Kathleen Beech | Personal Financial Planner

In this episode of At Home in Waterloo Region, Cher Goetz sits down with Kathleen Beech, an experienced financial planner at IG Wealth Management. With nearly two decades in the financial industry, Kathleen brings a client-focused, non-judgmental approach to financial planning. Tune in as Kathleen discusses her unique mantra of "live for now, while preparing for your future," the importance of understanding your financial decisions, and how she educates her clients about the implications of their financial choices. 

In this episode you will hear:

• [02:40] The mantra “Live now while preparing for your future” is introduced, encouraging the idea of enjoying life today while making smart choices for a secure retirement.
• [06:38] The importance of balancing financial planning with enjoying life is emphasized, from budgeting for vacations to making sure you’re savoring the present moment.
• [11:30] Trust and comfort are built with clients by offering non-judgmental guidance, making it easier for people to openly address their financial anxieties.
• [15:25] The value of working with a financial planner to create a practical, tax-efficient savings and investment plan is highlighted
• [16:32] A journey from a part-time job at Money Mart to becoming a financial planner shows how real-world experience can shape a passion for helping others achieve financial peace of mind.
• [23:03] A shift from working in banking to IG Wealth Management is discussed, emphasizing how the client-first approach and focus on personalized financial planning align with core values.
• [23:30] Cutting-edge financial tools at IG Wealth Management are introduced, showing how they help clients visualize their financial future 
• [25:10] The use of advanced technology at IG allows clients to see detailed financial snapshots, helping them make more informed decisions about their investments and retirement goals.
• [30:27] Financial planning software enables personalized, data-driven insights that help clients make informed decisions on major financial moves
• [41:42] The growing wealth of women in Canada is discussed, urging women to take control of their finances, advocate for themselves, and educate themselves on financial matters.
• [55:42] The importance of having conversations with parents about estate planning, taxes, and asset protection is emphasized, ensuring smooth transitions and avoiding costly mistakes.

Special Offer: Kathleen is offering a free IG Living Plan, which includes a portfolio analysis and a second opinion on your current investment, insurance, and estate planning. Take advantage of this valuable opportunity to ensure you're on the right track for your financial future.

Connect with Kathleen:

Instagram: @thewealthbeech

Let's Connect:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/at.home.co
Website: www.athomecompany.ca
Email Community: https://athomeco.myflodesk.com/podcast
Contact: hello@athomecompany.ca

Thank you to our Sponsors:

• Amanda Walczyk, Mortgage Agent | Level 2 license at Dominion Lending Centres National Ltd, FSRA #12360
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saltboxmortgage_agent
Contact: Amanda@saltboxmortgages.com
519.497.9256

• Den1880
Website: https://www.den1880.co
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/den1880.co

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome to the At Home in Waterly Region podcast. I'm your host, Cheryl Getz. The purpose of this podcast is to shine a light on what makes this region special: the people. We will hear from inspiring locals and business owners, their stories and their goals. Whether you are born and raised here, are new to the area, or something in between, join us as we get to know who is part of making our home in Waterloo Region so wonderful. Today on the podcast, we have Kathleen. Kathleen is a financial planner with IG Wealth Management and has been in the financial industry for 19 years. She was born and raised in Waterloo Region and has lived here all her life. She prides herself on building personal and deep connections with her clients beyond the typical client advisor relationship. She truly wants to know what she truly wants to know who she's working with, what makes them who they are, what they fear, what they aspire to, what's most important to them, and her advice is centered around those things. Kathleen believes it's important to live for now while preparing for your future. She believes that your finances should give you the freedom to enjoy your life through your working years and ensure you have enough for a comfortable retirement. Kathleen helps clients understand their finances and believes strongly that educating them in all aspects of their plan is crucial. She starts with a cash flow analysis to really figure out where your money is going and works through investment planning, tax efficiency, protection strategies, estate planning, business succession, and much more. She can assess your current situation and give you advice that you can understand and adjustments you can make to reach your short and long-term goals in the most efficient way possible, all while understanding where each decision will take you. Clients that she deals with often talk about how she approaches every situation in a non-judgmental way, and they feel so comfortable sharing their financial situation and always feel more at ease after working through their plan with her. Welcome, Kathleen.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

So excited to have you on. This is a topic that I am really passionate about. Funny enough, Amanda uh recorded the podcast, a podcast with me yesterday that has already been out by the time this one will come out. And we got like heated. Like we got heated about how passionate we are about just like educating yourself and having the conversations and not turning a blind eye. So I am pumped to have you on. Um, because I talked to so many of my friends about this and like some family members. And it's really like, what are you doing? Why aren't you doing this? You know? So excited to have you on. Um let's off the top start with uh some things that were pointed out in your bio. One of which was one thing that like really drew me to you. I heard you say it like years ago now.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Um, and it was live now while prepare for future. So, how can you elaborate on like that approach that you take that might be different from others?

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yeah. Firstly, thank you for having me. Um this is my first podcast experience. Oh, no way. Exciting. Yeah. I mean, I think there's a lot of topics that are sort of taboo, people don't talk about in their friend groups or families, whatever the case is. So I'm excited to dive more into this sort of there's so many topics, but I'm excited to dive more into it because it's really important. Um, I would say that this sort of live now, prepare for your future sort of motto or or mantra that I kind of live by with my clients is, you know, over the years that I've been in this business, I've seen so many people, my own family included, uh, friends, friends of family, and they just they have so much focus on sort of the long-term picture, they forget that they have to live now. And the biggest fear for me with clients and people that I talk to all the time is are you even gonna get the chance to spend the money that you save? Um, you know, my own grandparents, my mom's mom, my dad's dad, they both died in their early 60s, and then their partners lived for another 25, 30 years. My grandfather's still living. Um, so you know, you could potentially have a whole other lifetime after your partner goes. Um, you really don't know what your situation is gonna be. So, you know, the the live for now situation, my grandma used to say all the time, you know, we used to borrow money from the credit union every year and go on a family vacation, and then we would spend all year trying to pay it back. And she's, you know, those kinds of things, as much as you would look at that and go, well, that's not the most financially, you know, responsible decision, maybe. Right. But for them, you know, they didn't know that they were, you know, their their life together was gonna be cut so short. And um, so it really kind of made me realize that money can work in so many different ways and it can give you freedom and it can allow you to do the things that you want to do. You don't have to spend a ton of money, but it's the way you view money and value it in helping you determine, you know, should you be spending more of it now so that you can make sure that you are enjoying your life and your hard work. I mean, if you just live to work and then you just wait to live your life until retirement, how do you know you're even gonna make it to retirement to spend the money?

