B.Comm Financial Blog

Why don't I have disability coverage? ( The advisors fault)

2010-02-11T10:24:00.003-05:00

Disability Insurance on the street is "rumored" as an over priced benefit that will let you down when you need it most; not to mention nearly impossible to get underwritten for.

This is a delima I face on the street almost every day, and finally I think people are starting to grasp the concept. YES- disability coverage is not cheap, but I would argue with anyone that in relation to your income level it's not expensive.

Insuracne advisors are to blame for the lack of education to their client ( or themselves for that matter) as they only show the illustration's with 100% of the income protected and poor definitons. Limiting anyone to 1 or 2 options will almost always invite them to politley say "no thanks"

Occupation definitions, step benefits, wait periods, monthly income level and on and on are factors that should be discussed in making sure EVERYONE who is employed has some level of individually held disability coverage.

If you make $100,000 and can't afford the whole premium of what a real disability plan looks like, then you should insure yourself for half of that ($50,000) or whatever you can afford.

Hardly anyone I meet has disability coverage and i blame the advisor. It takes a long time to get the coverage, advisor has to do a lot of work and many think it's not worth their time. This is garbage talk, because it is our responsibility to get these extremely effective products into the hands of employed Canadians.

Since December 1st our office has had 9 disability applications submitted , and I am very proud to do the hard work for these clients in attempts to make sure they are COVERED properly.

Tucker Wright

Look deeper

2009-06-22T11:24:00.003-04:00

Last week I encountered a discussion with a college that I haven't yet come across to date. First off I was messing around with some Insurance companies software and notice a few interesting concepts around Return of Premium options inside disability and critical illness policies. The concept would make sense to have your premiums returned if one of these benefits were not required in a specific period of time- 10th anniversary, 15th anniversary etc.... when looking deeper into the numbers I noticed that the rate of return can be as high as 17% in some cases!

ROP has now become a new option for anyone who has enough cash flow to pay for their lifestyle and at least a 10 year term- where are you going to find a return with no related risk north of 10%????????

Answer: you don't.

Look to discuss this option with your financial advisor as it is becoming a new trend to grow your Cash while having the ultimate protection with a living benefit like Disability coverage or Critical illness.

I'm off to a Manulife conference - should be interesting, I'll update tomorrow.

Tucker Wright- Toronto Life Insurance

Where were we......?

2009-06-04T11:47:00.003-04:00

It's been a tough week so far and I'm still trying to master the art of Blogging so my apologies for not updating sooner.

Driving downtown can be the most frustrating thing possible until I found King West! I often have appointments in the downtown core that range from 9:00 am - 4:00 pm and no matter what time of day the streets are a mess. Taxi's swerving in and out, construction reducing streets to 1 lane and trying to remember what streets are a 1 way; downtown financial district is becoming my new nemesis so when I had a few appointments this week booked in and around King west between Spadina & Bathurst I was preparing for the worst.

Now I've been down there many times in my life, but always between 11:00 pm - 3:00 am and not usually really soaking in the neighbourhood ( soaking other things). When I pulled off the Gardiner to make a left turn on Wellington is was shocked by how easy a maneuver this was in the morning, already I'm so happy that i have reached my location early of my targeted time. Park the Mali, and stroll up to King street where i was meeting my first client at Starbucks, remembering that I need to walk past For Your Eyes Only to get there and it's across from the Brant I think?

Thank god I wore my dancing shoes, because I was in and out of every stroller to mankind- Mommies everywhere??? Youthful business people walking and talking and the streets looked freakishly neat, "this is wild " I'm saying to myself. Traffic was moving at the same speed of Mt.Pleasant & Davisville and everyone looked so dam happy. I truly was impressed with the day scene down on King. Mix in a night life and you have an area that is truly fit for the emerging 20 something crowd and beyond.

I noticed many developments either on King and behind on Wellington that looked to be moving along nicely, most notably Fashion House 2008 project of the year. Freed Developments looked to have a foot hold on the development in this area, and with little research it was easy to see the kind of stuff they put together. Unique architecture and the opposite of anything you would see in and around Sky dome ( sorry Rogers Center), Freed Developments offers a lifestyle that fits the Torontonian at heart.

