.1 % .
Outlook Financial GIC's are cashable and pay 2.85% on a 1 yr GIC, but any portion you withdraw early only earns 1% from date of deposit.

Loonie said
To be honest, I don't think it's reasonable to expect a FI to release non-redeemable GIC funds before term or death unless that possibility, with its conditions, was included in the original contract.

Ganaraska offers early redemption at 1.25, and I believe DUCA sometimes offers them too, but these are always clearly advertised as such. DUCA currently has a 3-year GIC which is redeemable without penalty annually. WealthOne has a 3 year escalator which is redeemable annually. Escalator GICSs are more likely to allow annual redemptions - for obvious reasons!

I once asked Oaken if they would consider an additional withdrawal from an RIF if needed, but they would not commit to that and just basically said "it depends", but there were no criteria stated.
When combined with the fact that they refuse to offer RIF savings accounts, I am removing all our RIFs from Oaken as they mature. They have no flexibility, which is increasingly important as withdrawals from RIFs are to be expected.
I have told them this is what I am going to do and why, but they don't care.

FWIW, I would interpret "extreme" circumstance as meaning something like foreseeable death where money is needed for medical costs etc. In such a case, the GiC is likely to be broken anyway, due to death, so they don't really have much to lose. Even so, I have never seen anything from Oaken in writing which suggests they would allow it.  

I really like your detailed answers !! ( And I appreciate Norman's too ). I think best RRIF these days depends on whether you think interest rates are going up or going down/staying same. If going up, get a HISA RRIF- eg. Access Credit Union paying 2.85% or Steinbach 2.65%
If staying same, or going down, get a GIC RRIF- I think the Outlook Financial one is most flexible, allowing you to cash parts of it in in 1,000.00 dollar amounts with no penalties, and rates as follows:
2.85% 1 Year Cashable GIC
3.00% 2 Year Cashable GIC
3.10% 3 Year Cashable GIC
3.25% 4 Year Cashable GIC
3.40% 5 Year Cashable GIC
Edited: Outlook Financial has had pretty bad reviews for mistakes they have made,and customer frustration with dealing with them, so maybe I wouldn't choose it 🙂

Quote:
The last few postings have nothing to do with the topic of this thread "Gift from Oaken". 

Fair enough, and I am very appreciative of the nice touch of the gift of very fine chocolate and it was an unexpected surprise to receive a gift card for coffee on my birthday. I also appreciate the very polite and helpful people I have dealt with at Oaken and I have been appreciative of the fact they have been a leader in rates during my time with them. I was pleased to place our RIF and unregistered funds with them in a series of GICs. I looked forward to a long relationship with them.

Despite the candy and respectful treatment described above I am disappointed to say we are going to have to take our registered funds elsewhere. What I have gone through in the last week trying to get documented information and transparency during an attempt to have our 2018 mandatory minimum RIF payouts brought forward is enough to overcome the goodwill that Oaken has built.

This is the place to discuss gifts and things so I will not elaborate here. I will consider the possibility of posting details on a new thread but for now I will simply say that the negativity that has arisen could have been avoided entirely if Oaken had cash savings accounts associated with our RIF accounts. Others have advocated for this and my experience has hammered that concept home for me.

I have no problem with the unregistered funds placed with Oaken and intend to keep and possibly increase my investments in this area to replace the RIF investments that will be removed. So I look forward to more fine chocolate in our future. MMmmmm.....