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Yeah, and I mean it's such a morbid thought, but it is just reality, right? Like if you're squirreling away every single penny until 65, first of all, like you could be around, but you could your health could take a hit that it doesn't allow you to, which you know, it's great you had the money, but it doesn't allow you to like travel. Like if that's what you're postponing, right? It's like those joys in in life for retirement. I mean, my best friend just is finishing breast cancer treatment. One of our friends who is younger than us, I'm 36, he's younger, he's early 30s, I think. He just passed away from colon cancer. Another friend of ours, his wife with three was three weeks away from retirement, and he passed away. Like there's just all these things, like all these reminders where it's like we have to do both. We have to, and that's sometimes probably hard for people around our age, depending on the messaging that we're getting, like from our parents, where some of our parents are very like saved, like paid on the mortgage, save, save, save, save, save. And like that's the focus. And it's like you feel shame and you feel over irresponsible for you know booking those trips, especially now. Have you looked at trips? It's like minimum ten thousand dollars. I know. It's insane.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

It's hard to justify prioritizing that. And I'm spending the money now because it's like, well, what are you giving up in the future? But the thing is, is you have to find a balance, right? And that's where I typically can come in with my clients and we can talk about okay, realistically, how much do you want to have every year for vacationing? I always have that in a client's plan because you know, it's not one of those expenses that you necessarily have every month. But can we set aside some short-term money every month so that it's easy on your cash flow? But you have that sort of pot of money there when you do decide that you want to book a trip, or if you decide, you know, this year it's not gonna work, but next year we're gonna take a bigger trip or whatever the case is. It's just I always want there to be some enjoyment, some fun, whatever it is. It doesn't have to be a big trip. It can be whatever you want, a sporting event, a concert. But there needs to be some enjoyment in life. Either you, you know, you can't just work yourself to death and then get to the point where you're retired and then you either don't have the health or you don't have the want to do some of those things in life. How many, how many people do you talk to in our generation that are talking to their parents and being like, spend your money. I don't need your money. You know, you worked for that money. You deserve to spend that money. But there's so many of us, myself included, that is encouraging my parents and my in-laws to spend your money, enjoy your life. You worked, you worked for that money. That's that's not for us. If there's some left at the end of the day and that makes you feel good to be able to leave that, that's great. But that generation, especially people who were raised by people who went through things like the Great Depression and all of those things, you know, they just had so much anxiety over money and running out of money. And now the problem is I'm seeing so many people kind of baby boomer generation and the generation before that. The, you know, the issue is is not do you have enough money? It's how do we get that money out in a tax-efficient way? And a lot of them are just saying, well, I don't need the cash flow, so I don't want to pay the tax. But the impact of leaving your retirement savings in until, you know, you're in your 80s and 90s, and then CRA comes in and says, thank you very much, and this swoops that up. So it's it's it's a hard thing to watch.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Yeah. And we will get into that for sure. Like that is definitely on my list of questions because I tried to come at it from like what top questions would like every kind of personal situation in every generation have. Um I'd like to know what do you get to know about your clients that you think other planners might skip over?

SPEAKER_01 8:53

I think it's easy in our industry to see a balance sheet, to see a tax return, to see an investment statement, and to make judgments about people and to kind of look at them as, okay, you're financially well off or you're not, and just sort of skip over who they are as human beings. I often in this industry get the question, you know, how much money do I need to retire? And I kind of hate that question because people are always like, oh, you know, what's the magic number? And, you know, if you know anything about finance, there isn't a magic number because everyone's lifestyle is completely different, right? Some people want to live in a trailer and as long as they have cable and internet and a good view, they're more than happy. So their cash flow needs, their expenses are gonna be completely different than someone who's like, I'm gonna retire at 55 and I'm gonna do, you know, a major trip every year. I wanna help my kids, you know, build a legacy, I wanna help them, you know, pay for their weddings, pay for their kids' education, gift them money to buy a house, whatever they so that you get such broad sort of spectrums of that. So I really try to not, especially in the first meeting, not to focus so much on like, okay, so what do we have? What investments do we have? What insurance do we have? You know, what's the plan? What's your cash flow? Obviously that's really important, but for me, it's more important to understand who you are as an individual, who you are as a couple, as a family, what your dynamic is, what are some of the things that you want to accomplish in your life, either financially or personally, and then just kind of figure out how the money needs to fit into that. Right. So I'll ask tough questions, you know, things about the family dynamic. So, you know, we come across a lot of people who are in blended families, myself included. So it's something that I, you know, can resonate with and understand the dynamics of that and how complicated it can be, especially when you have kids from previous marriages and things like that. You know, everybody looks at things very differently. Not everyone comes into, you know, maybe a second relationship where there's kids involved and you know, they have this blended family and things like that where they look at everything as equal. So there's there's a lot of things that you have to sort of dig a little deeper to understand what people feel about certain things, how they manage their money, you know, who takes the lead sometimes in managing money, what the income situation is, how they feel about that, um, you know, what their their parents' generation has kind of instilled in them when it comes to money, who spends the most in the relationship. Sometimes it would shock you, you know, and sometimes it shifts, right? Depending on the situation. But I feel like I ask tougher questions, but the more I talk about it, the more I'll share about myself too and the experiences that I've had so that people understand that like I'm not just here to judge your situation. I just really need to know who you are and how you think so that I can give you advice that aligns with that.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Mm-hmm. For sure. You definitely talk about like non-judgmental ways. What situations are you coming across the most that it's really imperative that people know that you are not judging their situation. It's just coming from like an informative place.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

I think one of the things that puts people at ease and realizes that I, you know, makes them realize that I'm not judgmental is that I've been in every financial position pretty much that you can be in at this point in my life. And I feel like I can understand how stressful it can be to be tight on money. I can understand how hard it is to put yourself through school, you know, to pay rent at a young age, to understand how to work for what you have. You know, my parents didn't have a lot growing up. They went through a divorce and had to restart, um, you know, worked really hard. My mom was a single mom for a long time. So I understand how much anxiety kind of surrounds financial conversations, especially investing and things like that, because so many people just assume like, I don't have enough, you know, no one really wants to talk to me. They're embarrassed about it. Um, but the reality is there's usually something that I can find in someone's plan. Most people don't actually have a plan, but they just have a statement or they just have something where they're like, this is my plan. I don't know what this actually means, but I have some savings. So, you know, so many people focus on I'm making this rate of return or I'm paying this fee, but they don't really know what that means or how what that equates to. So I think the biggest thing is really just figuring out, you know, what they currently have, but in a in a non-judgmental way to say, okay, so this is what we're working with. You know, what are we trying to accomplish down the road? And, you know, how many shifts can we make? And it doesn't have to be major things. I'm not going to say to someone, you need to save$10,000 a month to hit your retirement goal if there's no cash flow to do that, right? So we just work with what we have. And I can give suggestions to help, you know, maybe alleviate some cash flow restraint constraints or just ways that maybe they can pay a little less in tax or things like that. So maybe we free up some cash flow that isn't necessarily just mu more money coming in, but it's just shifting things around so that we're using the money that we have more efficiently.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

