Estate planning is an essential part of wealth management, particularly if your estate involves significant assets or complex issues.
Believe it or not, you have an estate. In fact, nearly everyone does. Your estate is comprised of everything you own— your car, home, other real estate, checking and savings accounts, investments, life insurance, furniture, personal possessions. No matter how large or how modest, everyone has an estate and something in common—you can’t take it with you when you die.
When that happens, you probably want to control how those things are given to the people or organizations you care most about. To ensure your wishes are carried out, you need to provide instructions stating whom you want to receive something of yours, what you want them to receive, and when they are to receive it.
That is estate planning—making a plan in advance and naming whom you want to receive the things you own after you die.
Areas of Expertise
Our advisors will meet with you to help you clarify your long-term objectives and will create a personalized, effective estate plan designed to meet those goals. Keep in mind that estate planning is an ongoing process that should be revisited as your life circumstances change.
There are many circumstances that call for a review of your estate plan:
- Children grow
- Death of spouse
- Marriage or remarriage
- Birth of a child or grandchild
- Death of a beneficiary
- Purchase or sale of a business
- Beneficiary with special needs will receive a share of the estate
(this requires special trust planning) - Executor named in Will predeceases you
- Purchase of foreign property
- Technology or society changes, such as passing on digital assets
Depending on your unique situation, there are different ways to achieve your estate planning goals and we go through the following tools with you to help achieve your goals.
Wills- The will states who will be entrusted with administering your estate and how you wish to distribute your assets upon death.
- Determining who will receive your estate assets is an essential part of estate
- Appointing someone to manage your affairs in the case of your subsequent incapacity. For personal matters, particularly medical treatment, this is often called a living will.
- Insurance planning can cover estate taxes your heirs face.
- living inter vivos trusts or testamentary trusts are a means of controlling use of the assets in the future, even after your death, to accommodate a beneficiary’s needs.
- Because income tax is one of the driving forces behind estate planning, it is important to be familiar with its major implications on death including tax return, RRSP/RRIF, Capital gains/losses
- Charitable planning can greatly increase the tax efficiency of donating assets and leaving a legacy
Every family has individual needs.
Our highly experienced advisors provide our clients with clear and pragmatic answers to their questions and provide our client with the knowledge to make optimal decisions. We have the team to implement solutions and we draw on our many years of experience to provide thorough, multi-disciplinary advice that helps to ensures our clients financial goals are met.