How it works
Four steps, real timeframes, and a plain answer on how I’m paid.
Nothing about the process is a mystery, and nothing about the cost is bundled or hidden. The numbers arrive with the recommendation, not after it.
The process
From first call to ongoing reviews.
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Intro call
What’s on your mind, what the corporation looks like, and whether I’m the right person. If I’m not, I’ll say so on the call.
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Discovery
Statements, corporate financials, existing insurance, and what you actually want from the next ten years. One longer meeting, one document request.
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Plan delivered
Walked through page by page, with this year’s decisions separated from the ones for later. You keep the document.
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Ongoing reviews
A set calendar: compensation before year end, portfolio twice a year, structure and insurance annually.
What’s included
The planning work, in plain terms.
- Compensation strategy, reviewed yearly
- Corporate investment structure and asset location
- Retirement projection, corporate and personal combined
- Insurance review, personal and corporately held
- Estate and wind-up considerations
- Coordination with your accountant and lawyer
What ongoing looks like
A review calendar, so decisions arrive on a date.
Quarterly meetings, with the work mapped to the season it belongs in. Two calendars, because a business owner’s year and a retiree’s year don’t look the same.
Business owners
Personal and corporate, on one calendar.
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Winter Meeting
Q4 investment review. RRSP and TFSA set for the new year, tax slips sent to your accountant, and the first personal and corporate instalment reminders.
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Spring Meeting
Q1 investment and insurance review. Notices of assessment retrieved, RRSP room updated, and the federal budget read for anything that changes your plan.
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Summer Meeting
Q2 investment review with a look at structure and estate. Compensation modelled for the year, salary against dividends, and mid-year instalments.
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Autumn Meeting
Q3 investment review. Compensation and dividends set before year end, passive income checked against the small business deduction, holdco distributions, and year-end tax planning.
Employees & retirees
Built around income, not just accounts.
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Winter Meeting
Q4 investment review. RRSP and TFSA for the new year, tax slips organized, and instalment reminders where they apply.
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Spring Meeting
Q1 investment and insurance review. Notices of assessment retrieved, contribution room updated, and the federal budget read for anything that affects you.
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Summer Meeting
Q2 investment review with estate and beneficiaries. For retirees, this year’s withdrawal order confirmed and pension income checked.
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Autumn Meeting
Q3 investment review. Year-end planning: RRIF minimums, CPP and OAS timing, TFSA room, and planning around the OAS clawback.
The software
Your plan is built in Conquest
Conquest Planning is Canadian software, with our tax rules, CPP and OAS built in rather than approximated. It changes how the meeting feels: you watch the trade-offs move on screen while we talk, instead of receiving a bound document three weeks later.
Options sit side by side
Salary or dividends. Retire at 62 or 65. Sell in three years or in five. Each version of the decision is modelled next to the others, with the numbers visible.
Updated, never rebuilt
When your income changes, a property sells, or the rules move, the plan updates in minutes. Reviews start from where you actually are.
Open to you between meetings
You keep access to the same plan I work in, with every assumption written down where you can read it.
On assumptions
Anything on screen comes from figures you and I enter together, and every one of them is listed in the plan. Nothing here is a projection of investment results or a guarantee of an outcome.
Transparency
How I’m paid
Three sources, and you’ll know which apply to you before you decide anything. Nothing is bundled and nothing is hidden.
01 · Planning fee for employees & retireesStarting at $3,000
The plan build: accumulation strategies, withdrawal order, CPP and OAS timing, RRIF strategy, estate, and tax-minimization strategies.
01 · Planning fee for business ownersStarting at $4,000
The plan build, with the corporate work: compensation, corporate investing, structure, insurance, and the exit.
| Household assets | Annual rate |
|---|---|
| Under $1 million | 1.25% |
| $1 million to $3 million | 0.90% |
| $3 million to $5 million | 0.70% |
| Above $5 million | 0.50% |
The rate for your tier applies to the whole portfolio, not only the amount above the threshold. Accounts held by a spouse and other family members are counted together to set it, so a household reaches the lower rates sooner. Charged on assets held through Portfolio Strategies Corporation and disclosed in writing.
This rate is in addition to the management expenses of the funds and portfolios selected, which are charged by the fund manager and shown in each fund’s disclosure documents.
03 · Insurance
Insurance placed through PPI pays a commission from the insurer. You’ll see the amount and the structure before anything is signed, and no part of the planning work depends on buying a policy.
Planning fees are confirmed in writing before any work starts, and neither one is a condition of moving investments to me. Group retirement plans are quoted separately, since the cost depends on headcount and plan type.
Common questions
A few of the ones I hear most.
Do I need to leave my accountant?
No. I work alongside your accountant and lawyer, from the same plan document. Planning sets the direction for the year; your accountant files it.
What’s the minimum to work together?
There’s no asset minimum to start. Planning is a flat fee, quoted before any work begins. Investment management is optional and only applies if you choose to move assets to me.
Can we work together if I’m not in Victoria?
Yes. I meet clients in person in Greater Victoria and virtually across the provinces where I’m registered, in English and in French.