Dual Citizenship Canada - Moving back to Canada from the USA

Transitioning from one country to another can often bring with it financial complexity. When it comes to the financial aspects of moving from the U.S. to Canada, there are many rules to understand and decisions that need to be made concerning tax considerations and your overall wealth, retirement and investment planning.

Table of Contents

1. Can I bring my Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA’s) to Canada?
2. What do I do with my employer-sponsored retirement plans – 401(k), 403(b)?
3. Cross-Border Financial Planning
4. What about Currencies?
5. Plena Wealth Advisors
6. Next Steps

Can I bring my Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA’s) to Canada?

Yes, you can. With the help of your Plena Wealth Advisory Team, we can transfer in, hold, manage and invest your IRA accounts without any adverse tax consequences to you.

What do I do with my employer-sponsored retirement plans – 401(k), 403(b)?

Typically when relocating to Canada, employer-sponsored retirement plans tend to become restricted – meaning that assets in those plans are frozen and cannot be actively managed. An option to consider may be to move your employer-sponsored plan into a rollover IRA that can be managed and invested in conjunction with your other retirement accounts.

Cross-Border Financial Planning

We often find our clients in a unique situation where they may have both Canadian and U.S retirement accounts (RRSPs, IRAs, 401(k)’s, etc.). As a result, we get asked many questions when it comes to crossing the border and the implications of such a move, having a detailed financial plan can help answer these questions and ensure you are making the correct decisions with your money. Our team would prepare a cross-border financial plan that informs a coordinated investment strategy specific to your cross-border status (e.g., all assets, on either side of the border, can be managed in one place by one advisor, and are managed with consideration to the unique ongoing tax exposure on both sides of the border).

What about Currencies?

We have the ability to set up multi-currency investment accounts to help keep currencies separate and design investment strategies in both CAD and USD depending on your situation.

Plena Wealth Advisors help with all aspects of your financial management:

• Cross-border wealth, retirement and investment planning
• Management of Canadian and U.S. retirement accounts
• Analysis on retirement benefits including pension plan and government assisted plans (CPP, OAS, Social Security)
• Tax reporting and in-house tax preparation
• Estate planning and risk management strategies

Next Steps

Before your move, we would thoroughly analyze your overall situation and offer personalized guidance. We would collaborate with a cross-border tax professional as well as with external professionals in the field to help you prepare for relocation, providing you with “moving to Canada” checklists and action items for each type of asset you hold.

Your Plena Wealth Advisory Team is here to help navigate these complexities with you. We would be happy to set up a call to discuss your specific situation to ensure you are making the right decisions.

Disclaimer: This does not constitute an offer or solicitation by anyone in any jurisdiction in which such an offer or solicitation is not authorized or to any person to whom it is unlawful to make such an offer or solicitation. This is intended for Canadian residents only. The information above is from sources believed to be reliable, however, we cannot represent that it is accurate or complete and it should not be considered personal tax advice. We are not tax advisors and we recommend that clients seek independent advice from a professional advisor on tax-related matters. Raymond James Ltd. is a Member Canadian Investor Protection Fund.