Financial Planning
Whether it’s owning your own home, funding your children’s education, or creating a stress-free retirement, a financial plan is considered vital in working towards your goals. A well-grounded and effective plan goes beyond the realm of saving, budgeting, and investing. It also considers other elements of your financial picture, including insurance planning, tax planning, retirement planning, estate planning, and much more.
By understanding the role of financial planning in meeting your short, intermediate, and long-term financial aspirations, you'll be better equipped to control your financial future.
Our Approach to Financial Planning
- Discovering You: Our process begins with a consultative discovery meeting designed to learn more about you and your goals. This is also an opportunity for you to learn more about what we do, and see if we’re a good fit for your needs.
- Strategy Planning: Once we learn who you are, we'll start developing your personalized plan. Through our strategy-building process, we’ll create a set of personalized plans – for the short, intermediate, and long-term – that aim to fulfill your overall financial strategy. We use a consultative and iterative approach, so each session brings us closer to the financial objectives we set together.
- Implementation: Whether it’s making the right investment decisions, choosing the right insurance plan for you and your family, saving to reach your retirement goals, or creating an estate plan that preserves your legacy; our financial professionals will be right there by your side as you take each step. Through foresight, encouragement, and professionalism, we’ll make sure each step of your plan is implemented.
- Review and Support: We’ll laud you at every successful implementation of your financial plan, and help you stay on track to meet your objectives. Through plan reviews, we’ll consult with you and make modifications to your strategies and plans as needed.
Contact us today to learn more about financial planning.
Retirement Planning
Everything you do – from planning the education and designations you'd like to acquire, to starting a career& and managing your career progression – is done in the hopes that you and your loved ones can have a better life. But in all your planning, have you remembered to plan for life after work?
If you fail to plan for life after work, all the effort you’ve put into your working life may be jeopardized, and you may be left with more questions than answers. And an ill-prepared retirement is bound to be one filled with financial stress and chaos, instead of life-enriching experiences and freedom.
How We Can Help
Retirement planning shouldn’t start at retirement; it should start well before. We take a long-term view of your financial wellbeing to help create a life after work that is as well-planned as your life while working.
- Understand your goals: Through an intensely personalized approach, we discover what your retirement goals are. Whether it’s travel, a new hobby, or spending more time with the people you love, we’ll help you strive for your ideal retirement.
- Analyze your current position: To plan a meaningful retirement, you need to know where you currently stand. We’ll help you build an in-depth financial inventory to use as part of our retirement planning process.
- Develop your plan: We’ll work with you to create a retirement plan that aims to address them. When we’re done, you’ll not only have a better understanding of your investments, and what you need to fund your retirement lifestyle, you’ll also be better equipped to handle any shortfalls.
- Implement your plan: As you move closer to retirement, we’ll work with you to ensure the plans are implemented in a phased and orderly manner. The goal of our retirement planning approach is to make your transition to retirement as seamless and stress-free as possible.
- Support you in pension and benefit decisions: We’ll be here if you need advice on Government or Employer pension and benefits: when to apply, how to apply, what to do with your funds, and much more.
- Partner with you in retirement and beyond: A long and fulfilling retirement takes multiple facets of your financial picture into consideration: health care, long-term care, insurance, legacy planning, and charitable giving. Our financial professionals will be here for you when you need advice in any of these areas.
- Provide ongoing reviews: We’ll continue to review your retirement plans, and consult with you about any changes or updates needed to address your evolving retirement lifestyle needs.
Contact us today to learn more about financial planning.
Investment Planning
It’s been said that you reap what you sow. And when it comes to enjoying your investments, truer words have never been spoken. Even if you don’t have thousands of dollars to invest, simply taking the time to choose where to park your money can be rewarding.
Through developing a personalized investment strategy, diversification, and avoiding short-term distractions, we aim to help create and preserve your wealth so you reach your financial goals.
Our Investment Planning Process
- Create a point-in-time snapshot: We analyze where you are in terms of your current portfolio. In some cases, we can provide immediately actionable steps that benefit you; like leveraging tax-selling or profit-harvesting opportunities.
- Develop an investment strategy: From your snapshot, we’ll draw-up personalized investment strategies that will help you reach your financial objectives. This may be accomplished by building upon your existing portfolio or proposing a set of tax-efficient investments that are aligned with your personal financial goals.
- Implement your plan: Our dynamic approach to investment planning evolves with your changing circumstances. We’ll guide and advise you on investment plan transitions as you go through life and lifestyle changes.
- Consult, and counsel: Ours is an ongoing partnership. Throughout our relationship with you, we’ll review your investments, keep you informed, and communicate with you about proposed changes and potential risks or opportunities for your investments.
Contact us today to learn more about investment planning.
