The Investment Dealers Association of Canada is reminding investors and advisors that it has achieved the adoption of RRSP relief policies with 15 additional American states during 2001.

These 15 states will now provide relief from their full registration requirements so that Canadian investment dealers can now serve Canadian clients temporarily resident there.

As RRSP season begins, this relief provides good news for the many Canadians that spend part of their winter in states south of the border.

Canadian snowbirds can now buy and sell securities in their RRSP accounts while residing in many U.S. states because their Canadian dealers are no longer subject to full registration or are exempted from registration in that state as a broker dealer in order to execute trades within the client’s RRSP accounts.

In 2001, “snowbird relief” was obtained in the key snowbird states of Arizona, California and Texas. They have also been improved or implemented through the efforts of the IDA in Connecticut, Idaho, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont, Kentucky, Oregon and South Carolina during 2001.

This relief eliminates bureaucratic hurdles for both investors and investment dealers during the critical RRSP investing period. In addition, the relief allows Canadian investors to continue to deal with their Canadian investment dealers, who know their financial circumstances and are expert in the securities in their retirement portfolios.

“This effort has not only the proximate effect of benefiting Canadians with RRSPs who are resident in the U.S., but it has enabled state regulators to better understand the Canadian regulatory system — something that will yield major dividends in terms of improving access to U.S. markets,” said Ian Russell, Senior Vice-President, Industry Relations and Representation at the IDA.

“We will be continuing to work throughout 2002 and the coming years with the remaining eighteen states and the District of Columbia, who still need to act or need to amend their existing Snowbird/RRSP rules to make them more useful for Canadian investors and their dealers,” he added.

A complete list of U.S. States that fall under the RRSP relief is available on the IDA’s Web site.