I think something that people don't consider is how I always say, like in my real estate business, information is power. So like even if you don't, even if you're not in a position right now or you don't think you're in a position right now to like put anything aside, just getting the information of what it means to put stuff aside and the potential that that money you in the future will put aside, it lights a fire under your ass and it builds momentum that wouldn't already be there if you didn't at least educate yourself and have a conversation like with a trusted advisor yourself. And like I've been in spots in my life where I'm like, there's nothing, like there's nothing to put aside. But in that time, I'm like, okay, well, when there is something to put aside, where would I put it? Yeah. And then it's just like, and then if I put, if I get to a point where I can put aside$100 a month, if I did that for five years, how much money would I have? And you do those online calculators and you're like, oh shit, okay, great. Like a bunch of free money.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

That's amazing. How do you know what rate of return to put in? And how do you know what the tax situation is, what accounts you're investing, all of those things. And that's where working with a planner can give you that guidance. So I can't tell you how much you have left at the end of every month. Really, you kind of have to help me in figuring that out. But I can tell you if it's$100 or$150 or$200, where's the most efficient place to put it based on what I know about what your goals are. And so that's where having a plan and having someone who's educated as to what the types of accounts are, what the taxation situation is, what your income looks like, what your future sort of plan is, if there's anything that's going to change in the near future that I can sort of foresee helping us to make decisions. That's where the the sort of the gold is with dealing with a financial planner, is not, you know, okay, you need to save$1,500 a month to meet your goals. It's okay, this is how much you have, this is the best way to set it up.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

Right. And like learning that maybe before you think you're ready to learn it is gonna get you there faster, in my opinion, right? Because like you're gonna leave that meeting with Kathleen and be like, okay, I can't wait to circle back to her in a year when XYZ is all settled and we already know what we're gonna do. And I'm like stoked. Do you know what I mean? Like it just builds up momentum.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Yeah, it's addicting. Investing is addicting once you see the periods. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

I feel like I'm there.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Um what made you start this business? It's actually a kind of funny story. So when I was in high school, I got a part-time job at Money Mart. Okay. And it was one of those situations where it was like, okay, this is a great job because it's gonna allow me to do my homework and just kind of have some space to make some money, help clients as they come in, things like that. And I thought it was an easy job, had good hours. And what it truly taught me was how many people struggle with money and not even just with money in general, just with budgeting, with you know, making sure that they have enough with every paycheck to pay their bills and to, you know, stay on track and to not get themselves into trouble. And um I think I kind of realized that advice and and helping people, especially when it comes to finance and budgeting, was something pretty natural to me because as people would come in, I would just see the look on their face and just how frustrated they were that they were having to get a payday loan and borrow money and then spend these astronomical amounts on interest just to get them through to their next pay because they might have had a situation where they needed a lump sum of money and their next pay wasn't coming, they didn't have a borrowing asset, you know, at their disposal, like a line of credit or something like that. So it just takes one time to be a little bit desperate, to need some help and to need that inflow of cash. And then you're in this cycle and it's really hard to get out. So I found myself, you know, at the dismay of my management there, just telling people, you know, you're gonna just keep wasting a lot of your money on these crazy interest costs if you just slowly get out of it, maybe take 10% less every couple weeks, you know, in six months or a year or whatever period of time, you'll be out of the sort of the cycle. Yeah. Obviously not good for business. So I kind of realized pretty quickly that um that wasn't really the right place for me to work. And um, and then shortly after that I started going to school for financial planning and then ended up getting a co-op position at a bank. So it was just kind of one of those situations where it sort of naturally just happened and felt good, you know, seeing kind of the relief when people started to see that they could get out of it.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

And what challenges have you uh had to overcome in your career thus far?

SPEAKER_01 18:49

So I worked my way up basically from a teller at the bank to the financial planner role when I left the bank about a year ago. And I would say my biggest challenge was how this big corporation treated me when I left. Um, you know, I was I was quite successful. I was one of the first financial planners, I was actually the first female financial planner hired in in Canada for the bank into that role. And uh I had just kind of come back from maternity leave and did really well in that role for 10 years. And um yeah, when I decided to leave, and and the reason that I decided to leave wasn't because you know I wasn't doing well, it was because I wanted to offer my clients more than the bank kind of had to offer in terms of products and fee structures and things like that. Um so it was a tough decision for me. I I interviewed a lot of different firms and things like that, and and really sort of hummed and hawed for a good year and a bit on what to do and and where to go. And when I did ultimately make that decision, um they tried to make it as difficult as they could for me, which was probably the most stressful thing I've ever gone through. Yeah. You know, you put your blood, sweat, and tears and almost 20 years of your life into this company and did everything that you could to be compliant and and successful and and help your clients and you know, really lead the brand the brand, I guess I would say. And um the way that I was treated was certainly really it was frustrating. And you know, I look back and I I look at it and I'm like, oh, it's it's a compliment. You know, they didn't want to lose me and they were frustrated and they were just trying to save the clients that uh that had decided to follow me. But that's a good coping mechanism. Try to stay positive because you'll drive yourself crazy. Yeah. It's just like, why did I put all my time and energy into this and then to be treated that way? And yeah, you know, it's you can hate a big bad corporation, but really it's the people that were working there, and a lot of them were amazing. But yeah, the people that were making those choices, it was really unfortunate to see.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Which is so short-sighted. Because I always think like so, for example, in real estate, we we move around brokerages, right? We have to hang our hat somewhere, probably some similar to you, perhaps. Um and it's like if someone chooses to move, would you not want to um allow them to leave in a way that you hope they come back? Right. If they are like six if they're not being fired, but if they're choosing to leave and they're successful and you enjoyed them, like why would it's short-sighted.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

It made it very obvious to me that going back was never an option because if that's the way that you're gonna treat people who have done nothing but build you up. Yeah, yeah. That that part was really disappointing. Um and it was not only me, it was it was, you know, my other team members that came with me and things like that. So you know, it's it's hard to swallow that. But at the same time, you know, you just you just have to move on and people make decisions for whatever reasons. And, you know, maybe it was a bad day that somebody decided to do what they did to me, but um But yeah, it's it's it's sad that it had to end that way because I did try to stay within the banking environment. Um it just you know, after doing my research and looking at other departments and things like that, it just it wasn't gonna give me the sort of the the landscape that I wanted to build my business and and the really the freedom to be more of an entrepreneur as well. Yeah. Um, because my team is just as important, you know, my clients are just as important as you know, my success. So yeah, that was that was challenging for sure. Yeah. Still still fresh too. So hard to hard to talk about.

