David Ingram and Dan Walkow discuss some of the currency considerations in having investments in US currencies if you are in Canada. US securities, even if they have made an increase in US dollars are not as good once you do the currency conversion back to Canadian dollars.

Question from Carol regarding tax treaties with a view to which countries might be a better host for her investment dollars taking into consideration both the tax treaty tax rates and the various exchange and currency costs, with a specific question on Australia since they have just raised their interest rates.

 Dan's outlook on cross-border currency considerations is worth watching

Tag: t2209 tax treaty currency taxes conversion return inflation

David Ingram and Fred Snyder continue their conversation on retirement investment. This session includes a question from a US Green Card holder whose wife lives with him in Point Roberts but who commutes to Vancouver to work. The question is about RRSP and 401K retirement investments and includes questions regarding how long the retiree has to have lived in Canada to qualify for Old Age Pension and in the US to not get caught by the Windfall Elimination Provision of the Old Age Security.

You can watch the whole show or any of several of its sections separately:

• Opening
• Reporting Foreign Trusts
• Windfall Eliminiation Provision and Canadian OAP considerations
• Claw-back of OAP when too much income after retirement
• David and Fred discuss their earliest meeting
• Fred's new BMO investment - Principle Protected Note
• Seminar topics and information

[tags: investment, retirement, CPP, mortgage, deductible_mortgage]

SMA or Separately Managed Accounts and cross-border investment. Non-pooled funds investments. Timing of investment into pooled accounts can result in up-front tax consequences if the fund has risen in value (which of course if the objective) - so investment late in the year into an existing fund may be offset by instead investing into a SMA. Seabank Capital Management Inc. deals with SMAs for smaller amounts than other investment companies.

Canadian dollar accounts for Americans. The US dollar "Carry Trade" vs. what used to be the "Yen carry trade" when the Japanese Yen was in decline - now that the US dollar is generally in decline, it makes sense for a US citizen to borrow sums of money in US dollars and invest in some other jurisdiction such as Canada. The investment, even if it returns the same as if it were in a similar investment in the US, takes advantage of the fact that the Canadian dollar is rising against the US dollar which increases the real return to the original investor - to the tune of about double the rate.

Pre-existing relationships and RRSP/IRA for people who have moved away from the original broker's jurisdiction. Dan's insight into not only cross-border investment but investment in general is worth watching

David Ingram and Fred Snyder discuss several scenarios of investment for long-term income streams with minimal tax and "claw-back" exposure

Insurance as an option to an otherwise standardized investment for an income stream - where the taxable income is as little as 10% of the actual monthly stream allowing minimal taxation and keeping overall income below the level that other government pension and security payments would otherwise be clawed back at.

Using your RRSP to make your mortgage tax deductible. There are many ways to use your current investments to make your otherwise non-tax deductible personal mortgage into a fully tax deductible investment mortgage. Using rental property income to do this is also discussed.

Discussion of disparity between income from investment in bonds and investment in mutual funds or other securities. People lose sight of the fact that by bond maturity they've paid tax on the interest income. "Salary and interest income are the two worst kinds of income to have" says Fred. David says "But you should make sure you take enough salary out to qualify for the maxiumy Canada Pension payout."

"You should have a large amount of money that is not in your RRSP" - Fred. "Every time I did up a pension plan, the people made more money with their investments outside their RRSP than in" - David

Income Exposure Control - at age 71 you have to withdraw money from your RRSP regardless of other pension income - so you end up with too much income, don't qualify for CPP and end up getting OAS clawed back. There has to be a better way - and there is.

Lots of great information in this interview