Canadian RRSP as U.S. resident — best way to lower fees?

I’m a Canadian citizen now living in the U.S., and no longer a Canadian tax resident.

I have a ~$85k RRSP at RBC Royal Mutual Funds, currently invested in a Series A mutual fund (~2% MER). I won’t have new RRSP contribution room going forward, so this is essentially a fixed, long-term account.

I wanted to move it to a self-directed brokerage and buy ETFs, but as a non-resident, Canadian brokerages (including RBC Direct Investing) restrict trading.

I’m now considering transferring the RRSP to a fee-based advisor platform (e.g. RBC Dominion Securities) purely to access Series F or low-MER index mutual funds, not for active management.

Before I do that, I’m hoping to sanity-check:

• Is this the cleanest way to reduce fees as a non-resident?
• Are there other Canadian institutions or setups that work better?
• Any pitfalls I should watch for before transferring?

Appreciate any firsthand experiences or alternative ideas.