SPEAKER_00 22:35

Why can you talk a little bit about why you chose to land where you landed with IG wealth management? Because I'm always curious about the why with that, because um, when you have that amount of time to shop around and then you make a choice, it must be for a very specific reason and it must have been very intentional for not only you, but also your clients. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

Yeah, it's a it's a really great question. So IG was probably not a company that I would have considered five years ago, um, but they've made some major shifts in the last five years or so. A new CEO came in and really just changed kind of the focus of the entire business. It was just client-first planning. Like that is all that they care about at IG is make sure your clients have a great plan that is virtually bulletproof that they can understand and then back it up with products and services and support to be able to deliver on that plan. And that's where I really I saw IG kind of hitting it out of the park when it came to the planning side of things. Um the planning software that we use, we're the the major investor in it. So, you know, we if we if as advisors we can give the feedback to say, you know, I want to show a client this scenario, but the you know, the software's not really allowing that. Right, that information goes directly to the developers of the software and they make those adjustments. And within maybe a couple of months, those changes can be made. So it feels like you're closer to sort of where the action is happening in order to make those impacts on your client. And that's kind of what they focus on, and they make sure that they have all the professionals behind the scenes because I mean, if any financial planner tells you that they know everything about finance, it's it's not true.

SPEAKER_02 24:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Um, you know, there's certain things that you don't come across very often, you know, foreign pension plan, things like that, where you're gonna need to pull somebody else in who specializes in that. And IG has this incredible team of people sort of behind the advisors that when those situations occur, we can go to those people and we can say, hey, this is a situation. You know, these are my clients, I know them really well. Help me work through this and make sure that the information that I'm giving them is correct and even help me present the information or whatever the case is. So, you know, I'm kind of that that sort of first line of defense. I understand my clients' needs and what they need, and then I can use all of the support behind the scenes. Um, I love the technology that they have, so the ability to share information, how easy it is for clients to understand, you know, what's happening with their investments, their insurance plan, whatever the case is. Um, we've partnered with a whole bunch of different companies, like Clear Estate, which helps people with the estate planning side of things, getting a will, power of attorney set up, um, just figuring out how to organize their estate, things like that. So there's just so many things that I was missing in a banking environment when all I could focus on was the investments. Now I can do investments, life insurance, mortgages, you know, a whole bunch of different things. When you trust somebody with your life savings, usually you just want to go to that person and be like, this is my situation, help me navigate it, rather than having to go to multiple people to work through that situation. So it's nice to be able to have that support. And just the fact that it's a Canadian company next year is a hundred years for IG. It started in Manitoba. Um, just a small little group of people getting together a family, family business, the Demoray family. So that really sort of hit home with me is that it was you know a Canadian company. Um just a lot of really positive things about the company and and the fact that they really focused on the client experience as well as the advisor experience and making sure that you know you're both successful and you feel good and you want to be there because after 20 years in one place, you often wonder, you know, is this my brand? Is this what people know of me? Um so thinking about changing kind of the brand and and the company that you work for was definitely a hard decision. Something that I had to really think for a long time about. But yeah. Definitely glad that I made the decision.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

Happy where you landed. Definitely. Speaking of the the tech and the software, I've like seen your it's wild. A glimpse. You only see the glimpse. I've seen a glimpse where basically, and correct me if I'm wrong, like you have all this information like about your client, and then you can just click like all these different scenarios and unclick the scenarios, and it will show you on a graph like zero to 100%, like where each scenario lands you, like towards your goals and like you know, by a certain age. And it is so cool and wild. It's like 17,000 calculators in one. It is that you just click a button and it's like, oh, if you paid off your mortgage rather than keeping your mortgage and continuing investing, like this is actually what it would do for your goals. And just a dashboard snapshot right in front of your face at a click of a button, it's amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

I kind of nerd out a little bit when I look at it because I'm like, it's so much information and there's so much behind the scenes, and there's a lot of you know, garbage in, garbage out. If you don't have the correct data in, it's very hard for you to have an accurate output. But when you have that information, and that's why sometimes it feels a little bit like you're you're digging for information, but the more accurate information that you have, the less that you're just assuming certain things, the easier it is to get an accurate picture. But like I was presenting to you guys, you know, a situation where someone's trying to decide whether they should, you know, sell their home and downsize, sell their home and rent, all these different scenarios. That's just one kind of example. But you know, I can put all the information in. This is where you are now. This is, you know, your retirement goal, any major purchases, your estate, you know, your cash flow situation, your liabilities, your debts, all of those things. And then every single strategy, every single decision that we are gonna run through this plan, how does it affect your cash flow, your debt repayment, your retirement, your estate, all of those things. So every strategy links back to one of those goals. And at the top, you can see the difference in you know, the percentage increase or decrease if it's you know, if it's a positive change or a negative change on each one of those goals. That's a big difference, is that not everyone has the same priority. So not everyone is like, oh yeah, I wanna, you know, I wanna spend every dollar that I have. Some people are like, I want to leave as much as I can to my kids. You know, some people are like, I want to have the most clean estate when I pass away. So I want to make sure that very little has to go through probate, if anything, all these different things. So when I know what your goals are and what your priorities are, what's the most important to you, then the impact, positive or negative, on each one of those sort of goals on these strategies, it's very easy for me to be like, okay, so this decision impacts your cash flow in retirement by this, or impacts your taxes, or impacts your estate. And then we can say, okay, well, that's not really the priority. So we'd rather have the positive impact over here, right? So that's where it's really nice. And I don't make decisions for my clients based on what they should do. I give them the data, I give them the impact, and then they ultimately make the decision on how they should do that. But it's very hard to make these major financial decisions like selling your home and downsizing or selling your home and renting, or you know, buying a home, or buying another property, or helping your kids with a gift, or whatever the case is without knowing the financial impact on your plan. So for years, people have made these decisions and they don't really have the data behind it. People collect CPP early because the guy at work said to, or the brother-in-law, brother-in-law said, you know, they should do that, or whatever the case is. But what's the impact on your plan? Because your brother-in-law or your buddy at work might not actually know what your situation is, and they may have no idea that that could be a massive negative impact or it could be a positive impact. But if they don't know your situation, they can't really give you that advice.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

So when people come in and they're like, oh yeah, you know, I'm gonna take my CPP early or I'm gonna delay it or whatever the case is, I'm like, have you have you looked at the actual financial impact of that, the taxation impact of that? And then we run it through, and then I can tell them, you know, your best time to take CPP is 66 years and three months because that's the optimal sort of time when it comes to your plan, if all else, you know, all the information you've given me is accurate.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

Yeah. That's really cool. That's so cool. I don't know how you don't just spend all every waking moment playing with the calculator. I'm sure some days that you do. Some days for sure. So other than this like amazing calculator and dashboard and stuff like that. Someone who has never worked with a financial planner before, they're listening to this episode and they're like, well, I want to work with Kathleen.

SPEAKER_02 31:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:45

So give me like it like five steps, ten steps. Like, what does that journey look like for somebody?

