U.S. agent and Trustee's Signature for RESP

nakubo.1974 · Post by **nakubo.1974** » Wed Mar 05, 2014 11:41 pm

I see a lot of older posts about filing the 3520 and 3520-a for TFSA/RESP but I request people to come up with recent information on the same.

My wife and I have an RESP account that was opened with TD Canada Trust and even though it holds a Mutual Fund, it is NOT self-directed like TD Waterhouse or RBC Direct Investing. Therefore, I don't believe there is a Qualified Intermediary with a US EIN.

1) If you appoint yourself as a U.S. agent, on the "Authorization of Agent" (mentioned in the 3520-a instructions but not in the 3520 instructions), how did you get the "Signature of trustee"?

The alternative is to not designate a U.S. agent in which case one needs to fill out line 15, 16, 17 and 18 in Part I of the 3520.
2) On line 16, do you enter the information of the actual trustee (TD Mutual Funds in my case)?
3) On line 17, do you include your spouse and mention "Grantor/Owner" in column c "Description of powers"?
4) On line 18e, for "Trust financial statements", is it OK to just sent the recent two quarterly statements from the mutual fund?

On form 3520-a, there are three places where "Trustee's Signature" is required (page 1, page 3 for owner and page 4 for beneficiary if there is a distribution).
5) For those who have signed the 3520-a, did you only sign page 1 or all applicable pages?
6) For those who have not signed but instead indicated that this is a "best of" form, did you do that in a separate letter or just write in the space provided for the signature? Did you do this on page 1 or on all applicable pages?

nakubo.1974 · Post by **nakubo.1974** » Fri Mar 07, 2014 4:25 pm

Sorry for bumping up this thread as well.

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Fri Mar 07, 2014 4:47 pm

No bumping please. And don't apologize for doing something while you are doing it.

CdnAmerican · Post by **CdnAmerican** » Fri Mar 07, 2014 11:24 pm

There are lots of other posts about the 3520, and they probably still apply. For me, I've just signed as the owner and trustee, and signed all places where a signature is required. I am not positive this is correct, but it seems to make the most sense, and I've got several years of filing these without trouble from that respect. Good luck!

nakubo.1974 · Post by **nakubo.1974** » Sat Mar 08, 2014 12:10 am

Thank you CdnAmerican. I did go through all the search results for the term "3520" before posting my questions.

I also went through all your posts before I ask this following question.

Did you appoint yourself as a U.S. agent? If yes, did you submit an "Authorization of Agent" (mentioned in the 3520-a instructions). Did you also sign as both the Trustee and Agent on this authorization letter?

CdnAmerican · Post by **CdnAmerican** » Sat Mar 08, 2014 11:51 pm

I did just assume that I was the US agent, since I have signing authority on the account. I didn't do the Authorization of Agent form, since I felt like it would just be authorizing myself to be the authorized agent, which seemed kind of redundant. I don't know if that's right or not - I was just assuming it seemed reasonable to do it like that..

graubart · Post by **graubart** » Sun Mar 09, 2014 12:15 pm

I was told by a lawyer that you are ALWAYS entitled to represent yourself in any type of legal process.

So I don't think the Authorization of Agent is necessary to appoint yourself as your U.S. Agent.

The one and only time I filed a 3520 (before I closed my TFSA), I did appoint myself without the Authorization. The IRS didn't question it.