. If you invest in U.S. stocks in a registered retirement savings plan, registered retirement income fund or tax-free savings account, make sure your broker offers a U.S.-dollar version of these accounts . In a Canadian-dollar RRSP, RRIF or TFSA account, your U.S. dividends and the proceeds from the sale of U.S. securities will be automatically exchanged into Canadian dollars and you’ll be charged accordingly. Another option is a fairly advanced technique for changing Canadian dollars into U.S.
Account maintenance fees can sometimes be avoided by, for example, setting up preauthorized contributions to your account, by having both a cash account and a registered account, or by making a few trades. If you do end up paying a $100 fee on a $12,000 account over a year, your returns are reduced by 0.83 per cent.
TERs are listed in the management reports on fund performance that are available for all ETFs and mutual funds. You can find the management report for an ETF by going to its profile on the issuing company’s website and looking for the “documents” link. When you have the management report open, head to the “ratios” section.Be cautious about buying higher-fee ETFs unless you’re convinced they add value beyond the cheaper core ETFs tracking basic stock and bond indexes.
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