Insights

Many Canadians have children who are nearing the end of their post secondary education, and they may be holding onto RESP account balances and wondering what they should be doing with them?   For example, their child’s education costs may have been less than they anticipated, their student may have saved through part time work while they were in school, or they may have received scholarships and bursaries that more than covered their education costs.  In this video I’m going to walk through some of the options to effectively use up leftover RESP account balances.

n this video, I am going to talk about the risks of selling assets to your kids at a discount - specifically, the potential for double taxation. I will begin with introducing a hypothetical situation. Then I talk about how double-taxation occurs then give you 3 alternatives that may make the transfer of that asset to your children more smooth and tax efficient.

In this video, I am going to walk through the exact process that I step through with clients who are considering hiring me as their financial planner. I will step through the documents that I review, the discussions that we have, and the deliverable that every client gets before they make any decisions. I will outline the main components of a retirement financial plan, the criteria that you should use to measure how good or bad a retirement plan is, and to give you an idea of what it might look like to get started working with me.

In today's episode, I answer your questions, including answers to the following: 1) CPP vs OAS deferral 2) Income investment strategies 3) Inflation 4) RRSP or TFSA for children - which one is better? 5) TFSA's in Retirement 6) RRSP Meltdowns

A couple that I spoke to last week are considering selling their country home that sits on a large property. They understand that the gain on principal residences is sheltered by the principal residence exemption. But because of the size of their lot, they are concerned that there may be taxes owing when they go to sell the property. In this video, we will dig into a fictionalized situation based on this tax scenario and determine if, in fact, our sample couple Jack and Jill have a tax bill owing when they decide to sell their country home

On April 16 the Minister of Finance delivered the 2024 Federal Budget in the House of Commons. The budget contained a long list of new spending initiatives and also included new tax measures that will have a big impact on individual Canadians and businesses. In this video I am going to focus on several items in the budget that I believe will have an impact specifically for retirees and their families. 1. The New Capital Gains inclusion rates 2. Amendments to the Home Buyers Plan 3. New RESP rules 4. Automatic Tax Filing 5. My personal thoughts on the budget to close

In today’s videos I am going to briefly outline different types of life insurance, why insurance is sometimes misused, good reasons for retirees to hold life insurance and some not so good reasons that people hold life insurance in retirement.

On March 28th, 2024 the CRA announced that Bare Trusts are exempt from the new trust reporting requirements for the 2023 Tax Year. While on its face this may come as a relief - the announcement has created a significant amount of frustration with taxpayers and their professional advisors. In this video, I will explain the announcement from the CRA last week, the impact on taxpayers who may have had a bare trust reporting requirement, and the reasons why I think the government needs to take notice of their mistakes here and make changes to the way that they roll out new tax policy to avoid more pain and frustration for taxpayers in the future.

A recent study by Ipsos Reid and the OSC found that over 40% of Canadian retirees who were surveyed indicated that they do not presently have a Power of Attorney for property. This is a staggering number. The Power of Attorney for property may be one of the most important documents that you ever sign. It gives a person or persons the authority to handle your property on your behalf when you become unable to. In this video, I am going to walk through: 1. What a Power of Attorney for property document does 2. Why the document is important 3. Common issues that I see with powers of attorney and why they should be checked regularly 4. Important factors for retirees to consider when drafting a power of attorney for property

The Ontario Securities Commission surveyed 1500 Canadians age 50 and older about retirement. Their findings report was nearly 100 slides long and provides insights into several key topics for both retirees and soon-to-be retirees. I went through the report and pulled out the most eye-opening findings.