I'm headed out this afternoon for some introduction meetings with a couple in Aurora and later a referral with a young business owner uptown. I'll touch base back this week. I'll put some shout outs on twitter www.twitter.com/bcommfinancial

Tucker Wright- Toronto Life Insurance

Does your cash flow look like this??????

2009-06-01T12:37:00.005-04:00

Last week I experienced a first in my industry- TWICE....

2 clients didn't have sufficient funds to pay their monthly premium, leading their personal bank accounts to be O/D. The interesting thing is that one client was a smaller term policy and the other was one of my longtime most stable clients. I looked deep into this situation to find answers and I have simply come up with- Cash Flow is tight right now. Life is expensive and a tough place to grind it out all the time, mix in some unexpected expenses and your financial situation can be a mess pretty quickly. Both clients of mine will be fine and have stable incomes, this is simply a small bump in the road but more importantly I would like to think they are both happy to have an advisor who understands and is willing to help and walk the extra mile.

This week I will be meeting with both clients to re asses their current situation of Life Insurance and other expenses that are creating a crunch. FP solutions software allows me to do this and I'll make reference to this once again.

Remember you are the CEO of your own financial situation and open your eyes to what's really going on, attack your expenses- use credible people to help you get there and most importantly believe in what your doing. We use the phrase pillow factor around here often, and it refers to how well our clients should be sleeping- if you don't feel comfortable in what your doing DON'T DO IT.

I have to get back to getting these illustrations put together on top of my other task this week, check twitter.com/bcommfinancial until the next blog tomorrow afternoon.

Tucker Wright - Toronto Life Insurance

A few pointers for entrepreneurs

2009-05-28T12:58:00.005-04:00

I introduce Doug Steiner........ and the crowd goes wild!!!!!

If you're not familiar with Doug he writes for the globe and mail Report on Business, while he also runs his own business in the financial service sector. I am fortunate enough to know Doug personally and find him to be a great voice to speak with, not only because of his witty nature but the overall advice and stability he has when discussing business ventures.

Take the time to view this quick video of Doug delivering a tutorial at the Rotman school of business. Hope you enjoy! Tucker.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/business-incubator/doug-steiner-serial-entrepreneur/article1130157/

Tucker Wright- Toronto Life Insurance

Facebook gets face lift

2009-05-27T12:01:00.005-04:00

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/facebook-gets-cash-boost-but-is-web-20-on-the-wane/article1154160/

I find it very interesting to see that Facebook was valuated at U.S. $10 billion, when this week many articles were breaching the conversation of the real evaluation of $3-5 billion.

Yuri Milner recently invested $200-million for a 1.69% stake in Facebook. With 200 million members world wide Facebook is a prime example of the value in social networking sites today and well into the future.

As a generation Y member I can easily see how this movement will impact the future of purchasing and advertising. Generation Y is becoming true consumers of top end products such as Mortgages, Investments, Life Insurance etc...... gone are the day's of skateboards and ball hockey sticks and welcome to heating bills and car payments.

How are social networking sites going to adapt to this market? Obviously there are people out there who believe these sites will become a pillar in the NEW everyday purchasing decisions faced by generation Y. $200,000,000 is a figure that i can't shy away from, especially in the downturn 2009 that we are all becoming too familiar with. 10 million- 20 million are figures we read about everyday in private equity deals, but 200 million has a different ring.

Once again I want to hear from you and hear your side of what social networking is to you???

Personally I like them and think they can be a huge resource for purchasing decisions if used wisely and effectively- Like anything be cautious.

Tucker Wright- Toronto Life Insurance

Are you ready to change???

2009-05-26T11:43:00.005-04:00

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/its-a-punctuation-point-in-history/article1152251/#video

Please check out this video and identify if you are ready to change or if you have been psychologically damaged by the recent downturn?

