Your Financial Plan – Erven Planning

Everyone needs a financial plan. It’s a plan that guides you and your family, as your life circumstances change. It’s never too soon to start developing your financial plan as you never know what is around the corner.

Though the solutions may be different, each financial plan should cover the same essentials:

  1. Retirement
  2. Income Protection in the Event of Incapacitation
  3. Estate Planning

These three elements cover most of the significant financial events that could happen in your life, so planning for them will give you peace of mind. The best approach is to plan for these essential elements at the same time – think of them as interconnected parts of your entire financial plan. Let’s start with these questions:

  • What stage are you at in your life?
  • Where do you want to be in 5, 10, or 20 years?
  • How do you plan to get there?
  • Is your employer pension sufficient to live on?
  • When do you want to retire?
  • What do you want to do after you have retired?

The answers to these questions will help us understand what you need to make your dreams come true.

Once we have these answers we can select the right products for you.

 

RETIREMENT PLAN

Your retirement plan should not be confused with an investment plan. Our retirement planning process will help you determine:

  • How much have you saved for your retirement to date?
  • How much are you going to need to contribute going forward?
  • How will your assets grow?
  • How will you spend the funds during retirement?

Our sophisticated planning software allows us to very easily calculate several “what-if” scenarios. For example:

  • Can you retire 2 years earlier than you planned?
  • What will happen if your investments achieve a rate of return that is less than expected over the next 5 years?
  • How much can you spend to buy a second home in Arizona (or wherever), yet still have the income you need.

The second piece of software is our Retirement Income Management System. This sophisticated software helps us guide you in determining the right mix of income funds for the money that you will use for your retirement. The mix might include:

  • Annuities,
  • Registered Retirement Income Funds (RRIF),
  • Life Income Funds (LIF),
  • Company Pensions,
  • Government Pensions – Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and/or Old Age Security (OAS),
  • Individual Pension Plans (IPPs),
  • Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GIC),
  • Income Plus type segregated funds, etc.

 

INCOME PROTECTION

Best- case scenario retirement planning assumes you will be able to work until the age you decide to retire. Unfortunately, our lives don’t always follow the best-case scenario. Accidents can happen, people can get sick, or they can pass away – any of these events can disrupt your chance of working until retirement age. An income protection plan looks at the amount of disability, critical illness, and life insurance that you need in the event something unexpected happens. We will help you develop an insurance plan that can protect you from the eventualities of life. We will assess:

  • How much life insurance you need now, and 10/20/30+ years from now?
  • What is the best type of life insurance for you?
  • Do you have adequate protection in the event of a disability?
  • Should you include critical illness insurance as part of your plan?

With these questions answered we can provide reliable coverage for your future.

 

ESTATE PLANNING

Estate planning is essential to ensure that the assets you worked hard to build over the course of your life are distributed as you wish when you die.

You spend the first third of your adult life raising and caring for your family. The second third you spend building your assets to carry you through to your retirement. The final third of your adult life you enjoy the rewards of your efforts.

But, at your death, taxes could claim more of your estate than would be distributed to your heirs.

  • Income tax will be owed on about 39% of your RRSPs (based on DATE)
  • Any accrued capital gains on investments will be taxed at about 19% (based on DATE).
  • Growth in value of any secondary real estate, such as the family cottage at the lake will be taxed at about 19% (based on DATE).
  • Anywhere from 2% to as much as 49% could be paid in legal, probate and executor fees.

Proper estate planning can ensure that your family receives the full value of your life’s work. There are financial products that can offset the tax burdens and we can help you determine the right coverage.

We will work with your other advisors to help develop a plan that will have the least possible impact on the value of your estate when it is distributed to those you love.

Whether you have a firm financial plan in mind or no idea at all, we can help you make sure that you are well covered at every stage in your life.

At Erven Planning, we have the knowledge, expertise, and products to help make your financial journey a success – ask us!