Embark Student Corp. aims to rebuild trust as it pushes digital RESP uptake

TORONTO — Embark Student Corp., a Toronto-based company managing education savings for about 425,000 children, says convincing more Canadians to open registered education savings plans is its biggest challenge.

Only 43 per cent of parents or caregivers have an RESP for their child, according to data from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada.

“There’s a lack of awareness,” said Andrew Lo, chief executive officer of Embark. “It’s not well-advertised and it’s complicated to onboard.”

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The company has $6.5 billion in assets under management.

RESPs allow parents to contribute up to $50,000 per child in a tax-sheltered account, with investment growth and a 20 per cent grant on annual contributions through the Canada Education Savings Grant.

Embark has focused on digitizing the process, including identity verification and opening virtual accounts.

“Any eligible family can open an RESP account in eight minutes,” Lo said.

Despite this, Lo said winning trust has also been a challenge for the company.

Originally founded in 1965 as University Scholarships of Canada, the company was later known as Knowledge First Financial.

It faced a March 2014 settlement with the Ontario Securities Commission regarding compliance and sales supervision deficiencies.

A 2021 Quebec Superior Court class-action lawsuit over enrolment and early termination fees that named Knowledge First Financial alongside other education funds was settled in July 2025.

Lo, who previously ran insurance comparison site Kanetix, joined Knowledge First Financial in 2023 and helped rebrand it to Embark.

“We pivoted the sales model from advisor-based to digital direct-to-consumer,” he said.

The company now has about 30 licensed advisors, less than a third of its 150 employees, down from around 1,500 investment advisors at its peak.

Lo said earning trust requires transparency.

“Families should understand exactly what they’re paying and why before they commit, with no surprises down the road,” he said.

Jessica Moorhouse, a certified financial counsellor and author, said it can be challenging for a fintech to rebuild trust once it’s been broken.

“They did a really good rebrand, they have a lot of resources on their blog that are pretty well written,” said Moorhouse.

But she added Embark needed to do that to erase all the negative press they had for a very long time.

Moorhouse said Embark competes with other digital RESP solutions and faces the limited bandwidth of new parents.

“A lot of families are struggling to pay rent and/or pay for groceries… they also have to save for retirement, and that can be a priority over saving for their kid’s university education,” she said.

She also noted a lack of understanding about how RESPs can be used for trade schools and other post-secondary options.

Kevin Oulds, co-founder of online estate planning platform Willful, said his company faces similar hurdles in getting people to act on financial matters.

“We both face the same challenges of, how do you get someone to do something they should do, but don’t have to?” said Oulds.

He said Willful pivoted to focus on education and that a digital experience needs to be backed by strong customer service.

“[You] have to have a human touch to it and be available to have a real conversation on the phone,” he said.

Oulds also pointed to the importance of partnerships for building trust, noting Willful has partnered with Embark in the past.

Lo said digital marketing is a key part of Embark’s strategy, with ads on social media, Google, YouTube, streaming platforms and television.

“We sponsor both local and major sports like the CFL. We’re on the rink boards at all the kids’ arenas,” he said.

He sees the underutilization of RESPs as a business opportunity.

“350,000 kids are born in Canada every year; I’d love to open that many accounts every year,” Lo said. “My aspiration is to get that through awareness and efficiency in our digital platform, it’s getting there, but it’s just going to take a little bit of time.”

With files from The Globe and Mail