P.E.I. couple says their kids’ RESP is in limbo because the bank altered their last name

What’s in a name? A lot, apparently, as one Prince Edward Island family found out.

Max Deller-Lestage and his wife, Marie Pascal, opened a registered education savings plan (RESP) at TD Bank for their two children, aged three and seven.

The children use a combination of their parents’ last names, resulting in the surname of Pascal Deller-Lestage. But while filling out a digital form for the RESP, there wasn’t enough space for such a long name.

The couple said the bank opted to remove the hyphen and a space from the name so it would fit — and that’s how the problems started.

The family later wanted to move the RESP, which holds around $6,000, to a different bank that offered better interest. The transfer wouldn’t go through, however, because the new bank included the hyphen and the space in the kids’ last name.

The couple’s attempt to change the name on the TD account didn’t work because the name field was still too small.

More than a year later, Deller-Lestage and Pascal still haven’t been able to transfer the funds to the new bank.

“The issue could have been escalated to somebody who could fix the problem, because the local branches didn’t know what to do,” Deller-Lestage said.

“Every time I would explain to them the situation, they would sort of kick it down the road and ask to get back to me in 10 days, two weeks, a month.”

‘It’s just silly’

Pascal called it “a curious problem” because TD had previously told them the name alterations would not be an issue.

“I must say I’m quite frustrated about it because we’ve really tried many times to change it to just what it should be,” she said. “It’s just silly. It shouldn’t be a problem. I mean, it’s just a hyphen in a name.”

Unable to find a solution, Deller-Lestage said he feels TD resorted to “trying to get rid of me nicely.”

“The name at the new bank is our correct name, and the name of the old bank is not correct, and so their system automatically rejects the transfer,” he said. “When we asked them to manually make the transfer go through, nobody knows how to do that at the bank.”

No one with TD was available for an interview, but a statement sent to CBC News said the bank is looking into the issue and that it’s “prioritizing remediation as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile, the couple doesn’t want to withdraw the funds from the account because doing so would disqualify them from the Canada Education Savings Grant, which adds about $1,000 to the RESP.

Deller-Lestage said the problem points to the bank’s overreliance on technology, since the couple was assured the minor change to their kids’ last name would not be an issue. 

“I want the problem to be fixed and to not have to deal with it anymore,” he said. “We figured that any problems could be resolved in the future, but that’s a mistake that we won’t make again.”

Pascal said she also hopes to see the problem fixed soon — and she thinks the amount of money in the account is a factor in the bank’s willingness to help.

“I guess if we had three more zeroes, that would be a big issue for the bank,” she said.

“I don’t have to justify the length of my name. I mean, it’s the other way around. They should justify why they don’t have enough space for putting my whole name.” 

As for the issues with his name, Deller-Lestage said change is needed — but not on their end.

“It is a long name, but there are more and more families who choose to keep both parents’ names,” he said.

“There has to be … an evolution of certain systems to meet that.”