Family Stewardship & Philanthropy

Life insurance is a painful topic. No one likes to ponder their own death and how their family will live without them. That said, if you have a spouse and kids, you need to protect them from the possibility that you might not always be there.

The insurance industry makes it very easy for us to separate ourselves from our money. If you’re not careful, you can easily find yourself with far more of the wrong type of insurance than you need. If it’s any consolation though, you will have made your insurance broker really happy.

Mortgage debt is a normal thing to have in Canada. Based on 2016 census data, 61.7% of Canadian families own a principal residence, and 57.3% of those families had a mortgage.

Like those other unavoidable subjects—death and taxes, insurance isn’t something most people want to talk about. Nevertheless, many people wonder whether they’re carrying too little or too much life insurance. Let’s take a look at what you need to consider when thinking about insurance.

When it comes to planning your estate, you should have two goals. First, you want to make sure your wishes are respected. Second you want to make sure your family isn’t put through unnecessary pain and anguish. The problem is that too many people think their job is done once their will has been prepared.

Flow-through share donation plans are promoted by financial services companies that specialize in these plans such as Peartree Financial and Oberon Capital among others. They are commonly based on corporations in the oil & gas, mining and renewable energy sectors. This is part three of my donations series.

In my previous post I talked about how the tax credit works when you make a cash donation. As we work through this series, I’ll be discussing other donation options and the associated tax credits. Today, we’ll take a look at the tax advantages of donating shares from your portfolio or land for conservation purposes.

Your family has many needs across multiple generations. These include investment management, tax and estate planning, charitable giving and much, much more. As your family becomes wealthier, you probably won’t have the time, expertise or desire to manage it all yourself.

This is the first in a three-part series on donations, focusing at the tax advantages of making donations, specifically cash. Canadians are very giving, according Statistics Canada, 84% of us give to charity and together we give an average of $9 billion dollars a year. That’s pretty amazing.

Many Canadians who have done well in life want to share their good fortune. They choose to do this in different ways—by volunteering their time, speaking out in support of a cause and by donating to their favourite charities In fact, there are over five thousand private foundations in Canada and the number is growing.