Management of IRA's in US while Canadian resident

nelsona · Post by **nelsona** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 7:21 am

I don't believe I've ever given an opinion on whether a US broker can or cannot legally trade in a Cdn residents IRA. All I know is that most US brokers won't even consider it. But some do. Those clearly don't have a problem doing so.

The SEC and the Cdn regulators long ago gave permission for cross-border pension accounts. The sticking point between 1998 and about 2005, was each STATE SECs. not the feds, and not the provinces.

MUTUAL FUNDs are another issue, as there are indeed many Cdn funds available in Ontario, that are not available in, say, QC, or the maritimes, because the fundco has not bothered or cannor seek provincial permission to markey there.

So, MF trading and IRA trading are 2 separate issues.

bruce · Post by **bruce** » Tue Nov 03, 2009 10:28 pm

I agree that many US brokers will not want to keep a Canadian resident as a client for their IRAs. I always believed this was an internal policy decision based on risk-reward as opposed to a legal restriction. With the rules always subject to changes and new interpretations, there is the risk of being caught legally off-side at some point. The reward is the ability to serve a handful of expats whose accounts are unlikely to grow much in the future. So the easy decision is to not allow a Canadian address.

But then again, maybe I'm wrong. Wouldn't be the first time!