Comprehensive Financial Planning Services
We offer full-service comprehensive planning to individuals. We’re different because we’re fee-only. This means we’re free to explain all of your options and recommend a course of action that benefits you.
People use our services when they are faced with challenges in their lives. These changes may be related to financial loss or gain resulting from events such as the sale of a business, an inheritance, a career change, retirement, termination of employment, an insurance or disability settlement, divorce or separation, death of a spouse or partner, or a change in health.
The only thing we sell is the best possible advice.
What you get
- An in-depth analysis of your overall financial situation
- Cash flow and budgeting
- Retirement planning
- Tax planning
- Estate planning
Retirement planning
The retirement landscape has changed dramatically. If you’re starting to think about what retirement could look like for you, let’s look at what you can expect while you have time to make some adjustments.
There are many moving and often confusing parts:
- Understanding your current (and possibly former) company pension and savings plans
- Seeing how the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security work, and what they mean for you
- Turning your personal savings into steady retirement income
- Understanding what your tax burden will look like
- Knowing how long your money will last in your retirement years.
These are confusing issues that are hard to understand on your own.
Today it’s very important to be prepared and understand all the different options, along with their benefits and drawbacks. As pension experts, we can help you make the best decisions based on your circumstances.
So you have peace of mind to get you to, and through, retirement.
What you get
- Realistic preparation to help you achieve your desired lifestyle at retirement
- Retirement plans that set out clear financial projections for your future based on the decisions you make today
- Careful consideration of all sources of retirement income, as well as costs you may not have considered
Job offers, severance and early retirement packages
Where are you in your career? You can get help making the best, fully informed decisions for your future. By providing an unbiased look at what you’ve been offered, we can give you options and advice to maximize your financial future.
What you get
- Advice to make informed financial, tax, cash flow and investment decisions based on a job offer you may have received
- Unbiased review of severance options available to you based on the law and best practices within your industry
- Advice on how to deal with early retirement packages and choosing the option that’s right for you and your spouse (if applicable) – a decision that may need to last you 30 years or more
Pension analysis
Pensions aren’t what they used to be. Today there are many options that provide great opportunity along with various amounts of risk.
As fee-only advisors we’re not paid to sell you a product you may not need or expose you to unnecessary risk in order to maximize our own commission. We work for you.
It’s our job to understand how your pension plan works, what options are available with your other savings and determine the best possible options for your particular situation.
What you get
- Experienced pension experts working for you
- Plain language explanation of your workplace retirement savings and other arrangements
- Plain language explanation of the options available to you including expert advice and decision support
- Expert assistance in understanding and completing the various forms and other paperwork to make your decisions known
Personal life events
Life event financial planning decisions are often hastily made and emotionally driven. Reasoned and knowledgeable advice is your best protection against poor decisions based on raw emotions.
What you get
- Advice and preparation for separation and divorce
- Knowledge around issues of disability and long-term-care planning
- Clear help understanding the financial implications after a death in the family
- Understanding your options when you are notified of an inheritance
Income tax minimization
Included in your financial plans are strategies to minimize your income tax.
What you get
- Expert tax advice and preparation for complicated returns
Will and estate planning
We can’t replace attorneys. Then again, attorneys can’t replace financial advisors.
As part of our services we’ll review your will and help you understand the tax implications related to your estate needs and how this may affect your heirs.
Cash management
A realistic budget of your personal expenses isn’t a list of things you can’t afford.
It’s not a spreadsheet that forces you to use coupons and eliminate Starbucks and Tim Hortons from your life.
Budgeting is about knowing how much money comes in, and intentionally spending it on the things that are most important to you.
We’ll help you understand how you spend money today and how you’ll want to spend money in the future to reach your goals.
What you get
- A detailed breakdown of exactly how much money came in and how much money went out over the last year, summarized by category, trend-mapped by month, and projected to the next year in a draft budget