There are 2 types of investment options available to Clients:
- Daily interest investment
- Guaranteed interest investments
Daily interest investment
Interest
- The interest rate can fluctuate daily.
- Interest begins when we receive the application and the money.
- Interest is calculated and credited daily to the balance of the investment.
Note: Rate enhancement levels do not apply to daily interest.
Advantages
- Money can be deposited or withdrawn at any time.
- The money is accessible with no market value adjustment (MVA).
- Deposits can be made by:
- cheque,
- external transfer, or
- any combination of these.
- Once $1,000 has accumulated in the daily interest investment, a client may choose to transfer the money into a guaranteed interest investment.
Minimum investments
- The minimum amount required to open a GIC product is $250.
- The minimum required to open a guaranteed interest product with RIF registration is $5000.
Note: The minimum opening investment should always be paid with application except in the case of an external transfer.
Guaranteed interest investments
- The interest rate is guaranteed for a specific term.
- The minimum amount required to establish a guaranteed interest investment is $1,000.
- Interest is calculated from the date the guaranteed interest investment is established.
Advantages
The client can have several guaranteed interest investments all within the same plan. With the exception of GICs with RIF registration, a client can have an unlimited amount of investments in one contract - in any or all of the terms available. GIC RRIFs are limited to 5 investments.
Note: GIC products only allow one interest type per plan (i.e. all compound or all annual interest).
The interest rate is guaranteed for any period between:
- 30 days and 5 years for GIC products
- 1 and 25 years for all products with RIF registration
This means the client can select:
- a certain term or (e.g. 19 months, 3 years, etc.)
- If a certain term is selected, the investment will mature at the end of the selected number of years/months.
- a specific end date (e.g. October 15, 2021, July 20, 2022, etc.)
On a GIC, money can be withdrawn before the end of a guaranteed interest investment, but may have a market value adjustment (MVA). Sun GIC Max guaranteed interest investments are not redeemable until the maturity of the term.
At the end of the GIC/Sun GIC Max guaranteed interest investment term, the client can:
- withdraw their money,
- reinvest their money in a new guaranteed interest investment at the then current interest rate for the selected term,
- leave their money in the daily interest investment.
If the client has their money in a short term investment (less than 1 year), the money automatically reinvests based on the posted rate available for that product for the same term, unless investment instructions are provided before the investment matures.
If the client has their money in a long term investment (1 year or more), we credit the money to the daily interest investment at maturity, unless investment instructions are provided before the investment matures.
Note: Prior to maturity, notices will be mailed to clients and maturity instructions can be provided up to 45 days before the investment matures.