Wealth Management

Review our year end tax tips to discover a number of perfectly valid actions you may still be able to take before the end of the year to cut your taxes and to optimize your wealth management planning. As tax planning specialists, we can help you decide exactly what to do, when to do it

An advantage to being self-employed is that you don’t pay into Employment Insurance (EI) like employees do. However, a program was introduced in 2010 which allows self-employed individuals to opt in to pay Employment Insurance (EI) premiums. Now that this has been in effect for a number of years, let’s revisit some of the key

Did you know that if you are receiving CPP benefits, are still working and are between the ages of 65 and 70, you can elect to stop making CPP contributions. Contributing to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) is mandatory for working Canadians between the ages of 18 and 64, but optional after age 65. This

If you have sold your home and it is your principal residence then you should be able to use the principal residence exemption to reduce or eliminate any capital gain for income tax purposes on the sale of the property. CRA states that a principal residence can be a house, cottage, condominium, apartment, trailer, mobile

An RESP is an education savings account that is registered with the Government of Canada that helps you save for a child’s or grandchild's post-secondary education. With an RESP, you may be able to receive other saving incentives, such as the: Canada Learning Bond Basic and Additional Canada Education Savings Grant There are two different types

If you are in a much higher income tax bracket then your spouse and have investments outside of an RRSP or TFSA then a spousal loan could reduce your taxes. Money that is earned directly by you through employment or investing is considered yours and can’t just be given to your spouse to invest. 

When you make a charitable donation, one of the key benefits you receive is the donation tax credit on your tax return. In order to be able to claim a charitable donation and get a credit, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requires that individuals keep supporting documents and proof of payment (i.e. cancelled cheques, pledge

Asking for a clearance certificate A clearance certificate certifies that all amounts for which a deceased taxpayer is liable to Canada Revenue Agency for have been paid.  If a clearance certificate is not obtained upon a taxpayer’s death, as the legal representative, you can be liable for any amount the deceased owes.  A

Eventually investors move from the “saving-years” to the “drawing-years”, when they want to start drawing retirement income from their portfolios. This can be confusing. For many the natural inclination is to liquidate their diversified portfolio in favor of income-producing stocks or bonds. However, the idea that retired individuals should load up on dividend-paying common shares

We have all been told to plan for our retirement.  Yet, have you ever wondered why? You need to consider the different retirement planning alternatives. Perhaps you have a plan, most people do, but is it the right plan? In the following example, it is clear how advanced planning can make a huge difference for you

If you are considering a direct beneficiary designation for either a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) or a Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF), you should be aware of some negative consequences that can occur. A direct beneficiary designation can result in unintended tax consequences to the estate, the inequitable treatment of heirs or the distribution

What's the best strategy for structuring the legal ownership of your home? The answer is...it depends. Are you asking for tax planning purposes or for estate planning purposes? Often you may be advised that it's important for you to have the title of your home shared with somebody else so that if something were

Fees and expenses are the single biggest reason professional money managers fail to outperform the market return. Learn a little more about what are reasonable fees and what makes up most investment fees.

Are you a US citizen? Do you spend more than 120 days per year in the US? If so you may be required to file a US personal tax return.

It is very common for owner-managers to draw funds from their company during the year and find themselves with an outstanding shareholder loan at year end. These balances are often cleared up by recording dividends or bonuses to the shareholders and the problem is solved.  If the loan is not repaid during the fiscal

RRSPs are one of the few last minute and flexible deductions available to people with employment income from a T4. However, if you are an owner of the business and have some control over your salary, you should consider some of the other alternatives first. Even if you can’t control your own salary you should

If one of your New Year’s resolutions was to save more money, then the Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) may be a good option for you to use. Learn more about the TFSA rules and limits.

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) made a major change to the Principal Residence Exemption that affected Canadians when filing their 2016 tax returns. Regardless of whether the sale is exempt or not, individuals are now be required to report the sale of their principal residence on their personal tax return. Under the Principal Residence Exemption

The amount of CPP benefits that you are eligible to receive depends on how long you earned employment income, and how much you earned in those years. You can visit the My Service Canada website to see how much you have paid in to CPP over your working years. This information is used to calculate

An allowable business investment loss can arise in many ways: 1)      Through a disposition of shares in a small business corporation 2)      Through a disposition of debt owed to you by a small business corporation 3)      When amounts that you have loaned to a small business corporation become uncollectible, or the corporation has gone bankrupt

CPP death benefit The CPP death benefit is a one-time, lump-sum payment to the estate of the deceased contributor.  It must be applied for within 60 days of the decedent’s date of death. The CPP death benefit can be paid to: The estate of the decedent(if there is an estate) The person who paid the

If you left the work force or reduced your working hours to be the primary caregiver for your children, it will likely be to your benefit to apply for the CPP child rearing provision when applying for CPP benefits. To apply for the CPP child rearing provision you would complete section 11A in the application

What is the value of deferring my OAS benefits, sometimes also called OAS pension, to a future year? There are several reasons why you might want to defer your OAS benefits, such as: 1)     Based on current and future sources of income you may be able to keep thousands more. 2)     You’re planning to work past 65

Here are our top 4 financial tips for the new parent: Apply for a Social Insurance Number (SIN) for your child: It’s a good idea for you to apply for a Social Insurance Number for your child as soon as they are born. This way, you will not be left scrambling to obtain one when your

Beginning July 2016, the Liberal government combined the Canada Child Tax Benefit, National Child Benefit Supplement and the Universal Child Care Benefit into the Canada Child Benefit. Under the new Canada Child Benefit, families with children under the age of 18 will be eligible for a maximum annual benefit of $6,400 ($533 per month) per

