The importance of including your pets in your estate and incapacity planning
Are you a pet parent – whether to a furry friend, feathered companion or another beloved animal? No matter if your companion is a cat, dog, bird, horse or exotic animal, it is important to have a plan in place to ensure they are cared for in the event you are no longer able to […]
Finding the Few Winners: Munro’s Strategy for Long-Term Growth
This month, we interviewed Nick Griffin, Chief Investment Officer and founding partner of Munro Partners. He and his investment team are based in Australia and focus on U.S. and global equity. Alfred: Nick, thanks for doing this. Can you tell our readers how you got into the investing industry and how long have you been doing […]
Who will execute your estate plan?
Choosing an executor (liquidator in Quebec) to appoint in your will is an important estate planning decision. Many people instinctively appoint their spouse, siblings or adult children. This may seem logical, but appointing a family member is not always the best option. While some view being named as executor as an honour or a sign […]
Canadian Equity Alpha: Overcoming the Headwinds
This month, we sat down with Kevin McSweeney, Senior Vice-President, Portfolio Manager & Lead for our Canadian Equity Alpha mandate. With over 25 years of financial services experience, including 17 years in asset management with CI, Kevin is an expert in both Canadian and global infrastructure equities. Alfred Lam: Kevin, it’s a pleasure to have you […]
Will AI take over wealth planning?
From education and entertainment to medicine and transportation, artificial intelligence (AI) is having an impact on virtually every sphere of existence. That includes our financial life. AI is already making inroads into wealth planning and can be a valuable tool for advisors. For example, AI can be used to present potential outcomes of different strategies […]
Understanding the three phases of retirement
Retirement is often viewed as a new chapter in your life, but it’s typically not just one chapter. These years are often divided into three very different phases. A great many retirees—though not all—go through the active, slowdown and inactive phases, sometimes called the go-go, slow-go and no-go phases. The active phase: retirement to age […]
When is your financial independence day?
The day when you no longer need to work to cover your current and future cost of living, including realizing your retirement dreams—that’s your financial independence day. To identify it, some people try using one of the many online retirement calculators that ask you to input information so you can find out if you can […]
FIRE versus YOLO
“Financial independence, retire early” (FIRE) and “you only live once” (YOLO) are essentially opposite approaches, but they share a common goal—to seek happiness and achieve financial freedom. They’re just focused on different stages of life. With FIRE, the point is to live frugally, save aggressively and ideally retire earlier than the traditional retirement age—by a […]
Taking RRIF withdrawals in kind
As a retiree with a Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF), you have a minimum amount you must withdraw each year, starting no later than the year after you opened the RRIF. But what if you have one or more years when you don’t need the entire amount, or any of it, to support your retirement […]
AI’s Second Act and How to Capitalize On It
It is not “if” robots will compete but when Humans have been worried about robots replacing them for over four decades. Until recently, the closest invention resembling a robot—the personal computer—boosted productivity but still relied heavily on human input. However, this may change with the rapid development of artificial intelligence and the recent announcement of […]