What Happens to an RESP When Your Child Turns 18 in Canada?

Nothing happens to an RESP on the beneficiary’s 18th birthday: the plan doesn’t close, and control doesn’t pass to the child. What changes around this age is that the grant years are over, the plan is about to start paying out, and a child who never received the Canada Learning Bond can now request it. This page covers that transition. The account rules as a whole are in the complete RESP guide, and every related guide is in the RESP hub.

Dates around age 18

The last-grant-year rule and the contribution test for ages 16 and 17 are explained on the CESG deadline page.

Who controls the plan

The subscriber (usually a parent or grandparent) controls the RESP for its whole life. Whether the beneficiary is 18 or 30, only the subscriber can:

• ask for withdrawals and decide how much is paid as grants and growth versus contributions;
• change the beneficiary;
• move the plan to another provider;
• close the plan.

The adult child can’t withdraw on their own. Educational Assistance Payments are paid to the student, but only after the subscriber asks for them. In families where that could cause friction, it helps to agree early on how much will be paid each term.

What changes at 18

The basic CESG is 20% of personal contributions, up to $500 a year per child ($1,000 when there is unused grant room from earlier years), to a lifetime $7,200, whatever the family income; it is paid on contributions made up to the end of the year the child turns 17, and is returned if the child doesn't go on to post-secondary education. The Canada Learning Bond is paid into an RESP for eligible children from low-income families born in 2004 or later: $500 for the first eligible year and $100 for each later year up to age 15, to a maximum of $2,000; no contributions are needed, the beneficiary must be under 21 when it is applied for, and it is returned if they don't pursue post-secondary education.

The grant years are over. From the year after the child turns 17, the plan receives no CESG. Contributions are still allowed, and they grow tax-sheltered, but they earn no grant.

The Canada Learning Bond can be claimed by the child. If the family qualified for the bond while the child was growing up but never requested it, the beneficiary can now request it themselves, which can include opening an RESP of their own, until the day before they turn 21. The bond and who qualifies are described in the Canada Learning Bond section of our RESP guide.

The plan starts paying out. Once the child enrols in a qualifying program, the subscriber can request Educational Assistance Payments (the grants and growth, taxed to the student) and refunds of contributions (tax-free). There is a cap on EAPs for the first weeks of full-time study; the limits, and how families spread EAPs over the years of school to keep the student’s tax low, are covered in our RESP withdrawal guide.

The student becomes a taxpayer. EAPs count as the student’s income. Filing a return every year they are paid records the student’s tuition amounts, which can reduce their own tax or be partly transferred to a parent.

If the child doesn’t enrol at 18

A gap year, a job or travel doesn’t affect the plan. The money stays invested, and EAPs can be paid whenever the child enrols in a qualifying program, including college, CEGEP, trade school or an apprenticeship’s school terms, which are explained in using an RESP for trade school.

If it becomes clear the child won’t go at all, the choices (waiting, naming a sibling, moving the growth to an RRSP or closing the plan) are compared in what happens if your child doesn’t go to university.

A checklist for ages 17 and 18