SPEAKER_01 31:51

Yeah, it can be it can be different for everyone. Some people just come in and they're like, I just need some information. What is, you know, what do you do? Just want to get to know you kind of thing. Yeah. Some people come in and their guns blazing and they're like, okay, I need a plan. I, you know, I have this money and I don't know what to do with it, or you know, I've been saving my whole life and I don't know what this equates to when I go to, you know, turn this from a savings plan into an income plan and all of those things, right? So it really depends. I I sit down with people, I have a conversation, get to know them, and then truthfully, I explain to them, you know, this is what I'm gonna need from you in order to do a plan. These are the different, you know, investment options that we have, but I really let them sort of decide how they want the experience to be. If they want to look at the plan first and then make a decision, if they want me to do a portfolio analysis on what they currently have and what I would suggest after I've gotten to know them, um, all these different things, you know. I I kind of say to them, what's most important to you? What do you want to see first? What makes you feel more comfortable before you can make a decision that you want to work with me? So it's really not a one size fits all. And I'm sure a lot of people in this industry have kind of a process and they go through it. And a lot of people in my industry will not give someone a financial plan unless they've agreed to work with them, that kind of thing. I don't work that way because I really feel like education is knowledge. And if someone decides after I've done a plan for them that they don't want to work with me, that just means that they probably don't value the advice, or that they just have decided that they want to go somewhere else and do their investing there. If I lose that opportunity after what I've done, that's just the reality of the situation, and it is what it is. It doesn't happen very often, but it just means that they weren't meant to be my client, or they weren't meant to be my client right now, right? So I think I'm pretty confident in the fact that I can pair the planning and and the products, but the service is really where I think a lot of people are are losing out right now. They're paying fees, they're not getting a plan, and they're not getting the service. They don't half the time they don't even know who they're dealing with. They either got success like a succession plan from another planner, or they just got assigned to a new person at a bank because they turn over quite often. Not a lot of people have a real relationship with the person that's managing their money, which is really unfortunate because most people are paying between two and a half to two and a half percent annually. That's kind of the average in the industry for financial planning or advice. But most people are literally just getting buy this fund. Yeah. You know, and once a year and yeah. Are you still medium risk? Are you still investing 10 plus years? You know, it's and and that's fine. I guess that's you know, that's the reality of it. But that's why, you know, I realized that the bank wasn't for me. It was that it was more product and get people through the door and that kind of thing. Whereas some of my meetings would be three, four hours. I'm just sitting there and really diving into as much information as I can, or you know, the client we're meeting at their kitchen table and they're running to their filing cabinet to get their last income tax, you know, notice of assessment. So we can figure out, you know, how much room do you have in your TFSA, what's your RSP room, all of those things, right? The more information that I have, the easier it is for me to be able to really assess the situation.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

Yeah, I like how it is very like client um focused. It's it's you know, like build your own adventure like based on your needs. And that's not that's not to say in a sense of like it's you're putting anything on the client. It's based on the answers to the question you're probably asking the client. And then you're like, okay, well, here's some like best next steps and which one you know feels feels right for you. And it's the same way in my industry that some people they like hide the information until they're hired. And I look at it as like, okay, but that's your tryout. Yeah. Right. So it's like if you aren't just like divulging the information and trying to be the most helpful person ever, like how can they actually have this like full-body yes that you're the person for them if you're just constantly like holding your cards to the chest and having this like veil in front of everything that's going on? I don't know. I feel like we're also we're getting um that probably worked for a really long time. And I think we're getting away from that.

SPEAKER_02 36:22

I think so too.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

I think consumers are getting smarter. In the same respect, I think I think a lot of consumers need more education if even if they are invested because they have no idea, like that some of them that I some people that I talk to have no idea there's even these fees.

SPEAKER_01 36:38

Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

Or what the fees are. Yes. Or how they how their person at the bank makes decisions of what they buy based on what the person at the bank is getting. Yeah. Based on what they buy. So there's lots of unknowns yet. But I do feel like a lot of people are getting like woken up. And I don't know, maybe it's social media because I'm seeing it all over social media. It may, it's my algorithm potentially. But it's it is people that are waking up to learning all about this. And it's the apps, right? Like we have Questrade, like all of these things. And it's so wonderful to be able to like work with someone who's bridging the middle.

unknown 37:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:18

I feel like you bridge the middle really well where it's like, I want to empower you like with these decisions. I don't want you to just like hand me your money and me just be like, hey, I'll talk to you in a year. Yeah. So I think you're the perfect middle where it's like, I don't want to do this all on my own because I could make some mistakes and I'm not a professional. I have like a little bit of knowledge, but then you're also not the person where it's like, I'm just gonna blindly hand this over and have no idea the consequences of it. Just a quick break to thank the sponsors that make this podcast possible. Amanda Walchuk, also known as Saltbox Mortgage Agent, with a level two license at Dominion Lending Center's National Limited, FISRA 12360. Amanda is a passionate mortgage professional on a mission to educate clients about mortgages. She ensures her clients benefit from trust, confidence, and the security of knowing that they are getting the best mortgage for their needs. If you've got mortgage questions, Amanda's got the answers. Be sure to check the show notes for her contact information. Welcome to Den 1880, Uptown Waterloo's premiere, boutique, co-working, and event space. Step into a workspace that fuels ambition and sparks connection. DEN 1880 offers a variety of memberships with everything from hot desks to private offices. They've got the perfect setup for freelancers, entrepreneurs, and growing teams. Think beautifully designed spaces, curated programming, and all the amenities you need, including unlimited coffee. Need to host? Den 1880 sets the stage for meetings, workshops, and unforgettable events. They even have a fully equipped podcast studio in a vault. Come see the benefits of working in a community. Explore the memberships or book a tour at den1880.co today.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

A lot of clients get to the point with me where they're just like, whatever you think, you know, do whatever you think. And I'm like, you know, that's great that you trust me enough to say that. But at the same time, I need you to be fully engaged and at least understanding at some level why we're making certain decisions. Because then when shit hits the fan and things go not well, which they will, you know, 80% of the time the markets are gonna do really well, 20% of the time they're not. So when those 20% you know years come up, are you gonna be calling me going, I don't understand, why is my portfolio down? You know, we've already had this conversation, we've already prepared for it, we already know that this is gonna happen. Sure, we can make shifts in anticipation of some changes or whatever the case is, but that's where you know I get very little phone calls when the markets are down because people just know this is part of the economic cycle. The markets can't always just continually go up in a really even stream. You know, it's just not the way it works, unfortunately. It would be really nice if it did, but a lot of us wouldn't be employed if that was the case. And and I think one of the best things that happened to our industry is these, you know, these quest trades and the sort of the online do-it-yourself sort of thing, because it is really exposing the advisors that are taking advantage of people that are collecting fees and really not giving them the service or the planning. Um and I think that was kind of the old school way of doing things, was that you know, you talk about the fees and at the last second just say, Oh yeah, by the way, it's 2% here. And you know, you hope that they didn't hear you kind of thing, which is is quite awful. Yeah. And the industry as a whole is changing in 2027 with the full fee disclosure. So that's wonderful to hear. It's so it's such a good thing because there's so many people that I come across where they're like, Oh, you're gonna charge a fee? Well, I don't pay fees now. And I'm like, actually, you do.

SPEAKER_00 40:56

They're just secret.

