LancsLad said:
If you are permanently leaving the US for tax purposes , I am not sure of what cap gains /departure taxes there are but you might want to speak to a good accounting firm in the US who might suggest a slightly more tax friendly jurisdiction than Canada to move financial assets to. No need to willingly bring a lot of capital "into" Canada. You can still invest in entities here just use an offshore vehicle.
Ummm... there is no such thing as moving financial assets into "tax friendly jurisdictions" for Canadian residents, nor is there any "offshore vehicle" that will save him any Canadian taxes. As a Canadian resident, he's taxed on worldwide income, no matter where the assets are. If he found a firm suggesting otherwise, it is essentially recommending a crime, and no reputable firm will do that.
Asper said:
Can you guys/gals give me some pointers in investing in stocks in Canada.
I am not totally a newbie in investing. I have been investing in US stocks since I live there half the time. Planning to move permanently to T.O. So want to transfer all my holdings from US to Canada and also start investing in Canadian stocks.
What are the good Canadian Investing websites?
Thanks
In terms of "how to", there isn't much difference between investing in Canadian stocks or US stocks. Most brokerage accounts here will let you trade in either; less common is access to other world markets. As for opening an account - there isn't much difference in the major bank-owned discount brokerages, and unless you consider yourself a day-trader, they should be more than adequate for your needs. If you want full service brokerage advice, you should actually be interviewing specific brokers.
As for the investing process, you'll find a few irritations if you restrict yourselves to Canadian stocks. First, the breadth of choice will be disappointing in comparison (aside from banks and resource stocks, selection is poor), and within that selection you'll find many companies have "undesirable" characteristics... like subordinated share structures (where a family controls the company through multiple voting shares). There are a few other differences in comparison and research (e.g. some GAAP differences), but they are fairly minor. Invariably, I think you will need to include some foreign (US) investments just to properly diversify.
As for research websites,
www.sedar.com (the Canadian version of Edgar) should be your on-line bible.
Hope that helps....