Can this retiree avoid higher taxes after making a big city move? Plus, how to Trump-proof your wallet | Canada Voices

Editor’s note: We’ve got some exciting changes coming to our retirement newsletter. Starting next week, the revamped Retire Rich newsletter will be sent on Friday mornings instead of Thursdays. Retirement and financial planning reporter Meera Raman will be your guide to the best of The Globe’s coverage, no matter what stage of life you’re at. You can unsubscribe below from our newsletters any time.

Ned is 70 years old, retired and living in Calgary. He has three children who all live and work in Toronto, where he is from originally.


“I plan to move back there next year after living in Calgary since 2000,” Ned writes in an e-mail. “I own my own home – valued at nearly $1-million with no mortgage – and have significant financial assets.” He plans to buy a home in Toronto with a rental suite.


“Given that provincial income tax rates are higher in Ontario than Alberta, my question is whether I should cash in my registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) and crystallize my capital gains this year to avoid having to pay higher tax rates when I move to Ontario,” Ned asks.

He also wonders whether he should look into setting up a family trust as a way to save on taxes and transfer assets to his children when he dies “without triggering a lot of tax.”


While Ned has no work pension, he has substantial investments. His target retirement spending is $15,000 a month after tax, including overseas travel.


For this Financial Facelift, Matthew Ardrey, portfolio manager and senior financial planner at TriDelta Private Wealth in Toronto, looks at Ned’s situation. Mr. Ardrey holds the certified financial planner and advanced registered financial planner designations.

Get some free financial advice from The Globe and Mail by e-mailing [email protected] to be part of our Financial Facelift series. You don’t have to share your real name and our photographers will obscure your identity in one of our trademark Financial Facelift photos. Here are some recent facelifts for you to read. We’re especially keen to hear from Canadians worried about how the trade war with the U.S. will impact their ability to retire. Have you changed your investment strategy? Your retirement timeline? Your travel plans? Hopefully our advice can help you weather these stormy times and ensure a secure financial future.

Financial lessons from a woman whose husband died suddenly at 39

If you can’t find the time or motivation to plan financially for your death or a serious illness, personal finance columnist Rob Carrick recommends reading Jane Blaufus’s book.

It’s called With the Stroke of a Pen: Claim Your Life, and it includes a 33-page checklist of questions for working through the process of helping family members sort through your affairs when you die.

The checklist is helpful, but so is Ms. Blaufus’s personal experience after the loss of her husband.

To hear more, from making sure loved ones know your wishes to ensuring there’s a power of attorney in place, check out Carrick’s e-mail Q & A with Ms. Blaufus here.

Subscribe to Rob Carrick’s newsletter, Carrick on Money, here.

Wealth managers brace for proposed U.S. tax bill’s impacts on Canadian clients

Canadian wealth managers are starting preparations for potential U.S. tax hikes on foreign investors, write Clare O’Hara and Jameson Berkow, amid growing fears that the country’s Senate will approve U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed tax bill.

Vlad Tasevski, chief innovation officer for Purpose Investments Inc., said his firm is scenario-testing, examining the investments that will be affected, and considering whether to adjust portfolios with high U.S. exposure.

“Ultimately, this is a form of capital control. And, if passed, investors’ returns on investing in the U.S. will get meaningfully less attractive than what they were before, because it will be a lot less tax efficient,” Mr. Tasevski said in an interview.

Known as the One Big Beautiful Bill, Mr. Trump’s tax proposal includes a retaliatory measure against what the U.S calls “discriminatory or unfair taxes” in foreign countries, including Canada’s digital services tax (DST), which was introduced in 2024.

If Canada retains the targeted tax rules, the measure, known as Section 899, would increase the U.S. tax rate for Canadian companies and could cost investors who own U.S. securities up to $81-billion in additional taxes over seven years, according to an estimate by the Securities and Investment Management Association.
The tax increases could be implemented as early as Jan. 1.

Read the full article here.

In case you missed it

From investing to real estate, here’s how to Trump-proof your wallet

Should you sell your U.S. stocks? Is now the time to buy a house?

When U.S. President Donald Trump launched a trade war back in February, Canadians had plenty of questions about how it would affect their finances. Months later, those questions keep coming up. In this time of uncertainty, people want to know the best way to manage their portfolios, household finances and lives.

Here, our reporters have answered 42 crucial questions that our readers have asked again and again (and again).

Eat a ‘flavodiet’ to stay physically and mentally strong when older, new study suggests

A diet focused on whole plant foods is a critical determinant of healthy aging, writes dietitian Leslie Beck in this Food for Thought column.

Among the countless bioactive compounds in plants, flavonoids have received considerable attention in recent years for their influence on health.


Research suggests, for example, that a high intake of these protective phytochemicals can guard against cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, cognitive decline and dementia.

Now, new study findings add to mounting evidence for flavonoids’ healthy-aging benefits.


The findings suggest that a high flavonoid diet – and a regular intake of specific flavonoid-rich foods – can lower the risks of developing frailty, impaired physical function and poor mental health in our 70s and beyond.

Read the full article here.

Retirement Q & A

Q: At 60, I’m unemployed, about to renew my mortgage – and I need to fix my roof. Since I am unemployed, will I need a guarantor to renew my mortgage? What are my options?

This week, we turn to Penelope Graham, head of content at Ratehub.ca, to answer this one.

A: The first decision is whether to stay with your current lender. When you renew your mortgage with your existing lender, they will have little reason to inquire about your employment status as long as you’ve consistently made your monthly payments.

Your lender will still want to know whether you can continue to pay off your debt, but if you’ve got considerable savings or income-generating investments they likely won’t ask to verify your employment.

However, sticking with your existing lender gives you little room to negotiate, and you’ll likely be offered a less attractive rate than what a new client would get. Getting the lowest rate possible will be key to minimizing monthly payment shocks.

This could make it worthwhile for you to instead renew with a new lender, which means disclosing your employment status and likely involving a guarantor – someone who agrees to be liable for your mortgage payments if you cannot cover them.


Getting the money to fix your roof will require a cash-out refinance, meaning you’ll need to disclose your employment status – and have a guarantor backing your monthly payments – regardless of whether you stick with your current lender or find a new one.

Refinance mortgage rates can be higher than renewal or purchase rates, but you’ll have access to more options, such as extending your amortization. This will help counter the increase in your monthly payments, which result both from getting a higher rate than your current one, and the larger mortgage size owing to your refinance.
However, extending your amortization by even a few years will increase your interest bill by thousands of dollars. It could also mean carrying your mortgage into your retirement years.


If you have no guarantor and you want to keep your property, a private lender may be able to help until you find work. But – and I cannot stress this enough – doing so should be a short-term solution, with the intent of switching to a conventional lender as soon as you’re able.

If your unemployment is longer-term, your last option may be to sell your home – likely in as-is condition because of the roof – and downsize to a smaller property or turn to renting. If this seems likely, getting a variable mortgage rate could make sense, given the penalty to break the mortgage to sell is just three months’ worth of interest, compared with the (typically much higher) interest-rate differential calculation lenders use to determine the penalty for a fixed-rate mortgage.

Interested in more stories about retirement? Sixty Five aims to inspire Canadians to live their best lives, confidently and securely. Read more here and sign up for our weekly Retirement newsletter.