Speculation on U.S. exchange rate?

[NancyK]

Hi,
A friend of mine just received an inheritance in U.S. dollars. She's wondering if she should convert it to Canadian now or leave it in a U.S. dollar account for the time being. Now - I know that's a question that no one has the answer for, but has anyone heard what the experts are saying? Is our dollar expected to continue its rise against the U.S. dollar or is it expected to fall? Thanks.
Nancy

 

[CharlesTD]

Hi,
A friend of mine just received an inheritance in U.S. dollars. She's wondering if she should convert it to Canadian now or leave it in a U.S. dollar account for the time being. Now - I know that's a question that no one has the answer for, but has anyone heard what the experts are saying? Is our dollar expected to continue its rise against the U.S. dollar or is it expected to fall? Thanks.
Nancy

The folks at TD are expecting it to continue to rise I exchanged some money today at 16 cents on the dollar and they figure it will his close to 10-12 cents by Dec or so they are predicting.

 

[pampam]

If she's planning a trip to U.S. (WDW) she can just open up a U.S.$$ account and save the conversion charges.

 

[PrincessNED]

I'm a financial planner with CIBC. Our economics dept is calling for it to increase to about 90 through summer then falling back to 82-83 thereafter . But to be honest its a crap shoot in the short term and nobody knows.

best advice I'd give her without knowing much is that if this is a signifigant amount for her situation and she's planning on paying down debts/mortgages then I'd convert and at least know what she has to work with.

If she plans to invest for the long term - keep it in US and buy a good US large cap mutual fund ( you can get them in USD). Cdn $ cannot stay this high forever without really hurting the exporters/manufacturing industries. And US stocks in the long run are great investments.

 

[NancyK]

Thanks for your input.

 

[PrincessNED]

my pleasure - if your friend needs any specifics PM me details or I could recommend a colleague in their town.