As i know many of the readers are from the younger generations, do you feel that there is opportunity out there? Do you plan to run a small business in the future?

I personally believe that in the near future we will see thousands upon hundreds of thousands new small business in Canada where people strive to control their own destiny & life style. This excites me as more than ever Canadians will need more and more help identifying their new risks they face as individuals and business owners.

Let's hear form you.

Tucker Wright-Toronto Life Insurance

Click Me for Personal Budget Sheet!

2009-05-26T11:16:00.003-04:00

Attached is a document produced by Fidelity, any variation of this list is acceptable I just wanted to give you a working example.

See you tomorrow,

Tucker Wright- Toronto Life Insurance

B.Comm Financial case study challenge; Deadling May 29th

2009-05-25T12:55:00.005-04:00

MAY 29TH

As mentioned last week we are having a case study challenge. The Focus is just simply to identify your financial situation and create discussion about how we can establish some Goals and Projections moving forward.

All participants will be entered to win a Broil King Monarch 20

http://www.broilkingbbq.com/grills/series_19.html

This blog is going to become a resource for readers to have everyday questions answered either through typical Q&A or experiencing case studies.

Do you have enough Insurance?

Do you have too much Insurance?

Does your current investment approach make money? Loose money? Tread water?

Do you own a company?

Are you taking advantage of the ALL the tax implications of owning a company?

These are the things we want to hear and start discussion's. Often reading or using a "online" identification comforts people's ability to open up and start tackling the issues they really want help with.

We look forward to hearing from, both current clients of ours and new friends we meet online!

Email:

tucker.wright@bcommfinancial.com with your current case study logistics. I will attach in a separate blog entry a summary page to help set up your case study.

Enjoy your Monday,

Tucker Wright- Toronto Life Insurance

Is this you?????

2009-05-21T10:40:00.005-04:00

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/637272

Let me know if you are a Canadian who is planing to save their money for the next few years in order to establish a nest egg once again?

This week we have seen movements in the credit card industry as well auto insurance policies, both having to answer questions as to how these product's continue to drain $$$$$ from everyday working Canadians.

Look for new features in weeks to come with regular information on the ever evolving Home & Auto Insurance industry

Life Insurance hits CNBC

2009-05-20T16:29:00.002-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sskwUTj4z8&feature=related

This information is American related but shows the value in the concept of investing in Life insurance.

These products are even more dependable in Canada! Enjoy

Tucker Wright- Toronto Life Insurance

Let's hear from you! What's your financial situation?

2009-05-20T15:36:00.001-04:00

Inspired from another conversation i had earlier in the day, i thought it would be a neat idea to start working on some real live case studies for discussion.

To entice my readers on twitter or the blog, i will enter all case study participants in a draw for a Broil King Monarch 20. http://www.broilkingbbq.com/grills/series_19.html

Contest will accept case studies until MAY 29th, 2009

Follow B.Comm Financial at www.twitter.com/tuckerwright

Tucker Wright- Toronto Life Insurance

B comm Financial adds FP solutions

2009-05-19T09:10:00.001-04:00

FP Solutions is financial planning software designed by CCH a Wolters Kluwer Business.

Reviewed as an elite financial planning tool, FP solutions is like having a tax, insurance, legal and financial planning specialist all sitting in your office or home providing every imaginable scenario possible. You might be asking yourself, why haven't i heard of this software???? simple answer, it runs nearly $1,250 a copy and needs to be updated every year or so- that's enough to keep this from becoming a house hold product.

When i dug a bit deeper i found some startling information- This software is so good that it is well worth the $1,250 price tag, but that may not be the opinion of my industry or even the groups of people you trust in managing these types of decisions ( anything financialy related). FP solutions is only used by 7-10% of CFP's in Canada. As CFP's have obviously gone through the education to deserve their designation, i was extremely shocked that they don't support this leading software, and the only reason i could think of was the money. $1,250 annually should be a no brain er as a business expense for anyone in the financial planning industry.

