RetireMitten Financial LLC is an expert in helping families that have worked in both the U.S. and Canada. We help you navigate the financial and tax ramifications of having assets and retirement benefits in both the U.S. and Canada. Ultimately, we help simplify your cross-border finances and help live a stress-free cross-border retirement.
Gary came into the office with a problem I see often. Gary is a Canadian citizen, but as an engineer, his company sent him to work across the border in Texas, for a short 3-month assignment. Twenty years later, and Gary is still on his “3-month assignment” in Texas. Now Gary is approaching retirement, and he is trying to navigate the cross-border planning maze. For Gary, the cross-border acronyms were overwhelming; CPP, RRSP, WEP, IRA, 401(k). Gary had another problem; trying to find a financial planner that could help him.
Two financial advisors, but no answers
The issue wasn’t that Gary didn’t have a financial planner. In fact, he actually had two. One in Texas which helped with his U.S. assets, and one in Ontario that helped with his Canadian assets. The issue was that Gary was paying two financial advisors, and not getting the advice he needed. Sure, the Canadian advisor could help explain how the CPP worked. However, she couldn’t explain the best time to start drawing the CPP in the U.S. to help reduce WEP on social security. The U.S. advisor could help with IRA and 401(k) distributions, but couldn’t help understand how RRSP distributions would be taxed here in the U.S. Ultimately, Gary was paying a lot to financial advisors, but getting no cross border financial planning.
RetireMitten specializes in working with families that have worked in the U.S. and Canada
We designed RetireMitten to help clients like Gary. We specialize in working with the following types of clients that live throughout the U.S.
- U.S. and Canada dual citizens
- U.S. citizens that spent time working in Canada
- Canadian citizens who are permanent residents of the U.S.
Having assets and income from multiple countries makes for very complex financial planning. Here are a few things that we can help with:
- Maximizing CPP and social security while minimizing WEP
- RRSP withdrawal strategies in the U.S.
- Qualifying for both U.S. and Canadian pension benefits
- Maximize income while minimizing taxes on your Canadian and U.S. investments
If none of those terms make sense to you, well that’s ok, we’ll help with that as well.
We will help you understand both the U.S. and Canadian benefits that you qualify, the tax implications, and strategies to maximize your benefits. Cross-border financial planning is complicated, but we will help you understand just how your U.S. and Canada benefits work together. If you currently live in the U.S. and have previously lived and worked in Canada, you can trust us to help you with all of your financial planning needs.
Simplify your cross border planning
We helped Gary create a retirement income plan based on both his Canadian and U.S. assets. We developed a distribution strategy from his Canadian RRSP to help minimize taxes. We created a social security and Canadian pension strategy that maximized income and reduced his WEP. Last, helped him collect Canadian Benefits he didn’t even know he qualified. Ultimately, we helped Gary maximize all of his U.S. and Canadian income in retirement and helped him stop worrying that he was missing out.
Click on the link below to schedule a conversation about how we can help with your cross-border needs.