Options for your CAD Non-registered assets whenever moving to and/or living in the U.S

The strong U.S. dollar has created new challenges for those moving to the United States from Canada-but knowing these challenges

The strong U.S. dollar has created new challenges for those moving to the United States from Canada-but knowing these challenges, and your options, can assist you to navigate the fiscal transition as smoothly as possible.

Canada us tax planning

canadiandollarHere’s the background. The Canadian dollar is currently valued about 0.80 versus the U.S. dollar, a big travel of 0.90 in order to 0.95 seen in the summer associated with 2014. With the currencies so closely valued before, many individuals elected to change their bank and non-registered (after tax) investment-account funds to U.S. dollars, and also move them to a new U.S. bank or custodian.

After all, if you live in the particular United States and your living expenses are generally denominated in U.S. dollars, having much of your liquid net-worth in the local currency makes sense. Furthermore, transforming and moving Canadian non-registered accounts on the United States simplifies tax as well as foreign-account reporting requirements. Additionally, it provides for better expenditure opportunities, including those that are more tax productive. And it helps to easily simplify your financial and estate planning.

A Canadian dollar in 0.80 complicates things, however, as most clients naturally do not wish to convert funds at a 20% discount. Therefore let’s look at the options available to folks or families that do not want to convert their non-registered balances to U.S. dollars.

OPTION 1: Leaving your Canadian investment accounts in Canada 

The use of a Canadian financial advisor, they'll likely are not registered to provide investment or fiscal planning advice to some U.S. resident.

A financial advisor would be wise to be licensed within the jurisdiction in which a customer lives, regardless of the client’s citizenship or country in which the assets reside. Thus, after you become a resident from the United States and ask your advisor to update your mailing address on record to your new U.S. deal with (never leave your outdated Canadian address on file: check out this related article), 1 of 3 things will likely happen:

Your advisor will inform you they are no longer able to provide expenditure advisory services to your non-registered records, and that you must work with someone who is able to do thus;

Your advisor will explain that you can preserve your accounts on the platform, but that they will be frozen and that no further trading or rebalancing can happen;

Your advisor will explain that they are listed in the United States and can continue to oversee all investment-management providers in your accounts.

To reiterate, most Canadian consultants are not registered from the United States. So the mostly probable scenarios are amounts one and two. In the event that your advisor matches the third scenario, you'll want to make sure that their services and expertise extend past just providing expense management.

For example, while moving to, and/or living in the United States, clients face quite a few cross-border planning complexities. A real cross-border advisor will help construct a built-in Canada-U.S. cross-border financial plan that handles tax and estate planning matters furthermore the management of your investment property.

For more information about cross border tax planning visit our website.