Products, solutions and strategies are constantly evolving in this industry and i find it hard to believe that all CFP's and anyone else claiming to provide these services doesn't have top notch software? Only having 3 1/2 years of experience i have identified that helping people with their money or insurance solutions is a serious issue and needs serious attention.

Next week the B comm solutions specialist are attending a CCH- FP solutions training seminar session 1 that will help advance our ability to service our clients in ways they have never seen or imagined. All of this is in an effort to establish ourselves as leaders in providing education to our clients and prospects from the most sophisticated business owners to simple house hold planning solutions. I encourage you to visit http://www.cch.ca/ to have a stronger understanding of what this software can provide when making any assumption about financial planning.

I will be sure to update you all with how this venture has effected our business.

Enjoy the short week!

Tucker Wright- Toronto Life Insurance

Holiday weekend reading material

2009-05-14T13:01:00.001-04:00

Below is a link discussing how permanent life insurance works. I have become motivated again to get this message out to the 20 somethings as this opportunity doesn't last for ever.

Let's hear from you about this. Do you like this concept?

What's your disposable income?
How old are you?

I want to hear from you so we can start to discuss your specific situation. Learning new things can only help you make the right decisions in life, you'd be surprised to the benefits that can be created inside these policies.

http://www.canadalife.com/003/Home/Products/LifeInsurance/PermanentInsurance/ParticipatingLifeInsurance/S5_009423

Enjoy the weekend, and follow me on twitter! www.twitter.com/tuckerwright

Tucker Wright- Toronto Life Insurance

Why paying too much tax can be a good thing ??

2009-05-13T12:03:00.001-04:00

Companies deliberately send more than necessary, then collect interest-rate windfall, auditor says

Allan Woods OTTAWA BUREAU

OTTAWA – Some of Canada's largest corporations may be using the government as a high-yield investment account by deliberately overpaying on their annual tax returns to collect favourable interest rates, the federal auditor general says.
In each of the last three years, top businesses have realized a $30 million windfall by paying a total of $4 billion into accounts managed by the Canada Revenue Agency that cover them in the event their tax returns are reassessed.
The accounts have paid an interest rate of from 5 to 7 per cent since 2006. The rate is considerably more favourable than that offered by banks. Auditor General Sheila Fraser said it appears corporations were well aware of the favourable treatment they were getting with their federal accounts, though it is difficult to prove any company has set out to bilk taxpayers.
"No one asked the corporations or tried to determine what the motivation was, but I think we can probably arrive at that conclusion," she told reporters. "The agency did try to return the money to them and they declined."
Fraser joked that there could be an influx of chief financial officers looking to stash money in Ottawa in the wake of her report.
"I'm not sure in this economic time that a lot of corporations have a lot of cash to deposit with the Canada Revenue Agency, but there are obviously some and the agency has to manage this."
The Canada Revenue Agency, which collects federal tax money, has suspected that corporations were aware of their higher interest rates since at least 1991, but it has done nothing to safeguard the federal treasury.
Agency officials trying to return the advance payments to firms are powerless if the company opts to leave the account open.
The favourable interest rates, which have existed for almost two decades, have conceivably cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, and Fraser said a strong, enforceable policy is necessary to control the problem.

Tucker Wright- Toronto Life Insurance

http://twitter.com/tuckerwright

2009-05-01T11:57:00.001-04:00

B. Comm Financial has officially taken it to the streets! twitter is the new social networking group that will take facebook spit it out and walk right to the number #1 hit web address.

Facebook has become too personal of a network and many people have moved the back to only having contacts they wish to share photos with - the orginal purpose of facebook.

Twitter allows you to be as profesional or goofy as you feel. It will offer you the ability to share your thoughts and feelings as your engagne new experiances.

I will be using twitter to give my readers a more in depth look at me Tucker Wright, the Financial Planner-Insurance solutions specialist, as well golfer and local Trontonian.

Look for me to be ing in cyber space near you.

Tucker Wright- Toronto Life Insurance

Critical Illness Insurance ( What's the deal?)