Asset allocation and diversification do not ensure a profit or protect against loss in declining markets.
Estate Planning
If you wish to leave behind a meaningful legacy, be it for loved ones or a charitable institution, you need to put a well-thought-out estate plan in place. Without an established plan, the fate of your estate could be determined by the government, lawyers, or people that may not have your interests and best wishes in mind.
Having an estate plan is paramount in ensuring your estate is handled according to your wishes. Together with your estate planning attorney, we can assist in drafting documents and reviewing your situation so your estate benefits the people and charities you care about most.
What We Can Do For You
- Will education: We can help you understand how to structure your will so your legal team can create a document that reflects how you want your estate disposed of and distributed. From a simple will to a testamentary will, or joint wills and living wills – our team will help you navigate the complexities of this document.
- Choosing executors: The executors of your estate wield strong powers that determine how your estate is handled upon your passing. We’ll help you understand the importance of choosing an executor(s) for your estate, and what criteria you should consider when appointing someone to discharge this all-important role – especially if minor children/guardians are involved.
- Designating beneficiaries: If you don’t choose beneficiaries for your assets carefully, your estate assets might end up in the hands of individuals that you never intended. A well-thought-out estate plan ensures the needs of your dependents are taken care of.
- Minimizing estate taxes and probate fees: Taxes, fees, and other levies have the potential to erode a large part of your estate before your beneficiaries see a cent. Careful planning can reduce the impact taxes and fees may have.
- Estate preservation: Even after you pass, many of your assets – such as long-term investments and property – will likely need safeguarding and management until they are disposed of and their proceeds are distributed to your beneficiaries. In the absence of an estate plan, your assets will likely not receive the type and level of preservation those assets require.
- Distribute your legacy: Our professionals can support you in synchronizing your estate plans and your will, so your assets are distributed in line with your final wishes.
Contact us today to learn more about estate planning.
Tax Planning for Business Owners
Business transactions are becoming more complex each year. And with that, the world of taxation grows in complexity as well. As the rules of doing business, within a single jurisdiction or across multiple jurisdictions, change, so does the need for assessing their tax impacts on specific transactions. As a business owner, you have other critical things to worry about – like running your business. Why not trust experts with the tax planning aspects of your business, while you focus on the rest?
Why Tax Planning Is Important For Business Owners
As a business owner, it’s hard for you to be an expert in all matters - Finance, Human Resources, Marketing, Accounting, Sales, Shipping, Procurement – and that’s why you hire the best talent to staff those roles. But many of those disparate functions have one thing in common: They have some form of tax element to them.
Business taxes can sometimes be a barrier to growth and profitability of your business. However, if planned correctly, the tax codes offer a number of valid opportunities that business owners can leverage to their advantage. Without savvy tax planning, you could literally be losing thousands of dollars a year in unclaimed rebates, benefits, charge-backs and deductions,
Whether it’s Income Tax, Employment Taxes, Estimated Taxes, Self-Employment Tax, Excise Tax, Provincial Sales Taxes or Goods and Services Taxes – the legislative environment for each of them is too complex for any single individual to master and navigate. So, when it comes to assessing and planning your business taxes, you need an experienced team of Tax Planning professionals to guide you.
What We Can Do For You
The objective of our Tax Planning service isn’t about avoiding taxes, but focused on the most effective interpretation and application of tax laws and statutes to defer, eliminate or reduce business taxes for our clients.
Our Tax Planning specialists provide invaluable advice and services to a range of business entities, including Sole Proprietorships, Partnerships, Limited Liability Companies (LLPs), Business Corporations/Incorporated Companies, Co-operative structures and Not-for-profit entities.
More specifically, we provide advice and services that include, but is not limited to:
- Reviewing and advising clients on long-term impact to their business, of tax legislation and proposed amendments
- Strategic tax planning advice to help you manage your effective tax rate
- Planning and advice on Alternate Minimum Tax, including supporting you on all paperwork and other formalities to determine amounts owing – if any
- Consultations on the tax impact on specific transactions (Sale of assets, M&A activity, Import/Export transactions)
- Providing advise on the most effective tax structures for a specific type of business
- Considerations on the most effective ways to minimize your tax burden
- Preparation of Individual, Corporate, Trust, Partnership and Sole-Owner tax returns
- Multi-state/inter-provincial tax planning advice, including compliance reviews
- Electronic tax filing so you receive your rebates, refunds and deductions quickly
- Providing tax advice to clients when dealing with Federal, State/Provincial tax authorities
- Tax planning strategies and advice around Succession and Estate planning, to ensure that your exit from the company doesn’t trigger massive tax liabilities, or that your beneficiaries aren’t saddled with undue tax burdens from their inheritance from the disposal of business assets
Contact us today to learn more about tax planning for business owners.