Retirement Income Planning

Retirement is about new beginnings. Are you ready?

Employees spend their working lives saving for retirement by investing in tax-sheltered retirement savings plans. When the day comes for you to turn these plans into income, you will want to make sure you and your family have an adequate amount to live on in the years ahead. But you don't have to go it alone; Capital Estate Planning has a team of professional advisors and is a trusted resource with a wide array of products and services to help you attain your retirement goals.

Capital Estate Planning is proud to provide a unique service of personal financial planning analysis for all of our clients. We utilize an innovative software tool that is exclusive to professionals only and that is designed to perform the time consuming calculations that are necessary to prepare a comprehensive financial plan for your personal circumstances. It shows where your finances are today and where they are projected to be at any time in the future, based upon whatever set of economic assumptions you choose.

Call a Capital Estate Planning advisor today. Your retirement awaits!

To read about our retirement income planning services, please choose one of the options below:

» Registered Retirement Income Funds (RRIFs)
» Annuities
» Retirement Income Projections
» Reducing Taxes at Death

Registered Retirement Income Funds
Retirement opens new chapters. To fund retirement, RRSP holders often roll their RRSPs into an RRIF. The RRIF plan is designed specifically to provide people with a constant income flow through retirement from the savings in their RRSPs. Like an RRSP, a RRIF can and should hold a number of diverse investments.

A RRIF offers considerable income flexibility, and at the same time, your savings remain tax sheltered and under your investment control. You have the additional flexibility of being able to adjust how much income you receive, how often you receive it, and even how it is invested. (A minimum amount must be paid to you from your RRIF as taxable income each year after the year you set it up.)

In most cases you can establish an RRIF any time before the end of the year in which you turn 71 years. This is done by transferring some or all of your savings directly from an RRSP. Savings can include funds from a company pension plan (as long as the funds are not locked-in) or a deferred profit-sharing plan. No tax is payable when transferring RRSP or Registered Pension Plan (non-locked-in) savings into an RRIF. All RRIF investment growth accumulates tax-free under the plan. Only withdrawals are taxable. Do you want complete control and flexibility of your retirement savings? RRIFs are very popular retirement income options.

Annuities
Until recently, a life annuity was the only vehicle for providing retirement income for savings that have been locked in. Annuities ensure that you will have a guaranteed income for the rest of your life. Savings that are not locked in may also be used to purchase an annuity.

An annuity will provide you with a series of payments for a specified number of years after retirement. Or, it will provide payments for your life, your spouse's life, or the lifetime of both you and your spouse. This guaranteed income offers both stability and security. For many, this is an easy, worry-free answer to retirement income needs. Different types of annuities are available, including the following:

• A life annuity, which provides income payable as long as you live, most often with a number of years of payments guaranteed to your beneficiary. The most common period selected by people is 10 years.
• A joint life annuity, which provides income payments for as long as you and your spouse live.
• A term certain annuity gives you a specified number of income payments. If you die before all the specified payments have been made, a death benefit is paid to your beneficiary. This option is particularly useful in situations where income is required for a specific length of time. For example, a five-year term may be selected to cover five years remaining on a mortgage.

A combination of different types of annuities will provide you with income flexibility.

Retirement Income Projections
In addition to advisory services, Capital Estate Planning is happy to provide our clients with computerized personal retirement income projections to assist in decision making and wealth management.

This is a unique service that Capital Estate Planning is proud to offer on a fee for service basis. We use an innovative software tool that is exclusive to professionals only. The software is designed to perform the time-consuming calculations necessary to prepare a comprehensive financial plan for your personal circumstances. It shows where your finances are today and where they are projected to be at any time in the future, based upon whatever set of economic assumptions you choose.

Reducing Taxes at Death
You have a sizable amount built up in your RRSP or your RRIF and are concerned about taxes at death.

What happens if you die before you can use that money? Or what if you want to leave some of that money to your children or grandchildren? If you have a spouse, you can transfer it to that person and it will stay intact. But if you don't have a spouse, your heirs stand to lose up to 40% of your hard earned money to taxes.

There is a way to ensure that the full value of your estate goes to your loved ones rather than to Revenue Canada. Talk to us about a Joint-Last to Die insurance policy, or the new 100% tax deductible charitable giving options. Capital Estate Planning Corporation can answer those "what if" questions regarding Planned Charitable Giving to minimize taxes at death.

Ensure that your loved ones, not Revenue Canada, are your major beneficiaries.