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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: Further to a question about directing USD dividends (paid by Canadian companies) to a USD bank account: I think the question is both more complicated and more simple than 5i's answer suggests.

As is generally understood, a number of Canadian companies - for example, CSU, NSU, and OTEX - can by bought/sold in either CAD or USD, but pay dividends in USD. At the same time, many Canadians have occasion to make purchases in USD. This leads to three questions:

1) is it better to buy/sell in CAD, or in USD?

2) how do you accept USD dividends without paying currency conversion costs?

3) how do you move USD from a brokerage account to a banking account without paying currency conversion costs?

As concerns (1): supposing that the stock were equally liquid on Canadian and American exchanges, the question comes down to tax-preparation preferences. If you buy/sell in CAD, then you don't have to do currency conversions when determining the adjusted cost base.

As concerns (2): any competent brokerage will have some way of accepting USD-denominated dividends without currency conversion. For example, at TD, if you held CSU/NSU/OTEX/etc in a USD-denominated account, then dividends would be accepted in USD. To move a position from a CAD account to a USD account, you ask the broker to 'journal' the position from one account to the other. Journalling incurs no currency conversion fees, but you will have to remember to ask the broker to do the journalling for you, each time you make a purchase (or sale.) And, of course, you will still have to currency-convert the amount of each dividend for tax-preparation purposes.

Note that some brokerages - for example, Interactive - do not segregate CAD- and USD-denominated stocks in separate accounts.

As concerns (3): some banks - for example, TD - provide for USD-denominated accounts/cards. Once you've set this up, you should be able to move funds from a (TD) USD brokerage account to a USD bank account or credit card in much the same way as you would CAD-denominated funds. Of course, the bank will charge you a fee (or require a minimum balance) for this.

Clearly, there are certain dependencies, here, on the services of particular banks/brokerages. In general, however, it should be possible to do as the member asked: direct USD dividends to a USD bank account without (double) currency conversion.
Read Answer Asked by John on June 04, 2018
Q: For your member looking to receive USD dividends after buying a CAD stock:
You should be able to buy BIP.UN or BEP.UN in your CAD trading account then have Scotia transfer the position to your USD trading account and make an election to receive the dividends in USD. This way the dividends will be paid in USD and remain in USD. From there the cash could be transferred to your USD bank account as needed.
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on June 03, 2018
Q: I wish to buy CDN cos that pay their dividends in US $ for my Scotia ITrade non registered account. I do not want the divs converted to CDN $ but go to a US $ bank account for US vacation. How do I set this up? Can I buy the stock with CDN $ (on TSX) or am I going to have to buy on an American exchange in US$. Scotia has told me the divs will converted to CDN then converted back to US (with fees for each conversion of course).I am not getting a clear answer from Scotia as to do this.
Your (or members) advice is appreciated.
Derek
Read Answer Asked by Derek on June 01, 2018
Q: Hello,
I have my accounts with Investorline. I have access to research reports from both S&P Global (quantitative stock reports) and Morningstar Equity Research as part of their service. Are these a good source of information or would you have any red flags that I should be aware of before using these as part of my research?
They also provide analyst ratings and target prices which I always take with a grain of salt. I know in past comments 5i doesn't view these favorably but do these offer any value to investors or should we just ignore these?
Reason I ask is there are always guests on BNN that do not view analysts very favorably for independence and other reasons. After hearing this many times, it gives one pause.
Thanks,
Dan
Read Answer Asked by Daniel on May 28, 2018
Q: Thanks for the great service. I have a general question I hope you can answer for me. My understanding is that when a person passes away, their investments are deemed to be sold on the date of their death for tax purposes. However, can these investments, (stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, etc.) be transferred directly to the beneficiary (not a spouse) without being sold? And would this be true no matter what type of account? (Cash, RRIF, or TFSA)
Thanks for your help.
KEN
Read Answer Asked by KEN on May 25, 2018
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