Whether you’re five years away from retirement or 20 years away from retirement, we’ll help guide you through the steps necessary to secure enough assets for your optimal retirement lifestyle. After evaluating your current financial situation, we’ll identify the income sources and opportunities that are most advantageous for you as you prepare for your life post-employment. 

We follow a 6-step financial planning process:

1. Define the Terms of the Engagement
2. Determine the Client's Goals, Needs and Priorities
3. Analyze the Information with Respect to the Client's Goals, Needs and Priorities
4. Develop and Present the Financial Plan and Strategies
5. Agree on Implementation Action, Responsibilities and Time Frames
6. Agree on Responsibilities and Time Frames for the Review and Re-evaluation of the Financial Plan

During each of the steps in the financial planning process, the 5 pillars of financial planning are always considered in order to ensure a comprehensive approach:

1. Income planning
2. Insurance
3. Investments
4. Tax planning
5. Estate planning 

Ethics: We hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards. As CFP Professionals we must abide by the code of ethics set out by FP Canada.

When it comes to leaving your money to the next generation, decisions become emotional, and we know that emotions don't help make good financial decisions.  We can help you be strategic in leaving money to the people and causes that you care about most in a way that respects your goals, wishes, and privacy.

At the end of the day money is for spending.  You'll spend it, or someone else will, but through effective estate planning you can enjoy some control over what will happen with your resources when you're gone.  

Leave more to your family without impacting your retirement.

We get everything organized so when it's time to visit the lawyer all of your ducks are already in a row.  This can make the whole process much less stressful.  We can work with your existing lawyer, or we have several competent estate lawyers that we can refer you to by request.  

We enjoy helping clients strategically leave money to their favourite causes.

Many of us have an interest in charity, but fear that leaving a large sum to charity will negatively impact our kids.  There are a number of key strategies that can help you achieve your goals.

• Donate securities with deferred capital gains in-kind, and donate the tax consequences away too.
• Leave the charity as a beneficiary on an insurance policy, to protect your privacy.
• Gift a life insurance policy now and continue to pay the premiums.
• Use products with a named beneficiary to alleviate privacy concerns.
• Use a trust to maintain control of how the money may be distributed after you're gone.

Please get in touch to talk further about how strategic you can be with your charitable wishes.  

You don’t have a choice about paying taxes, but you can avoid making the mistake of overpaying them. While it’s hard to imagine anyone intentionally paying too much in taxes, we know that poor (or lack of) planning results in exactly that. 

How much of that money is yours? Wouldn’t you rather see those funds in your bank account or put aside for your retirement or other financial goals?

Do you want to find out how you can reduce your tax burden?

You might be able to save on taxes by:

• Restructuring your investment portfolio to produce a higher after-tax return
• Shifting income to dependents in a lower tax bracket
• Splitting income with your spouse
• Claiming appropriate home office deductions
• Maximizing registered investments like RRSPs and TFSAs
• Identifying all the deductions that apply to you or your small business

If you’re like most people, your taxes represent one of your largest annual expenses (yes, even in retirement), yet often little or no planning is done to minimize your tax bill. Careful tax planning can free up money that you can use to achieve your goals. 

We work with several top notch 3rd party asset management firms to provide you with a variety of professionally run portfolios suitable for nearly any investor.  We'll help you choose an asset manager that you're comfortable with, and we'll work closely with the manager to ensure your investment approach matches your financial plan.

When you work with us, we will:

Identify Your Short- and Long-Term Objectives
As these objectives change, we’ll strategically adjust our approach according to your goals and abilities.  We'll help you select the right asset manager for your needs. 

Help Reduce Your Risk
While markets remain volatile, we can help you select a manager with a "safety first" approach.  Further, we can reduce the risk in your approach to finances outside of market returns, so when the market swings you'll know you're ok.

Follow a Timeline That’s Right For You
After outlining your objectives, we’ll design a strategy that aligns with your optimal timeline for achieving your goals.