Looking to Move from Canada to the U.S.?

During the NHL playoffs, hundreds (if not thousands) of Canadian head to America to watch their favorite teams play hockey.

After getting a taste of the American lifestyle, some of them might want to stick around a while. That's where

comes in. "We started in 1990 and we serve Canadians looking to move and/or invest into the U.S.," Dale Walters, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Compliance Officer of KeatsConnelly, told Benzinga. "Occasionally we have an American or Canadian looking to go into Canada, but 90 percent of our business is southbound." KeatsConnelly serves high-net worth clients in the $2 million range, all the way up to

high-net worth clients with a billion dollars. "We do everything for them, including how to get them into the U.S. legally, so it would be immigration planning," said Walters. "We [help with] health insurance, tax planning, what to do with your retirement plan from Canada. Estate planning -- everything from A to Z. "We have three offices now. We started in Arizona, we opened an office in Florida about eight years ago, and we opened an office in Calgary of May last year. We have about 38 employees in total." Most of KeatsConnelly's customers come from Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. They primarily move to big retirement states like Florida, Arizona and California. "Some of them come for business and they'll obviously go anywhere their business takes them," said Walters. "But those who are retiring move further south." If things go as planned, KeatsConnelly hopes to open another Florida office (around the west coast, possibly in Naples) and one in Toronto. Even without an office expansion, KeatsConnelly is growing. "We're looking at acquiring firms right now, but we're not really looking for individuals, per se, unless some talented person happened to come along," said Walters. "Then we'd find a spot for him. But we're not actively looking for individuals -- we are actively looking for firms to acquire. "The smaller firms, where we're just taking in an employment contract, we're not really buying them. Then there's the other side, where you're talking about a firm with maybe a billion dollars in assets, which we'd buy." Walters said that the reason for the disparity is because of the expenses that are involved in acquiring other businesses. "If you're going to do an acquisition, the legal costs for us would probably be in the range of $200,000," said Walters. "So you don't want to be buying a half-million-dollar firm and spending $200,000 to do it. So either go large or go smaller and basically hire the individuals. "We're not just looking for assets or revenue. We're looking for some kind of combination, where 1 + 1 = 3. So if it's a one-man show that's about to retire, that's nothing. I'm just buying assets. But if you have a staff there that's relatively young and talented, then that's something we look at. Or if they're in a geographic market or if they have a niche -- something extra -- that would be of interest to us."