How to Integrate US Retirement Assets into Milestones Retirement Insights
Integrating US Retirement Assets into Milestones Retirement Insights
Question: I have a client who worked in the United States and is now working back in Canada. He has $358,000 USD in a 401K, $67,000 USD in a pension plan, and also a US pension plan that will pay out $1,517 USD monthly when he retires in 2038. I just wanted to find out the best way to illustrate this in Milestones Retirement Insights.
Answer: The first step is to convert everything to Canadian dollars (CAD) from US dollars (USD) using the current exchange rate.
$358,000 USD:Â A Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) will best approximate the 401K funds in that it has distribution minimums (but no maximums), comes out taxable, and goes in as pre-tax contributions. The one discrepancy that's possible is if there is an employer match of 401K contributions, as there are currently no employer RRSP contributions but there is for Defined Contribution (DC) Plans. In that case, I would put the market value and employee contributions into the RRSP fields and add a nominal amount ($1, say) for the DC plan market value, then input the employer contribution under a DC plan.
$67,000 USD:Â This sounds like the equivalent of our DC Pension plan, so the $1 nominal market value above may not be necessary as filling in this information will unhide the DC plan contribution fields.
$1,517 USD:Â This sounds like a monthly Defined Benefit (DB) Pension payment. Add it under the DB pension fields, ensuring it gets converted to annual rather than monthly terms. Add scheduled changes in payment (bridge) if required.
Keywords: US Retirement Assets, RRSP, Defined Contribution, Defined Benefit, Currency Conversion
For more information or to clarify any questions about using the Milestones Retirement Insights tool for comprehensive retirement income planning, reach out to us at info@milestones-retirement.com.Â
Comments