I don't think all swaps as such were banned by all brokers. If I remember correctly, what the CRA did was prohibit "advantage" swaps, designed to increase the value of the RRSP - there's weird things you can do with property, thinly traded stocks with fuzzy fair market values, and so on. But I think something vanilla, like swapping in USD to an RRSP in exchange for the equivalent in CAD at the day's exchange rate, are probably okay with CRA?pitz wrote:Of course, since swaps were banned by the discount brokers in the registered/TFSA accounts, if someone wants to change the asset allocation on funds already committed, they continue to be stuck doing Norbert's gambit inside the RRSP/TFSA itself. Or, if doing a transaction near the end of the year, in the case of a TFSA, doing a TFSA withdrawal, and re-contribution in the new year if TFSA limits are a concern.
I know that TDDI (aka TD Waterhouse) eliminated all swaps, probably to avoid any hassles - a shame, since they would actually swap their TD funds without fee. But RBCDI, for instance, still has a $35 fee listed for "Substitution or Swap: Exchange of cash or securities held in a registered plan with cash or securities of equal value held outside the plan". It would be interesting to see if that "plain vanilla" swap would be possible with them. Anyone know more about this?