Retirement planning is not just about saving enough money to retire. It is about deciding when you can retire, how much you can afford to spend, and how to turn your savings into tax efficient income.
Our Objective Financial Partners fee-only, advice-only retirement planners work with clients across Canada. We do not sell investments or insurance, earn commissions, or receive referral fees. Our clients pay us directly for retirement advice, whether they need help with a few specific questions or a detailed plan covering the rest of their lives. We work with some clients sporadically and others on an ongoing, annual basis.
Good retirement planning should help you understand the risks and opportunities that may affect the rest of your life. Many clients come to us for advice about CPP and OAS timing, RRSP and RRIF withdrawal strategies, and retirement tax planning.
Retirement planning sits at the intersection of spending, taxes, investments, pensions, estate planning, and personal goals. Many of the decisions do not have a clearly right or wrong answer. Understanding the trade-offs is often more important than finding a perfect solution.
Book a complimentary introductory call to discuss your situation and determine what type of retirement planning engagement may be appropriate.
What Questions Can Retirement Planning Answer?
Some people come to us several years before retirement because they want to know whether they are on track. Others are preparing to leave work and want a clear transition plan. We also work with people who have already retired but need help deciding how much to spend or which accounts to draw from. Post-retirement planning can help determine whether you can spend or give more while preserving the estate you want to leave.
A retirement plan can help answer questions such as:
- When can I afford to retire, and how much can I spend?
- When should I start CPP and OAS, convert my RRSP to a RRIF, or begin my workplace pension?
- Which accounts should I use first, and how can I reduce tax over the rest of my life rather than only this year?
These decisions are connected. Delaying CPP or OAS, for example, may provide more guaranteed income later, but you need another source of spending in the meantime. Taking extra RRSP withdrawals may create tax today while reducing future RRIF minimums and the potential for an OAS recovery tax (clawback) later.
There is no withdrawal order or pension starting age that is best for everyone. We compare the alternatives using your personal circumstances rather than relying on a rule of thumb.
What Does a Detailed Retirement Plan Include?
We start by understanding your current finances and what you want retirement to look like. That includes your assets, debts, income, spending, and pensions, as well as plans that may not appear on an account statement, such as helping family, moving, travelling, buying a second property, or leaving an estate.
We then build a year-by-year retirement projection. Depending on the engagement, the analysis may include:
- Employment and business income, CPP, OAS, workplace pensions, and other cash flows.
- RRSP and RRIF withdrawals, TFSAs, non-registered investments, corporate assets, personal and investment real estate, and debt.
- Income tax, inflation, investment returns, major purchases, inheritances, gifts, and estate value.
The projection gives us a starting point, but the real value comes from comparing decisions. We can evaluate retiring earlier or later, spending more, downsizing your home, helping children, or the impact of higher or lower investment returns.
We also stress-test the plan. Beyond investments, factors like inflation, longevity, and future tax rates cannot be predicted, so a good plan should show how much room you have if circumstances are less favourable than expected.
Retirement Tax Planning
Tax should not be considered separately from retirement planning. The timing of withdrawals, pensions, and investment income can affect your tax bracket, income-tested benefits, and the amount ultimately left to your estate.
Retirement tax planning may involve drawing from an RRSP before age 71, converting part of an RRSP to a RRIF early, coordinating withdrawals between spouses, or deciding whether to realize capital gains over time.
The objective is generally not to pay the least tax this year if doing so leads to more tax later. It is to fund your retirement as efficiently as possible after tax over your lifetime.
For clients who need detailed tax planning advice or tax return support, we can coordinate with Objective Tax & Accounting or work with your existing accountant. Our financial planning advice and tax preparation support are separate services, but the advice is more useful when the two are aligned. Many clients work with us for both.
Retirement Planning for Incorporated Business Owners
An incorporated business owner may enter retirement with investments or cash in an operating company or holding company. Those assets need to be coordinated with personal assets like RRSPs, RRIFs, TFSAs, non-registered investments, pensions, and spending.
