RESP paperwork, with the grant questions answered first.

About you

You are the subscriber — the person who opens the plan and contributes to it. No social insurance number here; that belongs on the insurer’s own application.

The plan

A family plan can share contributions and grants between siblings, but every beneficiary must be related to you by blood or adoption. For more than one child it is usually the better structure.

The children

One row per beneficiary. Age matters more than anything else here: grant stops at the end of the year a child turns 17, so the years remaining decide what is still collectable.

Grant eligibility

Two of the three grant programs are income-tested, and one of them needs no contribution at all. These questions decide which apply — they are asked to find you money, not to means-test you.

Employment and finances

Approximate figures are fine. These are asked to meet know-your-client obligations on what goes inside the plan, not to judge them.

Declarations

Every Canadian insurer asks these. Answering yes is not a problem — it means extra paperwork, which is better done now than at the meeting.

Anything else

More than three children, a child who already has a plan elsewhere, a grandparent who wants to contribute — anything that did not fit above.

Your documents

The one that catches people out is a social insurance number for each child — the grant cannot be applied for without it. Bring the cards to the meeting; do not type the numbers into this form. These are read by your browser and bundled into the package you download. They are never uploaded.

• Government photo ID, both sides
• A void cheque or a bank pre-authorised debit form
• A social insurance number card for each child — bring it, do not enter it here
• Your own social insurance number, as subscriber — again, bring it
• Each child's birth certificate, if a SIN has not been issued yet

Review and download

Check it over. When you download, your browser builds a PDF of your answers, bundles it with your documents into a single ZIP file, and saves it to this device.