Mark Halpern, CFP, is a Trust and Estate Practitioner who has helped business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals in affluent families for over 30 years. As CEO of Wealth Insurance, he and his team specialize in tax-advantaged insurance solutions to protect families, create charitable legacies, and preserve estates. He is also building a national community of 100 financial professionals and charities with the goal of creating $1 billion in philanthropy annually. In this episode, Mark joins the show to inspire you to start thinking about your charitable planned giving.

Donor-Advised Funds help philanthropists and their families fund their preferred charities however and whenever they want with the help of their advisors. Canada Gives offers the same choices and privileges as a private foundation but with lower costs. In this episode, Denise Castonguay, CEO and Founder of Canada Gives, will be joining the show to share the benefits of dealing with Donor-Advised Funds so that you have a clear idea of where your money is going.

Planned giving allows individuals to gift large sums to charitable organizations, in life or at the time of passing, as part of the donor’s financial and/or estate planning. Gift plans use estate and tax planning to provide for charity and heirs in ways that maximize the gift and/or minimize its impact on the donor’s estate. So, what do you need to know about charitable planned giving as you plan for and enter retirement? We will share everything you need to know on this topic in this episode.

Anxiety around retirement is completely normal. You may feel concerned about how you will fill your time, financial worries or even feeling a loss of your identity. Retirement readiness is less about money and more about mindset. So, how can we shift our mindsets to feel more prepared for retirement? Tammy Vigue, Retirement Coach, will join the show to share how to achieve a mindset beyond money as you approach what should be the most exciting time of your life.

Rather than trying to predict the future, wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to draw information about expected returns from the market itself? Luckily there is. Through scientific and evidence-based investing, you can take a less subjective and more systematic approach to investing. In this episode, Christian Newton, Vice President of Dimensional Fund Advisors, joins the show to discuss the scientific perspective on investing, particularly how it relates to the investor.

Trusts, when understood properly, can help people successfully plan their finances, provide security for their families, and even invest more confidently. Trusts allow for one person (or a company) known as the trustee to hold money for the benefit of another person (or a group of persons) known as the beneficiary. There are a number of different trusts and it is important to understand which type of trust will best suit your goals. So, in this episode, Joe and Lindsay will be sharing the main types of trusts in estate planning and who they are for.

You’ve decreased your spending and cut all of the costs you possibly can, but somehow you still find you’re not saving enough for retirement. Where can you go from there? In this episode, Joe and Lindsay share several options you have if you are concerned about the amount of money you will have for retirement and want to ensure you’re not having to rely on your family to support you.

Many Canadians are concerned about inflation’s impact on retirement savings, and rightly so. Without the correct plan in place, it can be easy to miscalculate how much you will need to have a good retirement. With a new report from Aon stating that the average 45-year-old Canadian will need to accumulate $1.4 million in retirement savings to retire comfortably, people are even more concerned and confused. Is this an accurate number for Canadians to aim for? In this episode, Joe and Lindsay take a look at this report and break down everything you need to know about retirement savings.

Oftentimes, people mistakenly think that once they hit retirement, they no longer need to invest. They believe that retirement is the time to live off of their savings and simply avoid financial risks. Although you no longer are earning a working income once you hit retirement, this doesn’t mean you should stop investing. So, in this episode, Joe and Lindsay will be discussing how to continue investing in retirement to ensure you don’t run out of money long-term.

At Matthews & Associates, we get a lot of questions about Canadian Pension Plan and Old Age Security timing. Our clients want to know what these are, what the difference between the two is, and how to go about calculating them. So, in this episode, we have Lindsay Wilson, Client Care Coordinator, joining the show to help me shed light on these very important but sometimes misunderstood government benefits.

Without the right planning in place, new retirees often find the financial aspect of the retirement transition to be somewhat daunting. Although we can plan for retirement for years, estimating actual cash flow needs can be pretty tricky. So, in this episode, I will be explaining how to figure out how much you will likely need to keep up the same lifestyle in retirement that you have while you are still working.

Many individuals want a retirement that is authentic to who they are, passion driven and filled with purpose. However, it takes a certain kind of mindset to achieve the motivation, tools and community for someone who is retirement age to make this happen. Mind Switch helps individuals transition from their careers and create the next phase of their lives to be as uniquely compelling as they are by reinventing what retirement can be. Today, Scott Armstrong, CEO of Mind Switch Training, will be joining the show to discuss the six key foundations needed for your greatest ambitions to come to life.

The retirement income “buckets” approach generally involves dividing your short-term cash and long-term investments into different buckets. This way, regardless of the short-term performance of your investment portfolio, you can make planned withdrawals and regular payments from the buckets without feeling uncertain about the state of your portfolio. There are many versions of the buckets approach, and in this episode, I am going to be sharing a few options for you to consider as you plan for your retirement.

There are many uncertainties that make calculating retirement spending an educated guess at best – many of which we have covered in previous episodes. You want the flexibility to spend as much as you need in retirement, while also feeling secure enough in your funds that you know you won’t run out of money halfway through your golden years. So, in this episode, I am going to be explaining dynamic withdrawal strategies which are designed to change annual retirement distributions based on actual market performance, to prevent you from under or overspending.

Most traditional retirement plans in the past were created by making a projection that has taken into account assumptions around inflation, rates of return, and longevity and putting it all together to see if there is money left over to last you the remainder of your life. Although this is a good starting point, it doesn’t take into account any unforeseen circumstances. In this episode, I will be sharing some other methods retirement planners are using these days to create a safer outcome for your retirement.

It’s one thing to know what the risks of retirement are as far as your income planning goes, but knowing what to do about those risks and how to handle them is what counts. That’s where retirement income strategies come in. In this episode, I will be sharing several types of retirement income strategies so you can find the best option that will suit you and your needs.

Today we are joined by Kaz Nesbitt, CPA, CA, who is the Senior Manager at Grant Thornton. Kaz helps business owners and high net worth individuals save thousands of dollars by structuring their succession plans, estate plans and compensation strategies in a tax-efficient manner to maximize wealth. In this episode, Kaz joins the show to explain how you can limit your lifetime tax bill and shares several things to consider as you approach retirement.

Unexpected healthcare costs can be one of the biggest expenses a retiree can face. Similar to how we cannot predict how long we are going to live, we cannot predict when an accident is going to happen. So, how do we prepare financially for the risk of healthcare expenses? In this episode, I will be sharing how to understand and plan for potentially growing medical costs.

Clients often ask me how to know when they have enough money set aside to take all risk off the table in their investments. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. You cannot take risk off the table, as inflation is constantly happening. However, there are ways to minimize your risk. So, in this episode, I will be sharing the steps you can take to lower your susceptibility to inflation risk and more.

In the previous two episodes, we have covered the sequence of return risk (which talks about why having a retirement projection is not really a plan), as well as longevity risk (which is the ability to accurately save for the length of the rest of your life). Today we’re talking about the risk of being too conservative, also sometimes referred to as asset allocation risk, and how to allocate your assets in a way that will allow you to have a successful retirement.