Can a Canadian resident in the US transfer funds from one RRSP to another?

Question

Once a Canadian resident moves to the U.S., the most common tax advice is to leave any RRSP in place in Canada because attempting to convert to an IRA or otherwise withdraw the money has some horrible tax implications.

For a while, Canadians could not manage their RRSPs after moving to the U.S. due to SEC rules. However, this order was lifted in the year 2000. Hence Canadians living in the U.S. can still maintain their RRSP investments.

However, let's say that someone had an RRSP with a brokerage that charges excessive fees and otherwise steals around 2% of your money a year. As a resident of Canada, it would be possible to transfer to a self-directed RRSP or something similar without much issue. However, if the person is living in the United States, is it still possible to do this? Many companies in Canada don't seem to allow non-residents to open new RRSPs; but is there an exception for existing funds?

It seems silly that moving out of Canada would lock someone's funds with whatever price-gouger happens to hold them at the time of departure. However, based on my research so far, this seems to be the case. Does anyone have any evidence or experience to the contrary?

Answer 1

I had an RRSP account with a managed services account at a major Cdn bank that increased its fees to $125 a year per account. Because I could not trade any of my funds living in the US, it made no sense to throw away $500 a year for nothing (two accounts for me and two accounts for my wife - regular RRSP and locked in RRSP). I was able to move all my accounts to TD discount brokerage without any issue. I did this two years ago.