2009-04-30T13:34:00.001-04:00

Much has been discussed about Critical Illness insurance ( CI) lately and I thought it would be helpful to clear up some points.

I'm guessing you have now heard about this product and how could you really not with the hundreds of ad's on the radio about CI providers. Is it just me or is buying something as important as CI over the web a cause for concern??????

I've recently bought a golf club from eBay and was a little disappointed when it was delivered as i didn't feel like I got the product in the shape it was described on eBay. What are you going to do? my mistake and I will have to deal with the consequences. If this type of issue happened to one of my clients through a product I helped him/her decide on I would feel sick to my stomach.

CI is designed for 1 main purpose, to provide funds that will pay for any incurring costs of a Critical Illness.

Here are some typical expenses related to critical illnesses:

Out-of-system surgery ($25,000 and up)
Drugs (One cancer drug costs $30,000 and is not covered by provincial plans.)
Out-of-system tests (Example: A single PET scan costs $2,500-$5,000. PET scans are the best way to determine tumour size for cancer diagnosis and after each stage of treatment.)
Travel to testing and treatment centres
Parking at hospitals (now as much as $3 or $4 per half hour)
Meals at or near hospitals
Accommodation near out-of-town hospitals
Travel for visiting loved ones
Child care
Ramps, fixtures and equipment to make your home more accessible
Enabling your spouse to take time off work
Replacing your own lost or reduced income

Would you buy this product over the web???

Please look to a professional insurance advisor who can walk you through all the product options on the market without any incentive to sell a tailored product from their company. CI is one of the most popular forums of insurance and because of it we have seen numerous company's established to fill this need, ironically named by the catchiest website title (COUGH....righchoiceinsurance COUGH....illnessprotection etc......)

Look to a Insurance advisor who will sit down with you and discuss all the pros's and con's of these types of products. Often consumers have buyers remorse and there is no need for that when buying something this important; it's not the products fault, it's the advisor who recommended the product.

See you tomorrow!

Tucker Wright- Toronto Life Insurance

Swine Flu... Is this the one????

2009-04-29T09:40:00.000-04:00

As the swine flu (H1N1) continues to linger I thought it would be a perfect time to provide our readers links for educating themselves on what a pandemic is and more importantly how to plan for one.

In my short time before entering the world of Insurance and Financial planning, I was involved with a few businesses that were linked to crisis management. Avian Flu (H5N1) was the crisis that was being planned for the most while I was in the industry, so i naturally obtained a significant amount of information and knowledge regarding deadly influenzas.

The most alarming piece of information is that influenza strains like (H5N1 or H1N1) attack the healthiest people of earth. Typical influenza or the "flu" which we all experience every winter is an attack to the immune system, leaving children and elderly people with the highest risk as they typically have weaker immune systems. Pandemic style influenza's attack the strong, ages 20-45. Spinning out of control the pandemic flu's move your body into overdrive where essentially your internal organs are unable to sustain that pace and a death is unavoidable.

Whether it's the Avian Flu, Swine Flu or something we haven't heard of yet, it's not a far fetched idea to think that we could be exposed to this traumatic event in our life time. Below are a list of Links that can help you establish a plan.

http://www.fightflu.ca ( Canadian Government site)

http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu (Center of Disease Control)

http://www.who.int/en (World Health Organization)

http://www.fitseal.com ( Toronto based mask company)

Please feel free to email any question's about these types of influenza strain and I will be sure to get the appropriate information back to you.

Retirement Issues continued........

2009-04-28T11:40:00.001-04:00

I'm not going to let this go because I am passionate about helping the crowd who is preparing for retirement.

It only takes a quick glance at any grocery store, home depot or any box chain in reality to see more and more older employees. I'm willing to bet that these employees aren't working there because they enjoy being active, they are forced to work there as they simply don't and won't have enough money to live a comfortable retirement and even the financial means to survive in their last stage of life.