The question is not simply whether to take dividends or leave money in the corporation. A plan may need to consider the timing of corporate withdrawals, corporate tax balances, capital dividends, the sale or closure of the business, and the tax that could arise if substantial corporate assets remain at the owner’s death.
We can model the corporation as part of the retirement plan rather than treating it as a separate investment account. Detailed corporate tax work can then be completed by Objective Tax & Accounting or your accountant.
Learn more about corporate investments for retirees and retiring with a corporation.
Investment Planning in Retirement
The investment strategy that helped you save for retirement may need to change when you begin drawing retirement income. Your portfolio needs to support spending without taking more risk than necessary or leaving too much money in cash for too long.
One of the biggest investment risks in retirement is not simply poor performance. It is withdrawing too much, too little, or from the wrong accounts at the wrong time.
Retirement investment planning can include reviewing your mix of stocks and fixed income, investment fees, account location, and the amount held in cash or short-term investments. We can also consider whether your planned investment return is realistic and how a market decline early in retirement could affect your spending. We cannot predict the future, but we can help you plan for it.
We do not manage investments or recommend specific securities. You can continue working with your investment advisor or portfolio manager, and we can help align their investment strategy with your retirement plan. We also work with self-directed investors who want retirement planning advice while continuing to manage their own portfolios.
One-Time Retirement Planning or Ongoing Advice
Not everyone needs the same type of engagement. Some clients need help answering one or two focused questions. Others want a detailed retirement plan, while clients with more complexity may prefer ongoing support.
We generally help in three ways:
- Pay-As-You-Go consultations: Advice on a specific question, such as CPP and OAS timing, pension options, or another retirement decision where you want an objective professional opinion.
- Detailed retirement plan: A year-by-year projection, scenario analysis, and recommendations about saving, spending, pensions, and withdrawals.
- Ongoing financial counsel: Continuing planning, coordination, and accountability as stock markets, tax rules, family circumstances, and retirement goals change.
You do not need to transfer investments or commit to an ongoing relationship. We will recommend a scope based on the questions you want answered and the analysis required. Our fees are generally quoted in advance and are based on the work and complexity involved rather than the amount of money you have.
Retirement Planning at Different Stages
If you are still saving, a plan can identify how much you need to set aside and whether your target retirement date is realistic. It can also help you decide how to prioritize an RRSP, TFSA, mortgage, or other important decisions.
If retirement is approaching, the focus shifts to readiness and implementation. That may include confirming your spending, planning pension start dates, preparing for the end of employment income, and deciding where the first several years of retirement income will come from.
If you are already retired, the plan is not finished. Spending, stock markets, family support, and health can change, all while retirement tax planning tends to become more complicated. Planning ahead can show whether you can spend or give more, whether withdrawals should change, and how to incorporate your estate planning.
What Do You Receive From a Retirement Planning Engagement?
The deliverable depends on the scope, but a detailed retirement planning engagement generally includes two or more planning meetings, a personalized financial projection, and clear recommendations. We explain the assumptions and trade-offs in plain language and provide a final version for your records. We can help you stay on track annually or as needed.
A retirement plan is not a guarantee or a prediction. Its purpose is to help you make better decisions today and adjust as circumstances change.
Why Work With an Advice-Only Retirement Planner?
Many financial advisers are paid through investment management fees, commissions, or product sales. Our compensation comes directly from our clients, and we do not accept referral fees.
That means you can keep your current investments and advisers if you want to. Our role is to assess the retirement decisions themselves and give you recommendations that are not tied to selling or managing a product.
Objective Financial Partners has provided fee-only financial planning since 2012. We work remotely with clients across Canada, and clients in Québec can work with Partenaires financiers objectifs for retirement planning tailored to Québec tax rules and programs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Start With an Introductory Call
An introductory call allows us to learn about your situation, explain the types of retirement planning engagements available, and provide a written quote for services. The call is not intended to provide financial advice, and there is no obligation to proceed.
Book a complimentary introductory call to discuss how we may be able to help.