SPEAKER_01 40:57

Yeah, and and it's kind of awful that our industry hasn't disclosed the fees before or has only disclosed part of the fee. Um, but yeah, in 2027 it's gonna be full fee transparency, which I'm very excited for because people are really gonna be held accountable in this industry for what they're doing and what they're charging. And I think there's gonna be a bit of a rude awakening there.

SPEAKER_00 41:18

Aaron Powell Yeah. The math is gonna be math in in people's heads. And they're like, Pardon me?

SPEAKER_01 41:22

When they see dollar value at the end of the day, they're gonna be like, okay, so what did you do for me? You called me once this year to say, are you still medium risk?

SPEAKER_00 41:29

That's and that's how much you got. I think that's what's gonna happen. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Okay. Something I'm really passionate about is uh the wealth that women are gonna hold in this country. And Amanda and I actually touched on this in uh our podcast too. And we we talked about you on the podcast about how like people need to talk to you about this. Um but in Canada, women are on track to control over$4 trillion by 2028, which is more than double than the 2.2 trillion they held in 2023. Yeah. So much to unpack there of like, all right, ladies, it's time to educate yourself. You know, don't be like my husband handles this. Yes. I know nothing about it. And also, I would love us to like pump women up and talk about how they are different investors than men and how it's actually positive.

SPEAKER_01 42:30

Yeah. I mean, there's there's a huge shift just in the fact that women in so many cases are the breadwinners in their families now, right? And it's it's about time. There's so many women out there that, you know, focused on raising their kids and and really set their careers aside. I think society is changing and allowing women to, you know, still be able to have a career. Um, you know, often I'll talk to women and they're like, who decided that raising a family and having a career was a good idea?

SPEAKER_00 43:00

I could not be like, what the heck? Yeah. I could stay at home. Can we actually go back in time? Having less responsibilities. I know it's like those memes where it's like, I girl boss too hard. Yeah. And now I'm not gonna do this. And now I'm like, why did I want to do that? Yes, yes. Everybody should do whatever they want to do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:17

Yes, yes. And I mean, you can joke about it all you want. And I mean, everyone has a choice of what they want to do. And and God bless the stay-at-home moms because I could never incredible me. You couldn't pay me. And I mean, not just because I don't want to be home with my kids, but it's just for me, my career is such a fulfilling thing in my life. And I would have a very hard time, and I did have a very hard time being out of the industry for a year and trying to, you know, fill my time with things that I felt, you know, invigorated me as much as my my work. And it was it was hard. Yes. And I have two girls, you know, they're 11 and 13, and I just keep trying to instill in them that you know, you have to do what your passion is. About and and really look at the job opportunities and all of those things. But the reality is women are controlling a lot more of the wealth, especially you know, through estates and things like that. Um, you know, the reality is that men typically don't live as long as women in a lot of cases. So a lot of women whose husbands dealt with their finances through their whole lives, their whole marriage, um, you know, they're in this situation where they're not only going through losing the person that they've shared their life with, but now they have all this to learn at a time when they're just trying to grieve, which is obviously very overwhelming. And I meet a lot of women in that situation where they're just like, I have no idea what's going on. Yeah, I didn't know where we had money, why we had it here, I didn't really know what the plan was. I didn't realize that we were invested in these kinds of things. Um typically women don't take as much risk as men. So if you compare, even if you know, uh husband and wife are investing the same amount of money, a lot of times the portfolio in the in the woman's name is is lower value because obviously over time lower risk investments will yield a lower rate of return. Um so that's something that I think women are starting to realize that they don't necessarily have to be the more conservative ones. Um, you know, we're always worried about making sure that our kids are okay and our parents are okay and our siblings are okay and our husbands are okay. And then we kind of forget to make sure that we're okay. You know, it's it's the self-care thing, it's the all of those things. And finances are not, you know, not any different than the way that we look at ourselves. And and we really need to advocate for ourselves and making sure that we're protected. And in the, you know, in the unfortunate chance that you ever are in a situation where you're getting divorced, which I mean, we know what the stats are there. You know, leaving a relationship because you don't have the financial strength, the education, the confidence, um, a lot of women stay in relationships that they're not happy in for one thing or another because financially they're worried about how it will affect them. And it's not even just necessarily, you know, do I make enough money to support myself, but how will our assets be, you know, separated and and divided and how will I start over? And how will I, you know, take care of my kids the way that I want to and my aging parents and all of those things. So it's something that I talk to a lot of women about and just making sure that they're protected. You know, it's not like you sit around and you know, bash men and say, like, oh no, you have to protect yourself and hide money or anything like that. It's just level the playing field. Just make sure that you understand what's happening, make sure that you are aware of how things are set up, make sure you know, you know, what your estate plan is and and all those things and and that you you have some knowledge about what's going on. It's okay that one person pays the bills and does you know most of those things. But you should be in those rooms in those conversations when you're making investment decisions, when you're deciding how to set things up, you know, when you're when you're doing a lot of the important things, not the day-to-day, who's paying the hydro, but like who the big stuff. Yeah, who do you have set up as the guardians of your kids? You know, who do you want to have your medical power of attorney? Who do you want to have your power of attorney for property? Who, you know, who's your executor? All of those things, right? It's there's really big decisions there and big conversations that need to happen. And I think women are finally starting to feel a little bit more confident having those conversations.

SPEAKER_00 47:31

And I think just knowing like where everything is and how much is there. Like my suggestion when me and Amanda were talking was like, okay, if you don't want to handle it, like that's okay. But maybe like once a month or once every other month, like you get him to like open everything for you.

unknown 47:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 47:50

You take note, like it's not in a weird way. It's literally just an informative way of like, okay, like we have like this RSP, we have this TFSA in his name, we have this TFSA in my name. Like this is kind of like the balances in like November 2025. And then like in a couple months, just do the same thing just to know, like just to be aware. And um, I remember the amount of times my parents uh would tell me like they wouldn't be in these meetings, whether it was with lawyers or financial planners. And if they didn't look at my mom, like they'd leave.

SPEAKER_02 48:28

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:29

Because they said it was so I mean, shopping with for cars, even exactly. Right. Like they wouldn't look at my mom even if like it was her car or like questions that she should be answering or anything like that. And every time they're like, yeah, that's just not the person for us. You know? And so um yeah, I think women definitely like want to be want to have a seat at the table or at least be informed and along for the ride. And I think it's important for them to do that. Um, what do you wish people knew about TFSA versus RSP?

SPEAKER_01 49:06

Oh, it's the golden question, right?

SPEAKER_00 49:08

Oh my gosh. I've had a big lesson of about this too.

