Canadians, Which Brokerage do you use?

[John Hjorth]

It's to me personally [, likely, as a North European citizen [ Dane]], really striking to read that today, the majority of Canadian CofB&F members [at least active by now in this topic] are hooked up on, and prefer RBC [ I call it RY, let it go, please], as their preferred service provider for DIY investment management.

 

What is it at your past and ongoing customer and user experience that has made you decide so?

 

I'm really eager to hear about it from you, who it may concern.

 

To me personally, as a Dane, it would be like choosing Danske Bank [DANSKE.CPH] by now for that. [With that said, DANSKE is now trying to get there, - still no real interest from me, yet].

 

- - - o 0 o - - -

 

That said, to keep some kind of structure and related simplicity to things, ref. @Viking s post about that above, certainly also matters, for practical purposes.

[Parsad]

6 hours ago, Xerxes said:

I do everything myself as well. It is just that you cannot “click” for DRIP yourself. So you need to call them. Once they add that functionality I will no longer need to call them for that. 
 

now specifically to international trading, my understanding is that certain markets like Europe, London or Hong Kong you can trade directly yourself. 
 

For others, like Singapore or Japan, you need to call them. I suppose that is when Royal Circle comes handy. 
 

https://www.rbc.com/newsroom/news/article.html?article=125959

 

Ahhh...thanks!  Cheers!

[Xerxes]

3 hours ago, John Hjorth said:

It's to me personally [, likely, as a North European citizen [ Dane]], really striking to read that today, the majority of Canadian CofB&F members [at least active by now in this topic] are hooked up on, and prefer RBC [ I call it RY, let it go, please], as their preferred service provider for DIY investment management.

 

What is it at your past and ongoing customer and user experience that has made you decide so?

 

I'm really eager to hear about it from you, who it may concern.

 

To me personally, as a Dane, it would be like choosing Danske Bank [DANSKE.CPH] by now for that. [With that said, DANSKE is now trying to get there, - still no real interest from me, yet].

 

- - - o 0 o - - -

 

That said, to keep some kind of structure and related simplicity to things, ref. @Viking s post about that above, certainly also matters, for practical purposes.

 

in the 90s when I was a teenager, my dad took me there and helped me open an account. i stayed ever since. 
 

on a more practical matter, they always reverse charges when i asked them. 
 

that said i never used RY for my mortgage. The rates are always too high .., and we always the underdog banks like National Bank and/or BMO coming with good mortgage product undercutting RY and/or TD. 

[John Hjorth]

Thank you for sharing, @Xerxes,

 

At least for me personally, it's always very interesting to hear fellow CofB&F members' personal stories and actual perceptions of the local or national banking landscape.

Edited February 12 by John Hjorth

[bizaro86]

I use IBKR for my non-registered accounts with reg accounts at RBC DI. I like IBKR better, but when I set them up IBKR didnt offer the reg accounts I needed (eg LIRA) and the difference is smaller when you can't really use margin/most options anyway.

 

To John: I picked RBC because I think they're the least bad of the big banks for brokerage. I used to have Scotia iTrade, but I switched because I had to call to give instructions for corporate actions, and I do a lot of special situations so that was a huge hassle. BMO requires calling as well. I like that they're too big to fail as well. 

 

 

[KCLarkin]

I am no longer comfortable holding substantial assets at a US-owned broker (IBKR) and I plan to transfer some assets out. I'm also hoping to diversify away from US equities. It seems like RBC DI is the best / only option for international trading?

 

I currently have brokerage accounts with TD and BMO for Canadian equities, but neither seems great for US / International investing. RBC DI doesn't sound great either, but at least a plausible alternative to IBKR? 

[Ghost]

Is moving away from US-owned brokers due to tariff war, KCLarkin?

[KCLarkin]

41 minutes ago, Ghost said:

Is moving away from US-owned brokers due to tariff war, KCLarkin?

 

No. The US has a stated policy of annexing Canada via "economic force". There is a risk that they will freeze Canadian assets. This will be much easier in accounts controlled by US companies. The risk might be small, but not worth taking right now. IMO.

[Ghost]

5 hours ago, KCLarkin said:

 

No. The US has a stated policy of annexing Canada via "economic force". There is a risk that they will freeze Canadian assets. This will be much easier in accounts controlled by US companies. The risk might be small, but not worth taking right now. IMO.

