Knowledge First Financial

I have 4 children that we had plans for with Knowledge First Financial.We are so grateful we set up our children’s RESP plans withKnowledge First Financial.They were very professional and helpful.The only thing we feel we should have done is add more.We have recommended Knowledge First to family and friends.

Absolute Garbage. Don't be fooled. This is easily the worst financial decision our family has EVER made. There communication is awful. They change the rules as they go and will eat through any gains with their fees. Stay as far away as you can from HERITAGE EDUCATION SAVINGS, KNOWLEDGE FIRST FINANCIAL OR THE SOON TO BE EMBARK or whatever other name they will change to when when consumer catch on again.

*** STAY AWAY FROM KNOWLEDGE FIRST ***- The Sales Charge" is ridiculously high

Outrages fees and make you jump through hoops to get your money. Agent I dealt with only concerned about lining her own pockets scammed me into opening a second plan when my child turned 12 to scam more fees from me tried to do the same with my second child but by that time i caught onto the scam. I would have switched to another institution but they would have kept most of my deposits once you sign up with them you are pretty much stuck for 18 years. Do yourself a favor and use a financial advisor or better yet a self directed resp you will keep more of your hard earned money if you do. Customer service is an absolute joke. Do not trust anything these people tell you. If I could give it a lower rating I would one star is generous.

I would give zero stars if I could. I tried getting my money about 6 months ago now from Knowledge First and I still haven’t seen a penny from them.I am extremely disappointed and stressed from this situation. Will not be using them again in the future.

Do not invest your child's RESP with this company!KFF, now Embark, failed to apply correctly for my BC government grant, costing me $1,200. They had me fill out the form, said they'd submitted it, then never did. When I raised this issue with them they first admitted it, then denied it and said it was my fault. Their negligence however is fully documented in emails.They had one job, and they failed it.They also charge an outlandish fee of $200 per account to leave their service. They made this worse by breaking my one account into three, meaning it costs $600 to leave.In short, they are incompetent, have terrible communication, and use onerous fees to lock you into their system. Do not use!

If I could give a lower rating I would. The services charges are outrageous. And when we tried to switch after 3 years of paying into our sons account they advised us we would be paid out less than 1/3 of our money due to the service fees. 100% would recommend going anywhere else.

STAY AWAY from Heritage/Knowledge First!!! The fees they charge are horrific. We did $50per month for our child and at age 18 they had taken approximately 7.7% of our contributions to charges and fees. That’s about 14 months worth of contributions. They take it out very earlyIn the plan inception so you are stuck because you have already paid them and would lose all that money if you left. They still continued to charge a service fee as well ( included in full amount above) Getting your money out for education was a chore, waiting, refusing to give money because of poor communication, forms, and lack organization. Those that answer the phone sound as if they are reading from a script and if you ask them a different question they continue to attempt to go back to script. I can say I have never had more problems with a company in my life. Contact a investment company and go that route if you want to start a education fund for your child. Do not, please work with this company, regardless of how good it sounds. It’s not.

Jennifer Snider is the go to person for your RESP. She displayed great flexibility when scheduling my appointment to meet my needs. When she answered all the questions I had about RESPs, she gave clear and concise answers that left no doubts in my mind. She explained available options for my grandson's RESP allowing me to make the right choice with the Flex First Plan which fit my financial situation perfectly. Her excellent personality makes her a joy to have as my agent. If you're looking for a top of the line RESP agent - she's the one. I highly recommend her. 10 out 10.

My daughter is turning 18 this year and I'm disappointed in both the growth of the plan as well as the outrageous fees they charged at the outset when we opened the account 17 years ago. We paid $3600 in sales fees and was told that this would allow us to potentially get scholarship money for those kids that forfeited the income they earned in the group plan because they chose to not go to post secondary. Now that we are ready to withdraw and apply for scholarships, we were told that that option no longer exists and it was changed a few years ago. This company is very unethical. I opened another account for my son at a different company and it not only performed better but there were no fees upon opening of the account. I feel taken advantage of and I want to warn others before they make the same mistake. Why do you need to take so much money up front -- other than to take advantage of parents trying to save for their child's education. You should be ashamed of yourselves.