Your wealth, managed wherever life takes you.
Relocating abroad for work, retirement, or family doesn’t have to mean cutting ties with your Canadian investments. Frontwater manages your accounts with the same care, discipline, and transparency you’d expect at home — without leaving you to navigate it alone from a different time zone.
Home stays in view — wherever life takes you.
An underserved corner of the Canadian market.
As an independent, fee-based portfolio manager, our advice is built around your goals, not product sales. That independence matters even more when you’re managing a cross-border financial life with moving parts in two or more jurisdictions. We’re well suited to Canadians whose circumstances put them in a non-resident position:
Professionals on assignment
Working overseas while keeping your Canadian accounts intact — managed to the same standard as if you were still down the street.
Retirees & snowbirds
You’ve established non-resident status but still draw on Canadian-registered income. We manage the accounts and coordinate the tax details with your advisor.
Canadians who have emigrated
You’ve put down roots in a new country and need an experienced hand to manage the investments you left behind in Canada.
Families with cross-border ties
Coordinating wealth across more than one country — often across more than one generation — with a single, consistent point of contact.
Straight talk about investing from outside Canada.
We believe in being upfront about the realities of investing as a non-resident — and a move across borders is also a good moment to revisit your financial plan. A few things worth knowing before we begin.
Eligibility depends on where you live
Whether we can manage your account is governed by the securities laws of your country of residence as well as Canadian regulation. We confirm this with you before we begin.
Registered accounts behave differently once you’re a non-resident
Rules around contributions, withdrawals, and the tax treatment of accounts like RRSPs, RRIFs, and TFSAs change when you leave Canada — and your TFSA may not be recognized as tax-sheltered in your new country. We help you manage what you hold and coordinate the tax details with your tax advisor.
Withholding tax may apply
Income and withdrawals paid to non-residents are generally subject to Canadian withholding tax, often reduced under a tax treaty between Canada and your country of residence.
This isn’t tax advice
Cross-border tax is complex and personal. We work in concert with a qualified cross-border tax professional rather than replacing one.
You don’t have to be American to owe U.S. estate tax.
You don’t have to be a U.S. citizen, hold a green card, or live in the United States. What triggers it is owning U.S.-“situs” assets — most commonly shares of U.S. companies. Holding Apple, Microsoft, or a U.S.-listed ETF directly counts, even when those shares sit in a Canadian or other non-U.S. brokerage account. The location of your account doesn’t change the situs of the asset.
Estate-tax exemption for someone who is neither a U.S. citizen nor U.S.-domiciled — versus the multi-million-dollar exemption U.S. persons receive.
Potential U.S. estate-tax rate on U.S.-situs assets above that threshold.
Have no U.S. estate-tax treaty to soften the result — leaving the low exemption as all you have.
The result is a real and often invisible risk: a globally mobile investor can accumulate a meaningful position in U.S. stocks, never set foot in the country, and still leave their heirs exposed to tax on the U.S. portion of the estate — along with the friction of an IRS filing before assets pass.
How we factor this into portfolio construction
Where it suits a client’s circumstances, we can build U.S. and global equity exposure using Irish-domiciled UCITS funds rather than U.S.-domiciled funds or directly held U.S. shares — the same disciplined, low-cost foundation behind our managed ETF portfolios. It’s a well-established approach for non-U.S. investors that addresses both the estate-tax and the income-tax angles at once.
Outside the reach of U.S. estate tax
An Irish-domiciled UCITS fund is not a U.S.-situs asset, so it generally falls outside the scope of U.S. estate tax — even though it may hold the very same U.S. companies underneath.
Less tax “leakage” on dividends
Under the U.S.–Ireland treaty, U.S. dividends flowing into an Irish fund are typically withheld at 15% rather than 30%, and Ireland imposes no withholding on distributions to non-residents.
An added deferral option
Accumulating share classes reinvest income inside the fund rather than paying it out, which can defer tax for investors whose home country taxes distributions.
The same market exposure
These funds track the same indices and hold the same underlying companies as their U.S.-domiciled counterparts — you’re changing the wrapper, not giving up the investment.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer. The right structure depends on your residence, treaty position, reporting obligations, and goals — and UCITS funds aren’t suitable or available for everyone (for example, they’re generally not offered to U.S. persons). We put any structure in place in coordination with your tax advisor, never as a blanket rule.
This section is general information, not tax, legal, or estate-planning advice. Frontwater Capital is not an accounting or tax firm and does not provide tax advice. Figures and treaty outcomes described here reflect a general understanding of the rules and can change; individual outcomes depend on your country of residence and any applicable tax treaties. We work alongside qualified cross-border tax and legal professionals to confirm what applies to you.
Managed at home. Reachable from anywhere.
The distance shouldn’t change the standard of care. Here is how a non-resident relationship runs day to day.
Discretionary portfolio management
We manage your accounts day to day against a strategy we agree on together, so your investments keep working whether you’re in Toronto or Tokyo, London, Kuala Lumpur, Delhi, or Tel Aviv.
A single point of contact
You work directly with your portfolio manager — not a call centre — by email, phone, or video, on a schedule that works across time zones.
Clear, consolidated reporting
Straightforward reporting on performance, holdings, and fees, so you always know where you stand without digging through statements.
Coordination with your other advisors
We work alongside your accountant or cross-border tax specialist so your investment strategy and tax planning stay aligned.
What clients abroad ask first.
I’m not a U.S. citizen and I don’t live in the U.S. Can I really owe U.S. estate tax?
Does holding U.S. shares in my Canadian (or other) brokerage account protect me?
What kinds of assets are “U.S.-situs”?
If I use Irish-domiciled UCITS funds, am I giving up exposure to U.S. markets?
Does any of this eliminate tax in my country of residence?
Can Frontwater manage my account if I live outside Canada?
Is this tax advice?
The questions most investors never see coming.
Investing across borders raises tax and estate questions many investors simply aren’t aware of. We don’t provide tax advice, but understanding these issues is part of how we build and structure portfolios — and we coordinate with your cross-border tax professional on the specifics. Here are the points non-resident investors are most often surprised by.
How Canada typically treats investment income for non-residents
Frontwater Capital is a portfolio manager — not a professional accounting or tax firm — and does not provide tax advice. The points below are general information only; please confirm how they apply to your situation with a qualified cross-border tax professional.
Canada generally does not tax non-residents on gains from publicly traded shares, mutual funds, or ETFs — these typically aren’t “taxable Canadian property” (mainly Canadian real estate and private-company shares). Selling publicly traded holdings as a non-resident often means no Canadian capital gains tax and no Canadian filing on the gain.
Interest paid to a non-resident who deals at arm’s length with the payer is generally exempt from Canadian withholding tax.
Canadian-source dividends remain subject to Canadian withholding tax — commonly 25%, often reduced by a tax treaty between Canada and your country of residence.
Everything above describes Canadian tax only. Your country of residence will generally tax your worldwide income, which can include these same gains, interest, and dividends. Whether you come out ahead depends on local law and any applicable treaty — which is exactly why we coordinate with a tax professional in your jurisdiction rather than looking at the Canadian picture in isolation.
If you want a professional view on whether and how we can help, get in touch for a no-obligation conversation. We’ll confirm eligibility for your country of residence, review what you hold, and outline what a non-resident mandate would look like for your situation.