Cost of living, incomes are pushing Canadians south of the border
One Canadian emigrates every 20 minutes, according to Statistics Canada. That story is, perhaps, a little buried underneath Canada’s rapid influx of immigrants. Nevertheless, Canadians are leaving at a rapid pace and the majority of those emigrants are ending up in the United States.
Shiraz Ahmed is serving those emigrants. The Senior Financial Advisor & Senior Portfolio Manager of the Sartorial Wealth Team at Raymond James is a cross-border specialist. He is fully licensed in both Canada and the US, and works with a wide range of clients on cross-border issues. Those could be recent immigrants to Canada from the United States, Canadians or Americans with families, business interests, or properties on both sides of the border, or the group he sees growing rapidly now: Canadians moving into the US.
“It’s not uncommon for Americans to be born in one state, go to school in another, and settle in a third. In Canada, we tend not to leave the cities we grew up in. Now, that’s finally changing. We’re seeing mass migration within Canada and from Canada to the United States,” Ahmed says. “Canadians have been migrating south for the past few years…These are younger professionals, families, largely driven by the cost of living.”
Ahmed notes that many of these emigrants are high income individuals with in-demand skills at the peak of their earning potential. They’re also now entering a complex situation as they move across a border, possibly while maintaining family or financial connections in Canada. High earners with complex problems. In other words, these are dream clients for any financial advisor.
Capturing that market has been a focus of Ahmed’s for over a decade, and his approach has largely come down to education. Early in that work he found that Canadians and Americans were going to less than reputable sources for their cross-border information, largely online forums.
To offer a more reputable source of information he started a YouTube channel discussing a range of topics — with a playlist dedicated to cross-border questions. He says that he’s giving away many of his top tips for free on that channel but believes that by delivering credible information he has established himself as a thought leader on cross-border questions.
When clients come to him, whether from his channel or another avenue, he focuses on the nuanced issues that few others would think about. For instance, he can raisecross border tax issues, noting that while Canada and the US have a tax treaty, 13 states don’t recognize it. That includes California, which has been a draw in recent years for Canadian tech workers seeking a higher salary.
Depth and breadth of knowledge is key for any advisor looking to capture more of the cross-border market, Ahmed says. So too is a recognition of what you don’t know. Many advisors will run into questions they’ve never encountered before when serving a cross-border client. Ahmed believes the best advisors will admit when something’s out of their wheelhouse, and refer out to another professional capable of handling the question. Conversely, advisors who act like they know and apply a one size fits all solution to a nuanced problem, can be doing their clients and themselves a great deal of harm.
If an advisor really wants to break into the cross-border market, Ahmed says they should begin by looking at their firm. Some firms will have the tools and capacity to support cross-border work, while others simply don’t. From there, licensing is key. Operating cross-border means getting your US licensing done,
Ahmed believes that even after an advisor gets their US license, they still need to exercise prudence around what they know and don’t know. The work of cross-border advice is deeply complex, as it represents the confluence of three legal and regulatory areas across two countries: immigration law, tax law, and securities law. Ahmed believes that by approaching this complex area with humility and a willingness to learn, advisors can begin to master cross-border questions and capture some of the opportunity stemming from Canadian emigration.
