Who We Serve

Individuals

Managing your finances is an important component to any financial security plan. Along with the protection offered through insurance and the goal setting provided by investment choices, money management strategies help you manage your savings on a daily basis.

From tax savings to estate planning, we can help you manage your money as effectively as possible, given your personal situation.

Saving

Depending on your stage of life, chances are you’ll have a distinct approach to saving. New graduates or young couples have different needs than retirees or mid-career families. But no matter your personal situation, we can help you develop financial habits that will lay a strong foundation for your savings.

Younger individuals have a number of benefits in terms of financial management. Low insurance costs and a long investment horizon combined with few responsibilities can make for an excellent financial base. We can help your build on these advantages, while at the same time considering a debt load that might include student loans, car payments or perhaps a mortgage.

Couples planning for a first child enter into a new level of commitment – both personally and financially. Learn how to save for a child through specialized insurance and investment products such as Registered Education Savings Plans.

Mid-career professionals typically have higher incomes than younger investors – but they also carry more responsibilities. From mortgage payments to a child’s education consider a financial plan that balances your needs and obligations.

Retirees have worked hard at their careers, and now is the time for relaxation and enjoyment. However, income levels may have changed after retirement. Find out how to manage your finances in a way that allows you to fully enjoy the fruits of your hard work.

In short, no matter your life stage, contact us to learn how to balance savings and investing with your other commitments.

Tax Planning

No one likes taxes. But through the advice of a professional financial advisor, you can access products and services that help ease the burden. Charitable contributions, life insurance policies and investment products can all be useful tools in an effective strategy. Working together, we will consider your personal situation and design a tax plan that fits your needs.

Choose from a variety of products and services, such as:

Income-splitting for spouses or common-law couples.
Charitable donations, which benefits important not-for-profit work and allows donors to maximize tax credits.
Life insurance products that build tax-advantaged capital for retirement.
Investment products that provide for tax benefits

Estate Planning

Preparing for succession after death is a difficult issue to discuss, but it is also an important part of any comprehensive financial plan.

We can help you and your loved ones approach estate planning in a constructive manner that ensures they avoid problems and are well cared for in the event of your death. The process involves 3 main considerations: life insurance, intergeneration wealth transfer, and preparing a will.

Life insurance can ease the financial burden and provide security for your loved ones in the event of your death. A lump-sum payment can be used for mortgage costs or to supplement lost income, helping your successors during a difficult period. Financial security and stability can make it easier to cope with the loss of a loved one.

A written will provides a means to guide your loved ones through the estate process. By naming your executors and providing instructions on the distribution of your estate, your surviving loved ones avoid having to guess your wishes. Rather than provincial law determining how your assets are to be divided – a situation that can result in lengthy court proceedings – a clear, carefully considered written will provides clear instructions to your successors. Save your loved ones the stress of dealing with financial issues by planning for your estate while you are alive.

Families

As the cost of a post-secondary education continues to rise, outpacing the rate of inflation, it is becoming beyond the reach of most people unless they have planned early on. For people starting a post-secondary savings plan today, questions arise as to the best way to save.

Registered Education Savings Plans

These plans are designed to help a family cover the cost of post-secondary education for their children by taking advantage of tax incentives provided through the federal government. Contributions are not tax deductible, however, the growth and the grant are subject to tax in the hands of the beneficiary at the time of withdrawal.

Lifelong Learning Plan

This plan allows for individuals to withdraw funds from their registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) to finance full-time education or training for themselves, spouse or common-law partner.

Business Owners

Growing a business is a difficult undertaking today as business owners must confront a myriad of tax laws and regulations while trying to effectively create products or services, manage their employees, develop and cultivate clients, and do so profitably.

Often times business owners are too absorbed in their business to tend to their own financial needs, and they may also overlook key planning considerations that could help their business grow and prosper. Also, the livelihood of a business owner can be imperilled when unexpected events occur that adversely affect the bottom line of the business.

Business Owner Needs

Retirement

For many business owners, their business is their primary retirement asset. After many years of building a successful business they expect to convert it to an income for retirement by selling it. If they are relying upon the business as their sole means of retirement they run the risk that it may not attain the value needed to produce the needed income.

Businesses can fail. Businesses can lose value in certain economic cycles. The timing is not always right to sell a business. Many times, the true value of the business lies in the talents and good will of the business owner who won’t be around to run the business after he retires.

Business owners today must prepare for retirement with the same level of diversification recommended for any retirement plan. Business owners have access to a number of qualified and nonqualified retirement plan options that can provide a cornerstone for their retirement income needs.

Business Succession

When a business partner dies, the business loses a valuable asset and could suffer in the short term. The long-term issue for surviving business owners is whether the business can survive when the partner’s family members show up for their interest in the business.

For the families of business partners, the business interest is often their biggest asset and they become the rightful owner of that interest at the death of the partner. They will want to receive their share of the business, either in direct compensation or through their participation as an active partner in the business.

If the surviving partner does not have the capital to compensate the family for their share, their options are limited and not very attractive. A business succession plan can provide for the orderly transfer of the business interest from the deceased’s family to the business.

Key Employee Protection

One of the more devastating events a small business can suffer is the loss of a key employee. Often times it’s a key employee who brings a special talent to the business and is responsible for much of the success of the business owner. The loss of such a valuable asset could set the business back for a period of time, and at tremendous cost, while the business owner seeks to find a replacement, if one can be found at all.

In financial planning, we are taught that our most valuable assets – our home, our ability to earn income, our cars – should be insured against an unexpected loss. It’s no different for business owners as the loss of a valuable business asset could imperil the business.

Buying life insurance coverage on a key employee makes good business sense. The amount of coverage should be enough to cover the costs of recruiting and paying a replacement, loss of earnings to the company, any redemption of stock or a salary continuation plan arrangement with the surviving family.

Employee Benefits

In a small business setting, it takes significant time and energy to attract, develop and keep employees. Reliable and talented employees may be hard to come by and it is even more difficult on the business when they walk out the door in pursuit of another opportunity.

When employees are presented with strong benefits and savings packages, they are more likely to stay and utilize their talents where they feel appreciated and appropriately rewarded.

Plans such as Group Health Insurance and Group Retirement Savings enable the business to offer current and future benefits to their employees as a reward for their continued services.

For more Business Owner Planning, please contact us today.

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