In the Borrower’s Best Interest
Institutional lenders, such as banks, are starting to collectively jump on the band wagon to increase mortgage interest rates. They are once again chanting their mantra about inflation concerns, higher costs of funds, and tighter interest spreads while at the same time restating the need for Canadians to reduce their personal debt levels. As a result of these actions, banks should make more money for their shareholders. I’m also sure that a few senior bankers might take home a larger performance bonus. In my opinion, the best interests of the mortgage consumer really have not been well served by these actions.
The Bank of Canada always attempts to make available an adequate supply of money to satisfy the market demand for residential mortgages. At the same time, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) works very hard to stimulate and educate our housing market while attempting to make residential home ownership opportunities available to a broad section of our society. Policies developed by the Minister of Finance are directly aimed at maintaining an inflation rate that will insure the long term economic value of home ownership. With the Canadian core inflation rate being reported now in the 1.5% range, the strategy of home ownership will certainly help to provide a strong and stable financial future for many Canadians. When our government considers the future, looking at potential options to deal with pension short falls and the growing cost of health care, it should be no mystery that a healthy and stable housing market is very important to our economy. Economic policy will be crafted in Ottawa with this in mind. With core inflation well in line and a very strong Canadian dollar, the need to raise interest rates might seem just a bit redundant.
Recent trends in the mortgage rules have not made the dream of home ownership easier. Combined with the credit industry’s trend toward centralized approval systems, most financial institution staff have not been given the opportunity to develop the knowledge or skills required to adjudicate or understand credit risk. I, for one, enjoyed a time in the not so distant past when a branch manager had interest rate discretion and the ability to grant mortgage approvals based on local market knowledge, experience, common sense and sometimes just a gut feeling. This style of lending may today seem old fashioned, but it was more in the borrower’s best interest.
Paul E. Croy
Lending Yourself Your Own RRSP Money
Some years back, while working as a Branch Manager for a Canadian Trust Company, I was given an opportunity to gain experience in the area of using your own RRSP to fund a “Non Arm’s Length” Mortgage. Proceeding to then give several seminars on the topic, I went a long way to establish myself as somewhat of a local expert. Recently however, while having coffee with a close friend, it came to my attention that to this date the general public still knows very little about what is required in order to lend your own RRSP funds as a mortgage. Over coffee, my friend claimed that he had just finished a long discussion with a client who was 100% convinced, after listening to a local radio talk show, that he could borrow from his RRSP without being required to even have the funds in his RRSP. Something had been definitely lost in translation.
Just to set the record straight, yes, you have to have the funds in your RRSP in order to fund the mortgage. What you will also find out is that due to the “Non Arm’s Length” relationship between the Mortgagee (your RRSP) and the Mortgagor (yourself), the mortgage will have to be insured by Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation in order to become a qualified asset for your RRSP to hold. The main focus of all the administrative rules and conditions that apply is to insure that both you and your RRSP are not gaining an advantage or being put at a disadvantage when compared to rates and terms available in the “open mortgage market”. In addition, your RRSP funds would have to be transferred to a self directed RRSP (SDRRSP) account administrated by a Trustee who is an approved National Housing Act lender and who is also willing to administrate this type of RRSP asset. You will quickly find that not every SDRRSP Trustee wants to undertake the task of administrating this type of asset.
When doing your research you will soon become very aware of the many costs and fees. There are one-time set up costs plus ongoing annual SDRRSP Trustee administrative fees. For some clients, once a careful review of the costs is done, lending RRSP funds to yourself can make sense. Prior to 1984, it was commonly thought that Canadians could not use their RRSP funds for such a transaction. In 1984, a tax lawyer based in Toronto obtained a tax ruling establishing that, provided a mortgage met the strict lending guidelines established for an RRSP “Non Arm’s Length” transaction, it could qualify as an asset held in a SDRRSP plan.
Based on my calculations and due to the many costs and fees involved, I found that it was important to have a minimum mortgage amount of at least $50,000.00 available in your RRSP plus a minimum of a 6 – 7 year time horizon before even considering any economic or emotional benefits that might be derived from lending yourself your own RRSP money. The first SDRRSP funded mortgage that I helped set up was in 1984 for a client who was an accountant. Years later, I had the opportunity to ask this client if, in his opinion, it had been worth all the effort and expense. After a long pause, his answer was simply, “It sure just felt good to be paying myself”.
Paul E. Croy
