We hear a lot about financial literacy these days as Ottawa promotes its efforts to educate Canadians about money management, saving and investing.  Clearly, the first steps begin with our kids, and not just in the classroom. Parents, grandparents, and other caregivers can provide some of the building blocks to economic maturity by sharing their own experiences with money.  Here are 3 ways you can help them understand basic financial concepts. Let them manage their own income.  It’s important for your kids to have their own money to manage – and mismanage.  They will learn a lesson (albeit painful sometimes) when they spend their entire allowance on an impulse purchase. Help them set goals and allocate their money.  Set goals for donating, savings and spending and give them separate piggybanks to allocate the chosen portion of the money they earn. Show them the power of compound growth.  Open a savings account, GIC or other ...

Got a refund?  Think RRSP If you anticipate receiving a tax refund, you may already be dreaming about how to spend it – maybe a trip or a new IPad.  Here’s a better idea:  use your refund to top up your RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan) and enjoy a bigger nest egg when you need it. If you contribute now for the current year, you will be putting your money to work almost a year earlier than those who wait until the the last minute.  You will maximize the tax savings and tax-deferred growth that make RRSPs so attractive in the first place. Let’s say your reinvest your tax refund of $2,000 in your RRSP.  You will then have a $2,000 tax deduction for 2010 representing a $700 tax savings (assuming a 35% marginal tax rate).   Not bad for reinvesting the government’s money!  If you invested this $2,000 tax refund for 30 ...

Long term care services address the health, social and personal care needs of individuals who have lost the ability to care for themselves. While a certain degree of public support is available, government programs are not comprehensive and long term care services can be costly.  Long term care insurance (LTCI) helps to pay for the care of services that other plans don’t provide, or works to bridge the gap between what is provided and the extra care or services you might prefer. LTCI helps to cover the costs, meaning:     You have more choices around the kind of care and amount of care you'll receive. Either professionals or family members can provide care. Your savings and investments can be preserved. There are many misconceptions about what the government provides and pays for, and what extended ...

It is great to see that we are moving further towards consumer education and financial literacy in our country.  A large part of our jobs as financial advisors is to raise the education and awareness of our clients, so they are more comfortable making decisions and more importantly, sticking to their decisions.  A new guide has been released that helps consumers understand the basics of insurance. Here is a clip from the FCAC's recent Press Release: "The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) is officially launching its new publication, Understanding Insurance Basics. This publication provides a definition of insurance, and explains how it works and why we might need it. "Insurance is an important part of financial planning, but the field may sometimes be daunting," says FCAC Commissioner Ursula Menke. "This new publication is a starting point for your research: it describes the most common types of ...

Take a few minutes out of your busy day to really listen.  Our own Deborah Wood introduces you to one of her longest standing, and most grateful clients.

www.SmallBizAdvisor.ca, brought to you by the editorial teams at Benefits Canada and the Advisor Group, goes live today. This one-stop destination for advisors with small businesses or entrepreneurs as clients addresses important issues surrounding the group benefits and retirement industries from the small business perspective. Featuring regular news articles and in-depth features on relevant small business topics written by Canada’s top experts in the group benefits and retirement markets, www.SmallBizAdvisor.ca is poised to become the go-to resource for Canadian small business advisors. Creative Planning Financial Group's president, Rob Franklin, and Darren Hanser provided www.SmallBizAdvisor.ca with two articles which can be found by following these links: Article 1:  Introduction To Taxation Of Group Benefits Article 2:  A Benefits Plan Or Larger Salary? Visit www.SmallBizAdvisor.ca today to read these and other stories.

We are constantly receiving information from the insurance and financial industry.  We are going to now post a weekly summary of pages we feel will impact our clients.  These may include updates from our partners at the insurance carriers, updates on tax related issues from industry associations, or just interesting thoughts from our peers. Here are some from the past week: 1.  The results from the latest CPP Actuarial Report concludes that the current legislated contribution rate is sufficient to meet the CPP's future obligations: 25th Canada Pension Plan Actuarial Report 2.  Women, as main caregivers, take a hit in retirement.  This is a great article outlining the experience of when Dr. Amy D'Aprix, coincidently a gerontological social worker, spent a decade caring for both of her parents. Globe and Mail Article - "Women And Retirement" 3.  In a special to the Globe And Mail, Preet Banerjee discusses the ...

Of course it is!  Often quoted pension actuary, Malcolm Hamilton, finds in the Nov 27, 2009 Retirement Savings Research Program that for a 65 year old opposite-sex couple: at least one will live to approximately age 90; approximately 10% of couples will have one partner that lives 8 years beyond the normal life expectancy; approximately 1% of couples will have one survivor who lives 14 years beyond the normal life expectancy.  That's impressive! What does this mean to you? Couples entering retirement at age 65 can expect to have at least one partner still receiving income at age 90.  That's 25 years of income that needs to be provided by all sources.  This could be from the Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security, RRSP/RRIF income, private pensions and other investment assets. In partnership with Investor ...

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There are changes with permanent life insurance pricing coming in the next few months. One Major carrier has given us advance notice that there is to be approximately a 10% average increase in rates for all permanent life insurance; This 10% average means that some age groups will see no changes, but others will see very significant increases in pricing (20%-40%)! The same carrier will be implementing a 0.5% reduction to the contractual guaranteed interest rates offered within tax sheltered policies. (The guarantee is contractual for life); In the past few years, there has been an expectation that insurance rates would be increasing, as a large assumption in pricing these policies is the interest rate environment; Background can be found in a recent report by the Conference for Advanced Life Underwriting (CALU):  CALU InfoExchange - Buyers Market For Level Cost With historically low interest rates, the insurance industry has been waiting for some ...