Estate Planning
When I was asked if I wanted to write a Canadian Legal Wills review in exchange for a free trial of Canada’s best online will kit, I have to admit that I was embarrassed.
You see… until yesterday I didn’t have a will.
I know… statistics show that roughly half of Canadian adults don’t have a will, and only a third or so have one that is up to date.
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Last week, I wrote about the most efficient way to withdraw from your accounts during retirement. Within the article, I mentioned that while the general rule of thumb is to keep your RRSP as long as possible, there are some situations where drawing down on your RRSP first makes the most sense. This is particularly…
Read MoreIts not uncommon for families to have a designated money person. Some families may have one spouse who takes care of the bills, while the other takes care of the investments. In other cases, it may be completely one sided with one spouse taking care of the household financial issues. In our household, I’m the financial enthusiast,…
Read MoreOne topic that I’ve been thinking more about lately is estate planning. It’s a pretty morbid topic and most would rather avoid the topic altogether. However, poor estate planning can lead to a much higher tax bill than neccessary. While I’ve written about preparing a will, testamentary trusts and even living trusts, I’ve never really…
Read MoreA little while ago, I was invited to a local CIBC event that featured a presentation by Jamie Golombek. For those of you who haven’t heard of Mr. Golombek, he’s the Managing Director, Tax and Estate Planning for CIBC, and regularly publishes tax articles for the Financial Post. I was a fan of Mr. Golombek…
Read MoreI’m not sure if it’s a recent hot topic, or if it’s because my mind has been on it, but estate planning and inheritance seem to be popping up all over the personal finance landscape (see Canadian Capitalist guest post). While our current wealth is modest, I imagine that the more time our investments have…
Read MoreNow that’s a fancy title for a fairly simple concept. With a recent comment about term life insurance, it got me thinking about my mortality again. As the family Chief Financial Officer (which you probably are as well), there is a lot of financial information stored inside my head that my spouse most likely knows…
Read MoreThere are some conversations in life that are more difficult than others. Bringing up the subject of money with your aging parents or grown children has the potential to get messy. It’s a sad but true reality that our days are numbered and for the millions of aging baby boomers with their billions of combined…
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