For those of you looking to retire outside of Canada, there is an important issue/matter that you need to be aware of. I may have mentioned it in an earlier post, but it needs to be mentioned again.

Canadian financial institutions generally look to profitability when it comes to decisions about lines of business. The same applies to providing investment products to non-residents, whether they originate from Canada or not. If you are a Canadian resident and citizen, and you decide to emigrate, you will find the environment pretty hostile to your contemplated move. In 2021, TD Bank advised many, if not most, of their TD Direct Investing clients that their accounts would be closed. Clients were given 30 days, or their holdings would be liquidated. This becomes particularly problematic if you have a RRIF or a LIF. This would result in a pretty substantial tax hit in some circumstances. Before moving, you must investigate what will happen. After you leave, your options will be limited, if you have any options. There are a lot of rules and regulations for the opening of securities trading accounts for non-residents. And many, if not most, Canadian financial institutions don’t care about offloading a whole bunch of accounts once they decide to do so.

There are no easy answers here. You ned to plan for the worst and hope for the best. This is not an issue created by the Canada Revenue Agency. It’s internal bank compliance that drives this, and the cost of managing these accounts.

BE CAREFUL!