Project Overview
The Government of Ontario asked the LCO to review how adults with disabilities can more easily participate in the Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP). The RDSP helps people with disabilities save for long-term financial security through personal contributions and government grants.
Adults can normally open and manage their own RDSP. But if there are concerns about an adult’s legal capacity to enter into a contract with a financial institution, someone else must act as the plan holder. Under current Ontario law, this usually requires a guardian or attorney appointed under the Substitute Decisions Act, 1992—a process many adults and families find too broad, costly, or complex when the only need is support with the RDSP.
The federal government temporarily allowed certain family members to act as plan holder through a simpler process and asked provinces to create permanent solutions. The LCO’s project explored how Ontario could develop a streamlined way for adults to appoint an “RDSP legal representative” with limited powers, strong safeguards, and an easier, more accessible process.
Through consultations with adults with disabilities, families, community groups, financial institutions, and legal experts, the LCO developed recommendations that balance autonomy, protection from financial abuse, and administrative simplicity.
Advisory Committee
The Advisory Committee members were:
- Laura Addington – BMO Financial Group
- Ann Elise Alexander – Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
- Saara Chetner and Risa Stone – Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee of Ontario
- Orville Endicott and Gordon Kyle – Community Living Ontario
- Nimali Gamage – Goddard, Gamage and Stephens LLP
- Christine Hughes – Ministry of Community and Social Services
- Krista James and Laura Watts – Canadian Centre for Elder Law
- Sean Keenan – Department of Finance Canada
- Laura Metrick – Ministry of the Attorney General
- Edgar-Andre Montigny – ARCH Disability Law Centre
- Brendon Pooran – Pooran Law
- Barbara Simmons – Developmental Services Ontario
- Jack Styan – Community Living British Columbia
- Irina Sytcheva – Schizophrenia Society of Ontario
- Judith Wahl – Advocacy Centre for the Elderly (ACE)
Key Recommendations
The LCO made recommendations to create a simpler, safer, and more flexible system for appointing someone to help manage an RDSP. Key reforms include:
1. Creating a streamlined RDSP legal representative role
- Allow adults to personally appoint a trusted family member, friend, or community organization to act only for RDSP purposes.
- Make this appointment similar to a power of attorney but limited strictly to managing the RDSP.
- Set a lower and more accessible capacity threshold than the SDA’s power-of-attorney requirements.
2. Establishing clear powers, safeguards, and eligibility rules
- Define the role and responsibilities of the RDSP legal representative, including opening the RDSP, consenting to contributions, managing investments, applying for grants and bonds, and requesting payments.
- Ensure adults receive protections against financial abuse similar to those in the SDA and Income Tax Act.
- Permit the streamlined process only when an adult does not already have a guardian or attorney for property.
3. Improving protections around RDSP payments
- Require representatives to consider whether an adult can manage a payment before requesting that funds be paid directly to them.
- Apply additional safeguards—outlined in the final report—to protect adults from undue influence or financial harm.
- Use the existing SDA property-management rules for adults who cannot manage payments themselves.
These reforms aim to make the RDSP more accessible while balancing autonomy, safety, and administrative simplicity for adults with disabilities and their families.