Serbinski Accounting Firms

You may check with a couple U.S. insurance companies as some of them will let you open an IRA annuity for as little as $2,000. You would be looking for a fixed, deferred annuity. Not necessarily a great investment, but competitive with many bonds funds. Fixed annuities are insurance contracts, not s...

I know from experience that the compliance departments of most U.S. brokerage firms have a knee jerk reaction to these scenarios and they tell their brokers, that they can't have clients in Canada under any circumstances. As Nelson mentioned there is a difference between retirement and non-retiremen...

Client is U.S. citizen who lives in the states and will never live in Canada again. For convenience reasons, she wants to combine her RRSP and her spousal RRSP. When they hit 70, they will take minimum RRIF distributions and pay flat rate of tax due from non-residents on RRIf distributions. I don't ...

Most mutual fund companies will deal with your RRSPs while in the U.S. Some insurance companies will allow you to purchase Seg Funds while a resident of the U.S., but the paperwork must be signed in Canada. The disadvantage of Seg Funds is their fees. The advantage is that many of them offer investm...

With respect to fees and time, what is the most efficient way to get RRIF payments from Canada to the U.S.? Some family friends are going to need to take RRIF payments soon. They are in Ohio and rarely visit Canada. ManuLife won't/can't direct deposit into a U.S. bank account which is what these fol...

Think of it this way. An RRSP contains money that was earned in Canada, but not taxed. Thus, Canada will tax that money when you take it out of the RRSP, regardless of your residence at the time of withdrawal. An IRA/401(k) contains money that was earned in the U.S., but not taxed. Thus, the U.S. wi...

Could this lady work remotely (i.e. telecommute) for a Canadian company?

If you have the option of being paid the same hourly rate as an employee vs. independent contractor, you will want to take the employee route. This assumes that: 1. There is some health coverage provided by the employer and they pay for a good share of it; 2. They have a 401(k) plan and make some ba...

Nelson is correct regarding 529s vs. RESPs.

For further reading, I suggest the following two websites:

http://www.savingforcollege.com/

http://www.americanfunds.com/college/co ... -chart.htm


Regards,

So the determining factor is whether or not the account owner, usually a parent or grandparent, will continue to reside in the U.S. If they will reside in the U.S. for the life of the account, it makes sense for Canadians to consider 529s. If they won't continue to live in the states, then probably ...

I assume that most Canadians living in the U.S. visit Canada on a regular basis. If they were meeting with a Canadian broker during a visit to Ontario, could they buy a Seg Fund from him? If they are buying something that is not considered a security in Ontario, would it be considered a security in ...

Have you thougt about opening a 529 for your child in the U.S.? The investments grow tax free as long an the withdrawals are used of qualified education expenses. For distributions to qualify, the university needs to be listed on the U.S. Department of Education's website. Many institutions are list...

Thanks Nelson!

She doesn't like dealing with investments across the border, but it does seem that it is the best thing for her to do.

Actually, she doesn't like dealing with any investments, but since her husband refuses to do so, she gets stuck with the short straw.

Has anyone researched the issue of Canadians living in the U.S. and having their RRSPs in Seg. Funds vs. Mutual Funds? Seg Funds and their U.S. equivalent, variable annuities, are regulated differently. In Canada, a seg fund is purely an insurance product from a regulatory point of view. Someone nee...

The brokerage firm I work for had no difficulty with this when I asked our compliance department. I suggest you try two different things. 1. Deal directly with the mutual fund company and ask the question prior to opening the account. Please be very specific about what you ask. You are asking whethe...