Cross-Border Investment Management (Canada & U.S.) — 49th Parallel>
Services  /  Cross-border investment management
Canada & United States

Cross-border investment management, built for two tax systems.

Low-cost, fiduciary portfolios for households whose money spans the 49th parallel — managed as one coordinated plan, PFIC- and withholding-aware, and built to travel with you.

What it is

One portfolio, two countries.

When your investments are split across Canada and the United States, the danger isn’t any single account — it’s the gaps between them. Where a holding sits determines how its dividends are taxed and whether withholding tax can be recovered. The wrong fund in the wrong hands triggers the IRS’s PFIC rules. A TFSA that’s tax-free in Canada can be a liability for a U.S. citizen. Manage each account in isolation and those seams quietly cost you.

Cross-border investment management replaces that with a single portfolio managed as one plan. As a fee-only, fiduciary firm working on both sides of the border, we handle asset location, currency, withholding tax, and PFIC exposure together — low-cost, evidence-based, and built to stay efficient whichever side of the line you’re on.

How we invest

Built around the border.

Fiduciary & fee-only

No commissions, no product shelf, no deferred sales charges — on either side of the border. We’re paid only by you, so the portfolio is built for you.

Low-cost, evidence-based

Globally diversified portfolios built on low-cost funds and discipline — not stock tips, market timing, or the high-fee products investors are so often sold.

Asset location across two systems

The right holdings in the right accounts — RRSP, TFSA, 401(k), IRA, Roth, non-registered — so tax doesn’t quietly erode returns in either country.

PFIC- & withholding-aware

U.S. citizens steered clear of the PFIC trap; U.S.-dividend holdings placed where withholding tax works in your favour, not against it.

Portfolios that travel

Built to stay efficient and compliant whether you’re in Canada, the U.S., or moving between them — so a move never forces a fire-sale.

One coordinated household

Every account managed as a single portfolio with one plan behind it — not six silos in two countries that never talk to each other.

Good to know

Cross-border investing, answered plainly.

What is cross-border investment management?
It’s portfolio management for people whose accounts span Canada and the United States — built around both countries’ tax rules and the treaty between them. Rather than a Canadian advisor running the Canadian accounts and a U.S. advisor the U.S. ones (with no one minding the overlap), one fiduciary team manages everything as a single portfolio: asset location, currency, withholding tax, and PFIC exposure all handled together.
Who needs it?
Anyone holding investment accounts on both sides of the border — Canadians with a 401(k) or IRA from time in the U.S., Americans in Canada with RRSPs and TFSAs, dual citizens, snowbirds, and anyone planning a move. Ordinary single-country management tends to miss the cross-border details, and those details are usually where the tax leaks out.
How do you handle U.S. citizens living in Canada?
Carefully. Many ordinary Canadian mutual funds and ETFs are treated as PFICs by the IRS, which triggers punishing U.S. tax and reporting, and a TFSA isn’t tax-free to the IRS. We build portfolios specifically to avoid PFICs and to stay efficient under both tax systems at once.
Are you fee-only and fiduciary?
Always, on both sides of the border. We don’t sell products, accept commissions, or take referral fees — we’re paid only by our clients. That’s what keeps the portfolio built around your goals rather than a product quota.
What if I move across the border?
We plan for portability from the start, because a move changes how accounts are taxed and which holdings make sense. Building with that in mind — and coordinating the transition when it comes — avoids forced sales and tax surprises.
Two countries, one portfolio. Let’s build it.
A free, no-obligation conversation — fee-only and fiduciary, always.
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