SPEAKER_01 49:11

Yeah. Yeah, just basic knowledge about what the ins and outs are, sort of what the rules are around them, what the taxation is, all of that. So, you know, to make it simple, an RSP is a tax deferral strategy. So, you know, when you're making a certain amount of income through your working life, if you think that you're gonna make less in retirement or you need a tax deduction now to reduce the amount that you're paying, you can put money into an RSP. And for example, if you make$70,000 a year and you put$10,000 into an RSP, your income for that year is reduced to$60,000. Any tax you paid on that additional$10,000 is returned to you in some way when you do your income tax. And then that money grows tax-free until or tax deferred until you retire, and then you convert that from an RSP into a RIF, so a registered income fund instead of a savings plan. And then basically you're turning the tap off from putting the money in and turning the tap on to bringing the money out. The problem is that things have changed a little bit over the years, where you know, some people have pensions, some people don't. Uh, there's Canada pension, there's old age security, there's group RSPs through work where a lot of employers will do matching, all of those things. So if you don't have a plan and you don't know how much that 10,000 that you're putting in every year, you know that you're getting a tax benefit for it now, which is great, but how is that going to affect you down the road? So, what are all of your sources of income? What are what are they projected to be a retirement? And do you need to put that much into retirement savings? Yes, the tax break now is great, but there's so many people that I run into that are so heavily invested in RSPs. And then when it actually comes down to retirement and they're like, okay, so I have this RSP, I have my group RSP, I have a pension, I have CPP, I have old age security, I might have some stock options from work, all of these different things. When you look at all those things together and you go, okay, so this is your retirement income, all of this is taxable. You're making more than more. Yes. So you might actually be paying a higher amount of tax in retirement than you are when you're working. And you've given up that money now to do to do things with and to pay your bills and things like that, and waiting for retirement to access those funds. The biggest misconception is, you know, just really focusing on that tax benefit now and not thinking of the impact later. Whereas TFSAs, of course, they only came out in 2009. So generations like the baby boomers, they didn't have that as an option. So, of course, not a lot of people are gonna have a large amount of money in TFSAs from that generation because it wasn't an option. But the government really realized that people were so heavily retirement focused and that you're kind of penalized if you take the money out before retirement. And that tax deferral strategy is sort of a moot point when you take it out and you're still working. So what happens is the TFSA was kind of a way of encouraging people to maybe save for retirement in another way, but also have some shorter term savings, emergency savings, or just be able to invest a certain amount of money every year and have it grow tax-free. Obviously, in Canada, we pay a massive amount of tax. We also have a lot of benefit for what we pay for. Um, but uh you can use your TFSA and your RSP to your advantage when you have a plan and when you know what the sort of the goal is with that money, and then it's determining what investments to put in each of those accounts. That's where I think people get confused is that choosing the right account is one thing, but then choosing the investments within that account is another because every investment has different ways of generating income or growth, right? So there's interest income, there's dividends, and there's capital gains, and they're all taxed differently. So you want to make sure that the investment that you're choosing and the account align with your goals. And that's where it gets confusing for sort of the average person because they may not know how everything is taxed. They might not know based on their current income, you know, and how much they're contributing, if they're gonna have an overcontribution or if they're gonna be too heavily invested in RSPs. So the TFSA coming out in 2009 was a great thing for Canadians because it's a way where you can save kind of for a rainy day, you can save long term. There's a lot of flexibility there. And every dollar you put in there, anything you earn is tax-free. When you take it out, you still can put that money back in. So your room actually grows by the growth that you've earned in there, which is something that not a lot of people know. So there's definitely ways to use them to your advantage, but I think people are sort of not understanding the way to use them and they're not using them as efficiently as they should.

SPEAKER_00 53:54

TFSA is like the greatest gift on earth, but everyone is putting their money in an RSP, and it makes me want to pull my hair out because then they say it's growing tax-free. And I say it's not growing tax-free. It's growing tax deferred. What's in there is not your money, all of it. Yes. You will give the CRA some of that money, and the amount of money is determined by your income and retirement or how much you pull out at any given time, right? Like they can just take 25%. Like you go to take$100,000 out, like they can just even$2,000,$10,000, they will just like thank you for 25% of that.

SPEAKER_01 54:36

And what people don't get too is that the financial institution that you work with, there's a scale of how much they have to withhold and give to CRA, but then you're responsible for the difference. So if your tax rate is 40%, but your financial institution has only withheld 30% off of your withdrawal, you're gonna owe that difference 10% when you do your taxes next year. So that's where a lot of people they don't understand how that works. And so if you don't have someone to run those things by, it's really hard to make those decisions. And maybe there's another way. You know, sometimes borrowing money in a situation like that at lower interest rates is better than taking it out of your RSP. Yeah. And then just having a repayment plan. Like maybe you you just shift some of your savings that you're putting into your RSP to repaying a line of credit or something like that. If you have an emergency and you need to pull money from there, again, something you can run through a plan and be like, hey, if I do A versus B, how does it affect me? What's the overall cost-benefit analysis? And and that's where it's a lot easier to make those decisions.

SPEAKER_00 55:34

For sure. Okay. I think this is gonna resonate with a lot of my listeners. Is what should we be asking our parents to make sure? I don't know, like what like what happens in terms of like what are we mitigating? Are we mitigating taxes? Are we mitigating probate? Are we like what are we trying to mitigate by just having a gentle conversation with our parents? Um, because I feel like we're getting really educated about it, like the millennials. Um and then I see you know some boomers just like very well versed, know exactly how to like best protect properties, inheritances, like passed downs altogether. And then we have some that have don't even have a will, let alone like a tax plan for inheritance or anything. So, like, what are some a couple questions we could ask our parents?

SPEAKER_01 56:30

I mean, it's hard to have those conversations with your parents. It feels very violating sometimes, and it feels like you shouldn't ask those questions because it's like, well, I shouldn't know that, right?

SPEAKER_00 56:40

It also see it also feels like you're like, okay, I'm not asking you this because I'm excited for you to die and need to get money. I'm literally just asking to like to save. I mean, I've heard of people getting$30,000 probate bills because like something wasn't arranged properly. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 56:59

Like it's This is where getting bad advice from the wrong people will completely determine how much you end up paying in the end, right? There's so many people who put their kids on title of their home because they're like, oh, well, I don't want it to go through probate. But as soon as you put your kids on title and it's not their primary residence, then capital gains tax comes into play, right? So you're trying to avoid the probate tax, which is very minimal, and you're causing yourself to have to pay capital gains tax, your kids to have to pay that. And if their income is reasonable, that's huge. Yeah. So those little decisions where you think you're doing something right, you're actually really not doing something right because now all of a sudden it's not their primary residence, and that's a whole, a whole other issue. Um, so there's a lot of things where it's just the knowledge of what's going on. What does probate people get so freaked out about probate, they hate the idea of probate, but then they completely ignore income tax, which is way more impactful. Yeah, way more of an issue than probate. I mean, probate is the least of your worries when you have$700,000 in your RIF when you're 80 years old, which is very common. Right. So if you die tomorrow and you have$700,000 in your RIF, you're most likely losing 50% or more of that to CRA. And your kids are gonna inherit that money and then they're gonna get hit with this massive tax bill. And that's another issue, is that a lot of people, when they're the sole surviving spouse, will then put their kids as beneficiaries on their retirement savings, which is great because then it doesn't go through probate, but then that gets paid out to them, and then maybe a year, year and a half, two years later, they get hit with this massive tax bill. So if they don't have the advice to hold back a reasonable amount of money, yeah. If they don't have, you know, if you don't have that set up to, you know, somebody to say, hey, you know, the tax bill is probably gonna be X amount, we should set that aside, maybe even a little bit more just in case. Then sometimes that money is gone. And CRA doesn't care. They just want what's theirs, right? So that's the really frustrating part of it, is that you know, people inherit money as beneficiaries, and then all of a sudden the tax bill comes and they go, oh, well, I've already spent the money or I've already earmarked it for this or that. So there's a lot of misconception around how that all works and how the final tax bill, and sometimes estates take years, especially if there's property involved to settle. And then there's family dynamics and there's you know all of those things involved. There's a lot of misconceptions around what a beneficiary is and what an executor is. Yeah, you know, let alone who's inheriting what and all of those things. You know, I had this conversation with my own brother. He was frustrated that my parents had listed me as the executor because he was like, Well, that just means you're getting everything. And I said, Well, no. No. I'm like, that just means I get to do the crappy meetings.

