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Is My Mother Allowed To Close My Resp Account And Transfer All The Money To Herself Before I'm Done School?

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Location: BC and Ontario, Canada

Account is a throwaway as I'm active on my main - essentially what the title asks, I'll spare the long family history but the summary is emotionally abusive and manipulative parents, and now I'm moved away to a different Canadian province for university.

Currently in year 4 of my program, plan on doing 5 years + grad school though, so I won't be out of school for a bit.

RESP was with BMO, I am the registered beneficiary but she's the subscriber, the only person who can manage the account. I asked the bank and was told unless she gives me access, I can't become a manager of the account. However, the bank is very strict about withdrawals, and they require official tuition receipts + other documentation and you are limited to 1 withdrawal per year. Essentially, she can't make regular withdrawals without my cooperation, but I guess a loophole was she could close the account completely and the bank would have no choice but to payout the remaining amount to her?

At the start of my degree, I was told I had around 50k for school saved up. Half of that amount was her contributing to the account normally, half of it was a mix of government incentives and credits, government child support etc. that I was eligible for because she was technically a low-income single mother (even though my bio dad paid more than enough in child support every month). This may or may not be relevant, but I remember a conversation she had with the bank about how because the government allotted funds would be taken back if unused, that she wanted to use that portion first.

By my calculations, because my tuition is fairly cheap and I've gotten lucky with small scholarships, I've only used about 25k of my RESP.

I was told yesterday that she "thought I wouldn't need the money this year" and that they (mother and stepfather) needed funds for their trip back to my mom's hometown and so she closed the RESP in late July. I asked if she could just pay the school directly and she flat out said no, it's too late, which makes me think she either is intent on taking these funds for herself or she's already used up a large share of it (not sure what scares me more).

Essentially asking if this is allowed/what do I do if it isn't? I'm not opposed to taking her ass to court but no idea if I could win because technically she contributed those funds to the account + court is time and money I don't really have. However, because part of the account was government funds, I want to believe I might have a chance?

I can provide extra context as needed in the comments, thanks so much in advance to everyone taking the time to read + comment!

submitted by /u/MarionberryUsual915
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