Author Topic: Investment options for non-resident Canadians?  (Read 6697 times)

milliemchi

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Investment options for non-resident Canadians?
« on: July 03, 2015, 06:35:19 PM »
My brother is a Canadian citizen living and working in a, let's say, second-world country. The main drawback is the lack of good and safe investment options due to the undeveloped banking and investment system. So, just like most of the people there, he doesn't invest, and lives a happy consumer lifestyle, relying on the promised-in-the-future pension.  It just recently dawned on me that, as a Canadian citizen, he should have access to the Canadian banking system. I would like to pitch the idea of saving and investing for retirement to him. Does anyone know where he could open an account, or how I would go about finding information on that? I'd like to do the preliminary legwork rather than letting him do it all, because there's a risk that nothing would get done. If I present some solutions with my pitch, then there's hope.
« Last Edit: July 03, 2015, 06:37:26 PM by milliemchi »

daverobev

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Re: Investment options for non-resident Canadians?
« Reply #1 on: July 04, 2015, 04:40:51 PM »
It's usually residency rather than citizenship that allows bank account opening.

Try Interactive Brokers. They are international. Only downside is that they are more for higher value and/or experienced people.

milliemchi

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Re: Investment options for non-resident Canadians?
« Reply #2 on: July 04, 2015, 09:50:17 PM »
Hm... That's not good news. Can you give me a couple of names of Canadian investment companies (such as Vanguard, Charles Schwab, etc., are in US), that I can call and see if they have special rules for expats? I think my brother still has his regular bank account.

daverobev

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Re: Investment options for non-resident Canadians?
« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2015, 12:54:44 PM »
Hm... That's not good news. Can you give me a couple of names of Canadian investment companies (such as Vanguard, Charles Schwab, etc., are in US), that I can call and see if they have special rules for expats? I think my brother still has his regular bank account.

The big banks all have brokerage arms (Scotia iTrade, CIBC Investor's Edge, etc).

Questrade, QTrade, Virtual Brokers. At least a few more.

FIRE Artist

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Re: Investment options for non-resident Canadians?
« Reply #4 on: July 05, 2015, 08:42:54 PM »
It can depend on what country he is resident in.  I kept my rbc accounts when I was a non resident, however was not allowed to invest through my action direct account due to living in Indonesia.  I was told indo was on a watch list so trading was banned. 

When I moved to Colombia I got an offshore account with standard bank, I think I could have invested through them.

daverobev

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Re: Investment options for non-resident Canadians?
« Reply #5 on: July 06, 2015, 10:09:09 AM »
It can depend on what country he is resident in.  I kept my rbc accounts when I was a non resident, however was not allowed to invest through my action direct account due to living in Indonesia.  I was told indo was on a watch list so trading was banned. 

When I moved to Colombia I got an offshore account with standard bank, I think I could have invested through them.

I said "opening". YMMV of course.

milliemchi

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Re: Investment options for non-resident Canadians?
« Reply #6 on: July 06, 2015, 04:43:58 PM »
Thanks for the information. I called CIBC today, and they require in-person contact for opening an account, and likely all banks would, for identification purposes.

daverobev

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Re: Investment options for non-resident Canadians?
« Reply #7 on: July 06, 2015, 06:40:28 PM »
Thanks for the information. I called CIBC today, and they require in-person contact for opening an account, and likely all banks would, for identification purposes.

You can open all sorts of accounts by mail. Certainly providing some kind of certified copy of documents is acceptable.

You may need to contact an offshore dept. I think the biggest issue is that, for small clients, they just don't care enough to bother.

You don't actually need a Canadian bank account anyway. Not sure what the country in question is, but presumably they have an account there? Check with Interactive Brokers - if they deal with that country, they could open and fund from there, and switch to Canadian when they returned home.

 

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