SPEAKER_00 59:49

I just have to have to be part of the boring meetings. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 59:52

I have to do all the paperwork and making sure that all the, you know, the I's are dotted and T's are crossed. And that's that's a full-time job in itself sometimes if the estate isn't set up properly. So just a lot of education around, you know, what those terms even mean. And does it make sense to list someone? And a lot of my clients, I'm actually um talking to them about listing a corporate executor instead of an actual person as an executor, especially a family member. A acting as an executor when someone passes away close to you is hard because it's an emotional thing that you're going through, and the last thing you want to do is deal with all of their affairs, right? Um, and you know, a corporate executor is a professional. So they do this all the time. They know all the ins and outs, all the tax implications. They know to give the advice to the beneficiaries to say, hey, we're holding back X amount because this tax bill is coming. So it just smooths things out. It makes things a lot less complicated. It also helps with family dynamic and people, you know, getting upset about certain things and sentimental about things and and just allows you to grieve and just leave that whole piece behind. So have the conversation with your parents about who the executor is. Does that make sense? Don't have joint executors. Okay. Do not list two people as your executor, especially if they don't live close together. That is one thing that we see all the time is that people will list, you know, their son and daughter or their three kids or their four kids as co-executors. Okay. That is an absolute nightmare because every time there needs to be a bill paid or a decision made or legal documents drawn up or whatever the case, all of them need to be present to sign. Right. Can you imagine? Oh, we have to pay this final hydro bill, and all of us need to be there to sign that. It's it's a little ridiculous. Yeah. And it just causes way more complication than it needs to. So that's one big piece of advice I would say is have one executor, in my opinion, a corporate executor, if your estate has any complications, if there's property, if there's corporations, if there's any type of business, um, business assets, anything like that. Okay. Especially blended families, all of those things that can kind of, you know, cut and dry if you just have, you know, a fairly simple estate. Sure. List somebody. Obviously, most people list their their spouse and then their kids kind of kind of next. But yeah. Corporate executorship is is really not that expensive. And it's, you know, it's actually less in a lot of cases than what somebody as a an individual can charge as an executor, because they can charge up to five percent. Um, in a lot of cases, like clear state that I work with is a flat 1%. So a major difference, and you're getting all that value. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:28

It's like value and advice and less mental load and overwhelming.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:32

And they deal with the realtor when you're trying to sell your home, like the home, and all those things, right? So it's it's a thankless job. And it's one of those things that is probably left best for that's a great tip.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:44

Yeah. Three great tips. Don't put your kids on title. I see that actually all the time. Yes. Uh don't do co-executors, especially if they live far apart. I could see it maybe working like if two siblings live really close together and like they have similar jobs or something like that. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:04

Like, and if they both want to be involved in every single thing, sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:08

For sure. Um yeah. So and then corporate executors, that's such a great tip because a lot of the boomers, they have multiple properties. Yes. Yeah, for sure. And they're like they're aging in in place, right? And so there's not just the primary residence that, you know, for a while maybe wasn't a thing because uh a lot of people moved into retirement homes. Yeah. Um, but a lot of them have cottages or investment properties.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:32

And that's where things like estate freeze come into play. If you want your kids to inherit your properties and things like that, like there's a lot of planning that can be done before you pass away that will really alleviate a lot of the stress and some of the expense when that actually happens. So yeah, there's a lot of things that you really just want to have in order, make sure you have everything documented the way you want it to go. Um, some people get really granular with their wills as well, like I want this to go there and this to go there, like specific accounts and things like that, where you know, things fluctuate over time, real estate values change so much. You know, you leave this property to one kid, this property to the other kid, and there's a huge discrepancy and the difference in the value that causes a lot of issues. So, you know, talking to somebody about how it makes sense to, you know, to structure your will is also a huge thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:18

Yeah. Yeah. I feel like we could talk for three more hours because there's like so many things that I didn't even ask about that I I I've just like heard these buzzwords and stuff. And I'm like, well, what does that mean? What does that mean? Who is that for? Um but thank you so much. You are giving our listeners away a little something. Yeah. I have here, it's called a free IG Living Plan for chatting with you, a free portfolio analysis and a second opinion on your current investment portfolio insurance and estate plan. Yeah. That is invaluable. Yeah. That could save someone so much money or provide a lot of peace of mind that they are on the right track. So that's very generous. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:07

Yeah. I mean, it's it's one of those things where you don't have to make a decision whether or not you want to work together. We can look at what you're currently doing. And if everything looks great and you're happy with what you're doing, that's great. At least you have the peace of mind. You have a second opinion to say, hey, yeah, things look great. But if you don't, at least maybe there's some ways that we can see, you know, there might be some gaps that we can look at, different options and and just making sure that you know where you where you are and where you're headed. And and I'm happy to sit with people and educate them and and talk through that. And you know, in my experience, the service, the way that I talk to people, the way that I educate people, a lot of times, you know, that resonates and and people become clients. So you know, I just I'm really passionate about what I do. And like I said, a lot of people in my industry won't do any type of planning or gain any type of advice before you know becoming a client and committing to that. But um I just really love what I do, and I feel like people will see that, and I feel like they'll see the value in that. And if they're not already getting that, then it's a pretty, a pretty easy decision at that point.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:11

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Thank you so much for coming on in your time. This was a time flew by. I know I told you. I told you. I was like, once I hit record, the time's gonna fly. Yes, it does. Thank you so much for coming on. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. Thank you for tuning in to the At Home in Waterloo Region podcast. It's been a pleasure sharing another incredible story with you. If you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a review. It helps us reach even more people who love this community as much as we do. To stay up to date on new episodes and everything Waterloo Region from the housing market to community events, follow at Home Co. on Instagram and join our email newsletter community, both linked in the show notes. Until next time, take care of each other and let's keep celebrating the stories that make this region home.