Canadian retirement assets are down 22% in sponsored pension plans, and even worse in most people individual RRSP's. How could any of us survive when all the money we had been saving was slashed by 25%,30% etc... It's very tough to find solutions in trying to re coup those assets as they don't have a long enough time horizon to meet conventional investment techniques( maybe not the best solution for any time horizon).

All of this leads into my recent passion of reaching out to anyone int their mid 40's to late 50's as they can significantly ensure they will have enough money to survive and have a retirement that is focused on relaxing not continuing to work. It is important to communicate and transfer information to this group, it could be a parent, spouse, neighbour or family friend they deserve to have the proper information when making decisions about their future.

I will continue this discussion with specific solutions and even specific product recommendations. Sitting back and hoping for the best results didn't work for an entire generation, so it's time to look forward and PLAN PROPERLY!

This afternoon I'll be writing letters to clients who's advisors have left the industry- thank you! See you tomorrow,

Tucker Wright- Toronto Life Insurance

Monday Info blitz........

2009-04-27T10:48:00.001-04:00

Last week was a fun one on the job! A few policies delivered, a few policies approved and meet with a couple new prospects who were extremely nice. Insurance seems to be a much more tolerable conversation with the 30 somethings out there.

My first few years in the industry felt at time's depressing because of the negative perception of what Life Insurance provides in value. Today, the streets are singing a different tune and it might not be recognized on Shazam.

Guarantees have proved to be the backbone to anyone who hasn't suffered significant losses in the last year, as their pool of money has had continued growth when the markets grind themselves around the bottom. Specific Life insurance contracts have built in guaranteed portions to the cash surrender value ( fancy term for savings account) that will continue to chug along growing year after year. What this strategy lacks in style or sex appeal it makes up for in it's remarkable ability to stay on course over a LIFETIME. It may not be as topic of discussion when sipping $10 vodka drinks on Saturday nights with your buds but it's something that can always be your back bone to any Financial plan, Estate plan or simply a great way to build tax advantaged savings for the everyday expenses you will face down the road.

I don't know about you but when I invested some money into the market a few ago and my "investment advisor" made a action plan as well illustration as to what should happen to my money, I felt fairly secure that this would take place or at worse a little bit below his assumptions. Today that plan looks like a napkin with coffee stains on it rolled up in my garbage because that is as useful as it will ever be. When I show clients an Illustration i take pride in explaining how this illustration is making their assumptions as well worst case scenario so right from the get go both advisor and client are on the same page as to what this policy will look like in 5, 10,20 50 years etc....

So next time you feel secure with your savings and cash flow, think about ways you can start to control your investments in the future instead of that watch or car you can't even afford. Information is the key to making good decisions, so look to get more information before you spend your next dollar.

Tucker Wright- Toronto Life Insurance

Money Psychology - 80 / 20 Rule

2009-04-23T00:44:00.001-04:00

The 80/20 Rule and How it Applies to You
Written by FrugalTrader on Apr 13, 2009 filed under Money Psychology

As I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately, I came across a principle that can have a profound impact on productivity if applied properly. The principle is called the 80/20 rule (Pareto Principle). There is a pattern in the world that occurs over and over again where 80% (the majority) of the results come from 20% (or less) of the causes.

Here are some examples from the book Living the 80/20 Way:

80% of your enjoyment in life is from 20% of the time

80% of your relationship fulfillment is from 20% of your friends.

Far less than 20% of the Earth’s surface produces 80% of its mineral wealth.

More than 80% of the food comes from less than 20% of the land.

More than 80% of the worlds wealth is held by less than 20% of the population.

This can apply to personal finance and investing in many ways:

If this principle holds true, it means that 80% of your investment returns come from about 20% (or less) of your portfolio.

80% of your business income, comes from approximately 20% of the revenue sources.

80% of your productivity at work comes from about 20% of your time (so true).

80% of the company productivity comes from 20% of the employees.

80% of your savings come from 20% of your frugal strategies.

80% of your family income is derived from 20% of the income sources.

If you apply this to your own life, you’ll realize that a relatively small amount of effort brings the majority of the results. If you focus on the tasks (20%) that bring the most success (80%), then you’ll increase your overall productivity and reduce time wasted.

