Insights

Registered Education Savings Plans (RESP’s) are a very popular and useful way to help a loved one pay for their post-secondary education. In many cases the beneficiary of the RESP, a child or close family member, graduates high school and uses the funds in pursuit of a college diploma or a university degree. But sometimes, life changes and the beneficiary of that RESP account no longer needs the money for their education. This situation leaves the RESP holders wondering - what else they can we do with this RESP account? In this post, I offer some alternatives for families that are faced with this question.

Now that we are nearly 10 months into this "death-by-1000-cuts" bear market, you may be looking at me a little bit sideways when I say that a lot of the bad news around a possible recession, among other fears, is already priced into the market. How is this possible?

In this video, I challenge the assumption that retirees should avoid all volatility in their retirement portfolios. I look at a retiree who began retirement in 2008 with a 60% stock / 40% bond portfolio, and compared their withdrawal experience with another retiree who held only cash or short term fixed income estimates.

The decision of when to begin receiving Canada Pension Plan (CPP) benefits can have a huge impact on your retirement income plan. In this video, I walk through the CPP benefit at a high level, and talk about the factors that weigh on the decision of when to begin drawing your CPP.

In this video series, Jason and I talk about several estate planning issues facing soon-to-be retirees. Topics include passing down a family cottage, things to consider with second marriages, and how to properly give gifts and loans to your children.

In this video, I walk through the implications of taking money from your investment portfolio, and share a simple visual that explains the differences between investing while you are working and investing in retirement.

A look at global asset class returns in Q2 of 2022, and performance of the Dimensional Fund Advisors Global Portfolios.

Retirement planning starts with a vision that gets you excited and passionate. In this video, I walk through 3 exercises that can help you get clear about the things and people you want to devote time to in order to live a fulfilling retirement.