My anniversary is coming up in two weeks. For our first anniversary many years ago, I bought Carolyn a 50-piece dinner set – called a box of toothpicks. That didn’t go over so well. The next year I bought her some new golf clubs, which…
While most adult Canadians acknowledge the need to prepare for the transfer of their wealth to the next generation, there is merit in preparing for the transfer of wealth from the prior generation. Both the parent and child can benefit from engagement in a discussion…
With their mortgage paid off and no other debt, Greg and Jody Mathieson describe their financial situation as “fairly comfortable.” The residents of B.C.’s Sunshine Coast, who are 50 and 49 respectively, are on track to retire at 60, assuming they put aside significant annual…
Saying “I do” is perhaps the most rewarding and riskiest investment any individual can make, but according to experts, the stakes for high net worth clients can be exceptionally high, with millions of dollars of assets on the table. From protecting wealth to combining legacies,…
From an estate planning perspective, segregated funds are often seen as useful for minimizing potential estate administration fees (probate). Since a seg fund is an insurance product, where a beneficiary is named on the plan contract, the proceeds normally pass outside of the estate and…
The last few federal budgets have attempted to increase tax fairness and simplicity in compliance. That has impacted Canadian taxpayers in a variety of ways, particularly their ability to split income, implement effective estate and tax-planning measures, and claim various personal tax credits or other…
Registered accounts and life insurance are integral parts of your clients’ retirement and estate plans. Both allow a client to assign beneficiaries within the account or policy, or separately through her will, for instance. Beneficiary designations minimize probate tax since the proceeds fall outside the…
The Rules The cascading insurance strategy takes advantage of subsection 148(8) of Canadian tax law, which will allow you to transfer ownership of a life insurance policy to any of your children, free of tax, where a child of yours is the life that is…
It’s not unusual for grandparents to want to give money or gifts to grandchildren. And as the Canadian population ages, you may find more clients choosing to skip over their adult, and more financially secure, children in order to provide for the younger generation. Grandparents…
Many entrepreneurs don’t want to retire. “They love what they do. It’s their passion,” said Jason Safar, PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada’s Oakville, Ont.-based national private company services tax leader. But financial advisors should urge their small-and-medium-size business clients to address the subject of their retirement. “They need…