My partner and I married last November after living together for over a year. While we had combined our daily finances when we started living together we are finally getting around to making joint plans for investing and savings.

Our biggest current financial goal is buying a house. We hope to do that in the next two years.

My income is 2.5x times my partner and my partner has negligible savings. Given our goal we want to make use of the first time home buyer plan and get 35k in her RRSP.

This is the scenario I am considering:

My wife opens a Spousal RRSP on Wealthsimple and adds me as a contributor. Wealthsimple only allows Managed Spousal RRSP which have a 0.5% management fees. While unfortunate this will allow us to invest the money easily in ETFs (XEQT)

I also read about the three year attribution rule which states that money I contribute to spousal RRSP can’t we withdraw for three year. If money is withdrawn within 3 years, it will be included in the my taxable income.

But from all my research it looks like this rule doesn’t apply to Home Buyer’s Plan withdrawals, which can be made within 3 years of a contribution.

So i have two questions

1. Is there a better institution to open a Spousal RRSP that doesn’t have a 0.5% fee but still gives us the flexibility to invest in XEQT

2. Is my information correct that Home Buyers Plan is exempt from the 3 year attribution rule.