Five Reasons To Review Your
Financial Plan Annually
As your financial advisors at
Continuum II, you have heard us tell you about the importance of an annual
review. With tax season quickly approaching, and contribution deadlines coming
to a close, now is the perfect time to review how you are doing.
When it comes to managing your
finances, having a financial plan is essential. If you have finances, you need
a financial plan. Just as car insurance protects your vehicle, a financial
plan helps to protect your assets over time. To ensure your
strategies align with your goals, your financial plan should undergo regular
examination. Emphasizing this, the following lists 5 reasons to review your
financial plan annually.
1. Your goals might have
changed.
Because you may have multiple
goals, your financial review should explore each of your goals separately,
highlighting which goals take priority.
For Example:
- If you’ve been saving for a new home you might want to adjust your savings to reflect current real estate condition.
- If your children are approaching post-secondary age. When is the last time you checked the cost of post-secondary tuition costs?
This is also the time to check the
asset mix of your investment portfolios. Doing this ensures that your investments
continue to meet your needs and preferences. In addition, it allows you to
perform any rebalancing that might be necessary in light of the past year’s
market performance.
2. You may be paying more taxes
than necessary.
Your annual review is a great time
to ask your adviser about tax-efficient strategies you might be missing. Such
strategies include knowing the types of accounts to invest in, and where to
hold equities versus fixed income investments. Different types of investments
get different tax treatments. Take advantage of tax savings by contributing to
tax-advantaged vehicles such as a RRSP or a TFSA. Tax-efficient saving
strategies will help you reduce taxes and boost your after-tax income.
Your advisor can help you
structure a tax efficient portfolio, determining which investments
should be held in tax-deferred accounts and which securities should be
held in taxable accounts in order to maximize after-tax returns.
3. Your estate plan may be out
of date.
One of the most important aspects
of estate planning is having a will. A person’s last
will and testament is the
foundation of any estate plan. A recent study in the USA suggests that less
than 50% of American’s have a valid will-A figure that is relative to what we
would expect to find here in Canada!
Use your annual review to make
sure your estate plan continues to reflect your current family status and
financial situation. Ensure that key individuals know where to find relevant
documents and information. Marriage, divorce, birth and death are the four big
events that affect estate plans, but you may also want to consider other
factors that could influence your planning.
For example:
If you’re concerned about your grandchildren’s
education costs, you might want to look into contributing to an RESP now while
you are alive. Grandparents may be able to open a family plan RESP, which can
have multiple children in a family as beneficiaries. If one child ends up not
going to university, a family plan allows his or her siblings to use the money
in the plan.
4. Your retirement plan might
not reflect your latest priorities.
An important part of your annual
review should be to take stock of your retirement plan from the viewpoint of
both lifestyle and financial needs. Has your retirement date changed? Are your
savings on track to meet your retirement income goals? Or will you need to work
longer than originally planned?
It is also a good idea to review
what your anticipated retirement expenses will be. Many factors could change
the expense side of the equation, ranging from health and marital status to
your evolving interests and tastes. On the income side, use your annual review
to check your progress toward establishing your retirement income plan. If
you’re nearing retirement, an advisor can help you determine how your current
wealth could be structured to provide the income level you need – or identify
shortfalls and recommend strategies to address them.
Check your tax assumptions and
determine whether they need to be adjusted.
- If you expect your income tax rate to be lower in retirement you might want to consider maximizing your tax-deferred savings now.
If you’re already retired, use
your annual review to revisit your investment withdrawal
strategy. Leaving your
tax-advantaged assets in place allows them to potentially
grow tax-deferred, or tax-free (in
the case of TFSAs). Your investment withdrawal strategy should be structured in
a way to help you achieve maximum tax efficiency, and should be customized to
your overall investment strategy.
5. Your insurance needs and
beneficiaries might need updating.
Insurance is great protection
against the unexpected, so it’s wise to evaluate your insurance plan annually. If
you are just starting out and your family is growing, you might want to
increase the amount of your life insurance. Doing so protects your loved ones
from a devastating loss of income on top of the emotional pain of losing a
parent or spouse. Most people find that, as they get older – and as their net
worth climbs and their children reach adulthood – they need less life
insurance.
Another important type of
insurance to acknowledge during your financial review is disability insurance. Do
you have disability insurance? If not it is also a great way to protect your
income if for some reason you can’t work. In all, it is important to remember
the following when reviewing the insurance portion of your financial plan.
- Life insurance can be used for estate planning or to pass on the family cottage. For some Canadians, if a cottage has been in the family for generations, transferring the property from one generation to the next can trigger substantial capital gains taxes.
- One strategy to the taxes can be to set up a life insurance policy to fund future capital gains taxes triggered by the death of the cottage owner.
- As you age you might also benefit from looking into long-term care insurance, which provides funding for when you are no longer able to care for yourself.
- A final consideration in your annual review is a simple check of your beneficiary designations for insurance policies, RRSP’s and TFSA’s. It’s easy to do, but it could have a negative impact if it’s neglected.
To summarize, reviewing your financial
plan annually helps you to stay focused on your financial goals and protect the
assets you’ve worked hard to establish. By managing the present, you can better
prepare yourself for the future.
If you have any questions, please
feel free to contact us at the office.
Also, don’t forget the deadline
for RRSP contributions is March 2nd
We featured this post in our Weekly Digest because this article is spot on. You can read it here https://www.ltcoptions.com/weekly-digest-hospice-care-paying-relatives-care-financial-planning/. Thanks for explaining each point clearly. If I may add, financial plans should also be revisited each time a major change happens in your life. Examples of these are getting married, a promotion, having a baby or job loss.
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