In other words: Less is More

The focus now is to exploit this rule and work on the 20% that brings the most results. With that said, I’m off to write more articles.

Do you use the 80/20 productivity rule?The 80/20 Rule and How it Applies to You

Tucker Wright- Toronto Life Insurance

Million Dollar Journey

2009-04-23T00:24:00.001-04:00

www.milliondollarjourney.com/

It might seem weird that one of my first blogs is to introduce another blogger? I have been reading the milliondollarjourney for 6 months now and find "Frugal Traders" information to be extremely insightful.

"Frugal Trader" is this bloggers handle- I've decided to go with my government name but that's me. FT simply gives the facts.

I am going to use FT's information as I see fit on this blog due to the high quality.

Talk to you parents about their Retirement- TODAY!

2009-04-02T11:34:00.000-04:00

I'm not talking about what months their planning on being down south or where they should play golf, talk to them about the most important Risk they face- Will they have enough money to live they way they need to.

Longevity protection is a term used more and more daily in my industry. By 2016 25% of the population will account for individuals over 60 ( Boomers). As the number of "retirees" increases government programs will experiance a negative impact; because of this individuals will have to assume an even greater role in planning for their retirement.

How do I protect myself from outliving my retirement assets??? This is the question you need to ask your parents, friends,colleagues anyone who is in their 40's & 50's...

Recently I sat my dad down and we discussed some products that would help address that question, today he has shifted some RRSP assets that he accumulated over his career to Sun Wise Elite Plus.

Many would know this product as Income Plus ( Manulife's product) but we went with a version offed through Sun Life & CI Investments.

After my extensive research into these products I have become passionate about this option for retirement planning. I am going to break these products down tomorrow for a more in depth look at the logistics of this strategy. Please be aware that there is a shift in the market place and products have obviously adjusted to fill the NEED.

Big banks cut lending rates

2009-03-03T18:08:00.000-05:00

Commercial banks match Bank of Canada rate cut, lower prime to 2.5 per cent

OTTAWA–Canadians looking for mortgages and business borrowers are getting a break today as the Bank of Canada cut its influential interest rate again by a half-point to a record low of 0.5 per cent.
Commercial banks immediately began to follow suit. RBC Royal Bank quickly announced it is trimming its prime lending rate by 50 basis points to 2.50 per cent, effective tomorrow, and the Bank of Montreal said it is lowering its variable mortgage rates, effective tomorrow. Other Canadian banks cut lending rates as well.
Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, who surprised analysts in January by predicting that business conditions would begin to improve in the second half of this year, admitted the economy is in worse shape than previously forecast.
His decision came a day after news that, in the last three months of 2008,Canada's economy contracted at an annual rate of 3.4 per cent, the worst performance since 1991.
"National accounts data for the fourth quarter of 2008 and other indicators of aggregate demand point to a sharper decline in Canadian economic activity" in the first half of 2009 than the Bank projected in January, the central bank said in today's announcement.
"Potential delays in stabilizing the global financial system" and a larger-than-expected erosion of business and consumer confidence could mean the economy will not begin to bounce back until early 2010, Carney said.
The Bank's decision to lower its trend-setting overnight rate by 50 basis points today brings the cumulative monetary policy easing to 400 basis points since December 2007.
The positive affect of the reduced interest rates – plus the impact of economic stimulus packages by governments in Canada, the United States and elsewhere – will begin to be felt in the second half of this year and "will build through 2010," the Bank said.
"Once the global financial system stabilizes and global growth recovers, the underlying strength of the Canadian economy and financial sector should ensure a more rapid recovery in Canada than in most other industrialized economies."
With its key interest rate now approaching zero, the Bank said it is looking at other ways to try to boost economic activity in Canada. Carney is expected to consider purchasing assets and debt from financial institutions as a way to make credit more readily available to business and consumer borrowers.
In its Monetary Policy Report in April, the Bank will provide details of such possible measures.