 

I would say...if we get there...most of our Canadian assets are worth close to 0 by then.   Better off owning gold or BTC

[KCLarkin]

3 hours ago, Ghost said:

 

I would say...if we get there...most of our Canadian assets are worth close to 0 by then.   Better off owning gold or BTC

I don’t hold any Canadian assets in IBKR. I’m asking if there are any good brokers for investing internationally other than IBKR. I can hold Canadian / US assets at my existing BMO and TD accounts.

 

My portfolio is heavily weighted to the US and I’d like to diversify into, say, some UK, Euro, Japanese, Nordic, and Aussie stocks as insurance against US aggression. But that could be pointless if those assets are custodied with an American broker.

 

IBKR is 15% of my portfolio (or was until the crash today), so I don’t take this lightly. But Canadians with large portfolios should be making disaster plans now.

 

This is a good use case for Bitcoin. But not sure I trust digital magic beans. Physical gold is not a bad idea. But not really practical for meaningful sums?

 

I prefer productive assets. I just want some of them to reside outside North America.

 

 

[Xerxes]

21 hours ago, KCLarkin said:

 

No. The US has a stated policy of annexing Canada via "economic force". There is a risk that they will freeze Canadian assets. This will be much easier in accounts controlled by US companies. The risk might be small, but not worth taking right now. IMO.

That would truly be a black swan event, if US Government turns into a modern version of authoritarian European government of the 1930s ….

 

Very low risk, but with populism you never know. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 02:39 PM by Xerxes

[KFRCanuk]

The main reason for creating this post was to get away from TD due to their money laundering scandal. So far, I have not signed up with any broker yet. Leaning towards RBC DI.

 

Thanks for the thoughtful discussions everyone.

 

 

[Ghost]

15 hours ago, KCLarkin said:

I don’t hold any Canadian assets in IBKR. I’m asking if there are any good brokers for investing internationally other than IBKR. I can hold Canadian / US assets at my existing BMO and TD accounts.

 

My portfolio is heavily weighted to the US and I’d like to diversify into, say, some UK, Euro, Japanese, Nordic, and Aussie stocks as insurance against US aggression. But that could be pointless if those assets are custodied with an American broker.

 

IBKR is 15% of my portfolio (or was until the crash today), so I don’t take this lightly. But Canadians with large portfolios should be making disaster plans now.

 

This is a good use case for Bitcoin. But not sure I trust digital magic beans. Physical gold is not a bad idea. But not really practical for meaningful sums?

 

I prefer productive assets. I just want some of them to reside outside North America.

 

 

 

Thank you for the response KCLarkin. 

I had thought along the same lines as making a disaster plan.  If the worst case scenario plays out, any assets held in any Canadian brokerage will be inaccessible.  One of the first moves, would be to cut all communications/internet, and take full control of the banks.   My guess Canadians will simply not be allowed to move any asset.  I would also guess by the time we knew what was happening, it would be too late.  

 

Your best best is highly portable assets:  Back in the good ole days, uncut diamonds, rare art, rare coins, etc.  My assumption of course, is that you and your family would be looking to exit Canada.  

 

If you are really looking to preserve wealth, you may want to borrow ideas from organized crime...open multiple overseas accounts. 

[scorpioncapital]

Mark Faber who lives in Thailand has often talked about having your assets in varous jurisidictions. I think the key here is to have the custodian in different areas, and perhaps some bank accounts. Already I've noticed IBKR has some rule - forced on it by the Canadian Government that there is a limit to withdrawal of CAD . I'm not sure if this is if you are a customer of IBKR abroad or if you are sending cad abroad. I saw this about 1.5 years ago. IBKR said you should convert funds to usd and then make a withdrawal if you wanted over this threshold. I couldn't help but see this as a kind of soft capital control. Honestly I am far more worried about Canada instating capital controls than the USA because they are far more desperate. If you read the literature literally nobody wants to make capital investments in Canada so they were even talking about appropriating and forcing the pension funds to hold Canadian investments. I'm sure they have a long runway to raid pensions up to 100% in canadian investments before they go after you and I, but it seems they have already put limits on withdrawals of their currency abroad.

Edited 22 hours ago by scorpioncapital

[KCLarkin]

Overseas accounts is an obvious next step. But will lead to a similar question. Which broker to use? In a better world, the answer would likely be IBKR.

 

Anyway, not seeing any responses to my question. So I assume there are no good Canadian brokers for international stocks.