Don't expect to never, ever return to Canada. Even with a POA they might want to see that you're actually alive to start paying out your pension, otherwise the world would be full of mysteriously long-lived but elusive retired Canadians with mysteriously rich lawyers.

You think the banks didn't make billions in profit back then?

These days, banks don't need deposits to be able to lend money. Central banks provide the liquidity at almost zero interest. In fact, if your bank has too much money on deposit and needs to put it somewhere safe, the Central Bank will actually *charge* them to put it on deposit with them - they get less money back than they put in. That's why you don't get interest on your account any more. The upside? Mortgages at rates of low single percentage points. (My last two mortgages were written before anyone thought EURIBOR could go negative, and one of them almost got to a negative *effective* rate to me!) So no, a bank is not an institution that uses your money and pays you for it - a bank is an institution that stores your money and makes it instantly available to you anywhere in the world, and you pay it for that.

No different than the massive complaints here on HUBB when Flickr or Photobucket started to charge for their services. You want a convenient service? You have to pay for it. No other way.