Accumulating wealth, like any great achievement, requires creativity, skill and perseverance. To make the most of your wealth, you need a plan that will help you achieve all of your financial goals, today and in the future.

Financial and estate planning provides the opportunity to plan for your financial future and to ensure you can leave a lasting legacy that reflects your personal values. With a financial and estate plan, you can establish your goals, prepare for the unexpected, and define your legacy according to your priorities.

Retirement Planning

Retirement means different things to different people. However you see your retirement, one of the most important components of planning is time. Starting today will help ensure that you reach your retirement goals and objectives. Remember than all planning is a continual process that requires review and updating. Also remember that how you feel today about certain issues will probably change over time.

"The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now."
- Chinese proverb

To achieve your retirement goals, you need to have a plan for how it will unfold. We will discuss your reasons for retiring, your degree of readiness, where you plan to live, what you plan to do, and what you want your retirement to be like. We will look at your current situation and outline the options for realizing your goals. We employ effective methods to reduce and defer tax on investments, split income, enhance after-tax growth of wealth, and preserve accumulated capital.

Tax minimization

This is a key area on which we focus in order to preserve your portfolio. We discuss how methods of minimizing and deferring tax, and splitting income could benefit your situation. We also minimize tax through coordinating our efforts with those of our clients' tax accountants. Helping investors to ask the right questions of their accountants, and helping the accountants to understand their clients' investment perspectives can result in better returns today and lower taxes in the future.

Estate Planning

Estate Planning is about life – the present and the future. Most importantly, estate planning is about your family and the peace of mind that you will have knowing that you are helping to provide for their financial security.

Whether your estate is of large or modest size, you should prepare an estate plan as part of your total financial strategy, and based on solid financial planning principles. This plan will be personalized to your own situation, using a combination of disciplines and laws to express your wishes for the accumulation, conservation and distribution of your assets in a tax-efficient manner.

Working together with your lawyer and other trusted advisors, we will ensure that your investment accounts and other assets are arranged to best reflect your wishes for passing your wealth to your heirs or any philanthropic causes that you feel passionate about.

"As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others."
- Audrey Hepburn

Insurance solutions

There is a wide range of insurance solutions that may be used to effectively help investors to supplement their retirement income or offset taxes at death. As licensed Insurance Agents, we have the knowledge and expertise to combine investing with insurance strategies for short- and long-term advantages.

We start by conducting a thorough review and analysis of the existing insurance policies held by all of our new clients and provide an objective assessment of their values and merits. We may be able to recommend more cost-effective alternatives and discuss the tax advantages of various strategies.

Insured Annuities

The most common question that we hear from investors is, "Will I have enough?" We all want to feel confident that we'll have a steady level of retirement income that will afford us the long, healthy retirement that we envision, and that won't run out too soon. In the past, traditional investment vehicles such as bonds, T-bills, and GICs were popular choices to achieve the retirement goals of income generation, safety and preservation of capital. However, in today's economy, the after-tax rate of return of these options may not be enough income to meet your needs.

There is an alternative strategy that provides income that is guaranteed for life and upon death, pays your originally invested capital to your beneficiaries directly, without the usual estate-related hassles and costs. The Insured Annuity strategy can preserve the value of your estate, minimize income taxes and most importantly, guarantee an income stream for the rest of your life.

Increasing your retirement income

When we evaluate whether the Insured Annuity strategy is right for you, we look at purchasing two contracts: a permanent life insurance policy and a prescribed Life Annuity. We use your non-registered cash to generate a guaranteed income, at a rate higher than typical fixed income investments and that you and your spouse cannot outlive. With a Life Annuity, each payment is actually a blend of interest and your original capital, where only the interest portion is taxable.

Tax-free inheritance to your beneficiaries

Part of the annuity payment is used to pay the life insurance premium. This guarantees that at death, the annuity payments to you will stop and the full amount of your original investment will be paid tax-free to your beneficiaries. Because of the special tax treatment afforded by the annuity and the life insurance policy, the after-tax return on the Insured Annuity concept may be significantly greater than can be found on conventional interest-bearing investments.

Things to consider

This strategy is suitable for those who are between the ages of 60 and 85, risk-adverse, dissatisfied with currently low interest rates, and in good health (to qualify for life insurance).

It is essential that we take the time to review your personal situation and all of the income-generating investment options that are available, before making any decision. Once the annuity is purchased, you cannot cancel the contract – it is locked-in for life. It is also wise to diversify, and not move all of your investment assets into the Annuity, just in case something unexpected should occur that requires some of your investment capital.

Summary

The Insured Annuity strategy can generate a guaranteed, lifetime net income that is typically much higher than what you can achieve with other fixed income vehicles. As well, by directing the capital to named beneficiaries, you can avoid unnecessary estate costs and delays.

We would be happy to answer your questions about Insured Annuities, and have an objective discussion about whether they might be a suitable addition to your financial retirement plan.