We invest with the goal of principal¹ protection and long-term growth to ensure the money is there for your children when they need it. We do this by having a diversified portfolio that combines equities (stocks), bonds and other asset classes. While CST's investments are not immune to market movements, our track record of reasonable positive returns demonstrates our approach to investing works. Our long-term investment perspective allows us to tolerate some ups and downs in the short term and take advantage of the medium to long-term trends in the Canadian, US and global economies. In addition, the value of your investment is enhanced by our sales charge refund and group plan benefits.

You can rest assured that our dedicated team of investment professionals is working hard every day to ensure that your funds – and those of all CST families - are invested to deliver on our commitments to you.

How does CST safeguard the investments in your RESP against market volatility?

CST invests for the long-term. In other words, we invest with the objective of protecting your principal¹, combined with the goal of delivering a reasonable positive return over time. With an RESP, you typically contribute for 18 years until your child is ready to attend post-secondary education. Those families who started investing in their CST RESP 18 years ago have received back all of their principal and benefited from an average annual net return of 3.4%^{2, 3}.

Managing risk is necessary to achieve our investment goals. Investing almost always involves taking on some form of risk. Return and risk are tied together, so a higher return generally means taking on a higher risk. For us to achieve our investment goals, we need to accept some reasonable investment risk to generate returns over the long term. The CST investment process is designed so that risk is monitored and managed in a disciplined manner.

Plan values are not guaranteed as CST's investments are not immune to global market conditions which could result in challenging performance years like 2022. But while in the short-term investing can be bumpy as the market experiences fluctuations, over enough time, these fluctuations should even out. 

Our diversified investment approach helps cushion your RESP against bumps.
You know the old saying to "never put your eggs in one basket"? That's the approach CST Savings takes when investing your RESP funds.

• Our Plans are invested in a combination of fixed-income and equity asset classes across multiple global regions and carefully selected exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to help balance extreme highs and lows. This helps diversify our investment risks.
• We use some of Canada's top institutional money managers⁴ to manage CST RESPs, providing you with access to leading-edge portfolio management.
  • Black Rock Asset Management Canada Limited
  • BMO Asset Management Inc
  • Fiera Capital Corporation
  • CIBC Asset Management
  • C.S.T. Asset Management Inc.
  • TD Asset Management Inc.
• We focus on risk as much as the return aspect of our investment philosophy.  We believe this balanced approach is the right approach to investing in both stable and volatile times.

We never forget the end goal: helping you save towards post-secondary education.