Buying or building a new home? Did you know that if you purchase a new home or have substantially renovated your own, you can claim a rebate on the GST or HST you paid through CRA’s new home rebate. What qualifies? Your home must meet the following conditions: Must be you or your relation’s primary

The Home Buyers Plan (HBP) is a program that allows you to withdraw up to $25,000, per person from each of your RRSP accounts in a calendar year to buy, or build, a qualifying home. To be eligible for the Home Buyers Plan, the following must be met: You must be considered a first-time

Starting for 2016 taxation years, inter vivos trusts, trusts created by will and certain estates will be subject to the top taxation rate. There are two exceptions to this change: graduated rate estates and qualified disability trusts. Graduated tax rates will still apply to these types of estates and trusts. Income earned and retained in

A power of attorney for property is a written document by which a grantor appoints an attorney to act as a substitute decision maker with respect to the grantors property or financial affairs. This grant of power becomes effective immediately upon the grantor signing the document unless otherwise indicated. While a General Power of Attorney

Provincial legislation is periodically updated. In Alberta, a revised Wills and Succession Act came into effect in 2012, an updated Estate Administration Act was passed in 2015 and now an initiative is underway to co-ordinate the Trustee legislation across Canada. The Alberta Trustee Act is the provincial legislation governing the administration of trusts. A trust

An estate planning gifting strategy is basically when you start to give away some of your assets prior to death in order to optimize taxes within the family. Usually, an estate planning gifting strategy refers to how we will distribute our assets when we die.  But you might be overlooking significant tax savings by not

If you haven’t reviewed your Unanimous Shareholder Agreement (USA) recently, here are 3 excellent reasons why you should do so:  In 2006, the Federal Budget introduced a second dividend rate. Corporate earnings in Alberta, up to $500,000 are taxed at 14%; when a dividend is paid to an individual shareholder this “ineligible-dividend” is taxed

Congratulations! You just sold and realized a profit on that promising investment (stock, mutual fund, ETF etc.). When you’re done planning how to spend your windfall you might also consider how much tax you owe on that gain. Unless the sale occurred within a non-taxable RSP or TSFA. Normally, this is fairly straightforward. You

The investment industry and media often refer to the “market” and the “market return”. Or that the market was up or down on the day and that a portfolio manager's return outperformed or underperformed the market return. So what exactly do they mean and how does it relate to you? The market generally refers to

You can start receiving CPP pension benefits when you reach age 65 (the month after your 65th birthday) which will entitle you to a full CPP benefit depending on how much and how long you have contributed to the CPP. However, you have the following choices: Take a reduced CPP retirement pension as early as

When you have a job transition, you may transfer your pension plan savings to a locked-in-retirement account (LIRA). LIRA’s are similar to Retirement Savings Plans (RSP’s) but with more restrictions. Adding another investment account will also add extra administration to managing your retirement savings. Alberta pension legislation allows people age 50 or older to transfer

There are no immediate repercussions for the change in business use of property from capital to inventory. The differences arise upon sale of the real estate. There is no provision in the Income Tax Act which describes the circumstances in which gains from the sale of real estate are to be determined as being either

Our best technique for protecting portfolios is called Modern Portfolio Theory. This Nobel Prize winning idea said it is insufficient to look at investments in isolation as is done in the traditional approach of picking stocks and bonds. Rather rational investors will seek out “efficiently diversified portfolios” offering the highest expected return for each level

Do you want a portfolio that’s vulnerable to wild swings in value? Likely not. In fact less volatile portfolios are both easier on the stomach and they help you achieve better long-term returns. For example, a portfolio that declines 10% this year requires an increase of 12% next year to recover its losses. If your

If you have a child that is 10 years old or younger (born in Alberta between January 1, 2005 and March 31, 2015) they are eligible for a one-time $500 grant from the provincial government. However, you only have until July 31, 2015 to submit the form and apply for this grant before it ends

Investors often remark that the world economy has changed and that it's more volatile than ever. They are less trusting of stock markets and they don't want to take risk. I can't say I blame them. I might ask though, if the world has changed, if it is more volatile, "how are you changing the

When it comes to interest rates here in Canada and around the world, the only thing we know is that we don’t know. For the past 4 years economists around the world have expected interest rates to increase and not go lower. What we do know is that Stephen Poloz, the Governor of the Bank

It may be obvious to state that an investor only keeps the after-tax return. It is less obvious how to minimize the tax leakage from your portfolio. A good starting point is to identify the two primary causes of tax; portfolio turnover and an inefficient portfolio structure. Taxes resulting from portfolio turnover can cost you

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Joe Oliver recently announced a “Family Tax Cut” credit which allows certain Canadian families to reduce their overall federal income tax. This relief will be available starting in 2014. The new measure would allow a higher income spouse to shift a portion of their income to a lower

Beginning in July of 2014, Canadian financial institutions will be required to start gathering and reporting information on accounts held by U.S. residents and U.S. citizens, including those who are resident of Canada. The account information will be collected and reported to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), who will then transfer the information

Do you make investment decisions according to what looks good at the moment? These purchases are often based on opinion and influenced by emotion. It can be exciting - much like buying lottery tickets. Clearly, following a predetermined, diversified, well-thought-out, long-term investment strategy is preferable. Here’s why. Dalbar’s study[1] of investor behavior shows how investor

One thing frustrated investors often lament are their returns. So here's a question. Do you know what your returns really are? Find out more about how to measure your returns including some great but simple investment benchmarks over the last 5 years.