My wife is starting a position in the next few weeks where she will be serving in a contractor role as a physiotherapist.
We are both US citizens and in Canada on a temp work permit with the goal of attaining permanent residency and, eventually citizenship.
Can she invest in any kind of RRSP? There is not one offered through her work as she is on a contractor status, as are all the other physio's.
Semi-related, is there a way for her to acquire short term or long term disability insurance as a contractor? She recently had a fluke fall while hiking that is pushing back her start date. Since her job involves being physically able, unlike a lot of desk jobs like mine, disability insurance seems like it could be semi-worthwhile.
In Canada, our RRSP accounts have nothing to do with our employers, they're just accounts that we open at our financial institutions. So no employers offer them, contract or not. I'm not sure how they would work for a temp US worker though, but an account manager at the bank could probably give you some basic answers. If you do end up able to open one, then you will likely need some pretty expert US-Can accounting advice.
Disability insurance is important, but it's also critical to know how it usually plays out if she gets disabled. I can speak from experience that you can't count on a disability policy paying out for an own occupation policy. They usually settle for a fraction of what the policy is worth. If they don't settle, it's a miserable process.
Point being, don't bank on income replacement from an own occupation disability policy. But yes, get a policy. Physiotherapy requires the use of virtually every body part, that means many, many injuries or illnesses could take her out, and even a 30% settlement value is helpful if that happens, specially since the job itself is high risk for injury that could prevent her from doing that specific work.
