Investing can be scary and confusing, especially for beginners. Luckily, there’s a group of low cost mutual funds from TD that allows anyone to invest with ease. 😀 If you’re not yet ready to deal with a discount broker or pick individual stocks, then you should consider investing in some TD e-Series funds.
With as little as $100 to begin, you can buy these mutual funds that will track various stock and bond indexes. Here are some examples of e-Series funds to choose from.
- The CDN Bond Index e-fund only has a management fee of 0.50%.
- The CDN Index e-fund which tracks the Canadian stock market index has an MER of 0.33%.
- The U.S. Index e-fund which tracks the S&P500 index has an MER of 0.35%.
- Here’s a link to the full list of e-Series funds, and more info about them.
So let’s go over a couple of ways to set up an e-Series mutual fund account.
How to Open a TD e-Series Account
Method A: Opening a trading account with TD Waterhouse/Direct Investing (brokerage level.)
Step 1: Go to your local TD Canada Trust branch and ask to open a TD Waterhouse account.
Step 2: Complete the required application. You may either choose a non-registered account, or a TFSA account, as both are free.
Obviously if you already have a TD Waterhouse account then you are already set-up and can buy e-Series mutual funds any time with no commission. 🙂
Method B: Opening an e-Series mutual fund account with TD Canada Trust (branch level.)
Step 1: Go to your local TD Canada Trust branch and ask to speak with a licensed mutual fund representative to help you open a non-registered mutual fund account.
Step 2: Fill out the mutual fund account application. Ask the financial representative for help if you get stuck.
Step 3: Tell the representative you want to convert your newly created regular mutual fund account into an e-Series account.
Step 4: He or she should print out a conversion form for you to fill out.
Step 5: Complete the form and hand it back to the representative. You may leave the branch at this point. Your conversion instructions may take 5 to 7 business days for approval.
Step 6: After a week or two you should receive an email from TD confirming that your account has been successfully converted. Log in to Easyweb, TD’s online banking system. You should see an account like “MUTUAL FUND NON-REGISTERED – 2378 #######” The 2378 means it’s an e-Series account 🙂 You are now ready to buy some e-Series funds with no commission.
If you log in to Easyweb before the mutual fund account has been converted you will still see your new account. But instead of the e-Series branch number of 2378, it will be a different 4 digit branch number. For example, mine was 9640, a branch located in North Vancouver, BC.
I started to invest in the e-Series funds a few years ago because of the low fees relative to other mutual funds. I still like them and use them today. 😀 They’re versatile, liquid, and easy to manage online. Buying e-Series funds is a great way to learn about investing, without making things complicated. However, similar to other mutual funds there’s an early redemption fee for units sold within 30 days of purchase. I personally keep my e-Series funds in a non-registered account. But you can put them in a TFSA, or RRSP too.
Related Post: How to use and operate TD e-Series Mutual funds.
Thanks for the tutorial. Sometimes these things seem so daunting in theory, but doing them is practice is very easy. I was so concerned buying ING Streeetwise Mutual Funds would be hard, but I think it was even easier than hat you mentioned – or at least comparable 🙂
Investing is so easy these days anyone can get started without a lot of knowledge :0)
I’ve been following your blog for sometime and I enjoy it. I’m just really surprised that you are still with TD. I used them in the past and their fees are pretty high ($29.95 I think) for a “monthly investor”. Currently I use questrade which is not the best in terms of up to the minute quotes but it does what I need. I’m guessing you are way more active and get preferential fee like $9.99 but still. I doubt I can buy these mutual funds through questrade (yet another con) In other news I also wanted to share I followed your lead, kinda. I bought a house and I’m going to rent my condo. So exited! Anyways I’m looking for my next stock investment hopefully a Canadian one, maybe even one from Quebec haha ok I’m getting long, keep the articles coming and good luck with all your investments. 😀
Congrats on your new house 🙂 You’ve made a smart move by diversifying your real estate. I still only have one condo, but I’m also looking at buying a second home for rental income. In that regard, you’re actually ahead of me lol. I think we’re going to see low interest rates for the next 5 to 10 years, which means Canada’s real estate market will continue to either move higher or stay relatively flat. Real estate in the right location is always a great investment long term 🙂 I don’t know why I’m still with TD. I just started with them and never thought about using another broker. I only bought like 6 stocks this year so far so I don’t qualify for their active commission, but I do have over $50,000 of asset with them so I get the special $9.99 commission anyway 🙂 I really like the Montreal based company Bombardier. Have been holding their stock for many years now and DRIP the dividends.
To your point — I agree. I moved from e-series to QTrade by moving all my accounts over… $50K with Questrade is worth a lot more than $50K with TD seeing as their MERs even on their TD E-series do not beat Vanguard ETFs.
Also, Vanguard ETFs on Questrade are commission free.. so it’s $0, not $9.95.
It is only $9.95 if you sell them. If anyone is planning on switching, use code: o0soehds to get $50 in free trades (not that you’ll need it if ETFs are commission free).
As a note to everyone else:
If you switch from TD E-Series to Questrade (as in you move your accounts) be careful that you can’t sell your TD E-series on Questrade without jumping through a few hoops. Better to sell all E-Series from TD and then have the cash in your Questrade account to buy ETFS (commission free) than to go through the hassle.
Awesome sauce 😀 Thanks for pointing out those great tips :0)
I agree it is very easy to get started with investing without knowing to much, but are the risks really worth it. Before I even start to get into investing anything I always weigh the risks and the possible rewards. I found this article to be very helpful when it came to that: http://www.mutualfundstore.com/investing-education/understand-investing-essentials/risk-and-volatility It gives you some basic ideas on what risks there are and how to at least try to avoid them.
[…] Finally opened myself a mutual funds account, and will start purchasing e-series as soon as the conversion […]
Any thoughts on how to transfer funds from TD e-Series to an online brokerage account like Questrade?
Here’s an update for those wondering how to transfer e-Series to Questrade. The process is done online and Questrade took care of the transfer without fee but I paid to TD Canada Trust. https://pwedepadala.com/how-to-transfer-td-e-series-to-questrade/
[…] I had started investing in the e-Series funds a long time ago in order to demonstrate to readers how to set up the account and how to operate it. This was before Vanguard ETFs came to Canada. So I was basically showing […]