Good To Know – Financial Life Planning Tips from Betty-Anne Howard, Athena Wealth and Legacy Planning

Mar 1, 2023

Good To Know – Financial Life Planning Tips from Betty-Anne Howard, Athena Wealth and Legacy Planning

Today let’s talk about beneficiary designations on registered money – your RRSP’s/RRIF’s and Locked In RRSP’s/LIF’s.

Beneficiary designations are an easy way to redirect money to your favorite charities, achieve your legacy goals, and not make the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) the unintended beneficiary of a portion of your estate!

How you do this depends on your situation.

If you want your spouse to be the beneficiary of your registered money, it’s important to ensure their future is secured by leaving your registered money to them, so it passes over tax-free to your survivor, and this includes common law spouses as well.

If you don’t have a surviving spouse then you can consider naming your favorite charities the beneficiaries of this account, or even a portion of it as, generally speaking, whatever amount you redirect to charity is the amount that will receive a charitable tax credit which will significantly reduce your income tax bill, at your death.

If you do have a spouse, then it’s good to consider naming the charity the contingent beneficiary of your registered money. This way, if something happens to you and your spouse, then the money can go directly to charity.

Or, if your spouse predeceases you and you forget to change the beneficiary designations, (and this too can happen, we’ve seen it!), then you already have the redirecting of these assets to achieve your legacy goals rather than having your Executor hand a significant amount of this money over to the CRA.

Give your beneficiary designations a great deal of thought and make sure you set plans in place for this very important estate planning strategy.

Till next time

Betty-Anne Howard / Athena Wealth and Legacy Solutions

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Case Studies- What kind of designations or licenses should you look for when you’re choosing a Financial Advisor?

Feb 3, 2023

Good To Know – Financial Life Planning Tips from Betty-Anne Howard, Athena Wealth and Legacy Planning

What kind of designations or licenses should you look for when you’re choosing a Financial Advisor?

Certified Financial Planner, Registered Financial Planner, Financial Advisor, and the list goes on! While designations are important, it’s more important to understand what your advisor CAN and CAN’T help you with. For example, if you are working with a broker at a bank, they are licensed only to talk about investments. They aren’t licensed to talk about annuities, which are an insurance product and they’re not licensed to talk about insurance in general. So there’s a whole other part of people’s planning that can get missed.

Especially if you’re working on an Estate Plan (talking about where your assets and money will go when you pass away), it’s extremely important to run that plan past a Financial Planner who can look at it with an Estate Planning lens and include insurance solutions into the mix.

What we’ve found is that insurance is often a much more viable solution, however, unfortunately, many Financial Advisors either aren’t aware of the advantages or aren’t licensed to provide them. Insurance solutions as a part of an overall Estate Plan can be less expensive and more tax efficient, but there is a real gap in knowledge – and therefore advice – depending on who you talk to.

As with most things when it comes to your financial situation, make sure you understand exactly what kind of advice you are being given, and ask LOTS of questions!

Till next time

Betty-Anne Howard / Athena Wealth and Legacy Solutions

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Case Studies- Looking at Real Numbers for Your Legacy Planning

Dec 19, 2022

Good To Know – Financial Life Planning Tips from Betty-Anne Howard, Athena Wealth and Legacy Planning

Case studies! Sometimes that’s the best way to give real-life examples of how we can make a difference by thinking about and planning for legacy gifts. Here is a scenario that happened recently when we met with a donor to discuss their estate & legacy plans including via options to maximize their estate value and minimize takes. When we looked at what the difference was between their “old” plan, and the “new” one, the results were astounding!

The “old” plan:

Estate Taxes To Be Paid To CRA – $150,000
Estate Assets to 2 Children (each) – $825,000
Estate Assets to Charities – $230,000
Debt – $250,000

The “new” plan:

Estate Taxes To Be Paid To CRA – $0
Estate Assets to 2 Adult Children (each) – $900,000
Estate Assets to Charities – $280,000
Debt – $0

The new plan meant that they went from owing approximately $150,000 in taxes to CRA to $0, from $250,000 in debts owing to $0, PLUS 10% more to their adult children and 16% more in charitable donations. Wow!

This is the reality of what we can achieve together to most effectively structure your estate/legacy plan in a way that, as you can see above, maximizes the value to the charity and your heirs, and takes care of the tax liability – by reducing or eliminating it and, if you do have any debt, we have strategies to take care of that as well!

If you would like to learn more about how you too can make a difference in your community, your family, and the lives of others – please get in touch!

Till next time

Betty-Anne Howard / Athena Wealth and Legacy Solutions

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Good To Know – Financial Life Planning Tips from Betty-Anne Howard, Athena Wealth and Legacy Planning

Oct 31, 2022

The theme for this November’s Financial Literacy Month is: Make Change that Counts: Managing Your Money in a Changing World, and to that end I’m inviting you to think about your own personal mission statement.

Or, as Karen Walrond, author of The Lightmaker’s Manifesto: How to Work for Change Without Losing Your Joy, puts it, your spark statements.

She says, “There’s something to be said for spending time figuring out how to declare what you stand for based on your values, and clarifying what you hope your legacy will be…it acts as a spark to ignite your activism journey.”

By “activism,” she means aligning the gifts of who you are in the world with your purpose.

This concept goes beautifully with the notion of making changes in our lives and the lives of others through how we manage our money. There are so many opportunities for us to donate time, energy, and money to the causes that matter to us the most.

Have you thought about how you can contribute to our changing world via the charities and not-for-profits you either currently support or may be interested in learning more about to support? In Canada, 2/3rds of our donations to charity happen in the last three months of the year…this November, let’s Make Change That Counts, together!

Till next time

Betty-Anne Howard / Athena Wealth and Legacy Solutions

Get tips and strategies for your holistic financial life planning from the team of experts at Athena Wealth and Legacy Solutions straight to your inbox – sign up here.

More than 200 runners and walkers help celebrate AGH’s birthing centre during ninth annual Run for Women’s Health

Sep 26, 2022

The ninth annual Run/Walk in support of women’s health and the birthing center at the Almonte General Hospital took place Saturday morning, Sept. 10 with more than 200 walkers, runners and volunteers raising approximately $30,000. The event, which featured three different routes: 3km, 5km and 10km, took participants through the beautiful town of Almonte near the Mississippi River and both started and finished behind the Hospital and Fairview Manor. Some runners and walkers participated virtually between Sept. 3 – 9, and submitted their times and funds online.

“We are pleased to be the presenting partner for the Almonte General Hospital’s Run for Women’s Health in support of the Birthing Unit and women’s health,” said Carleton Place Canadian Tire co-owner Mary-Lou Vandervaart. “We live in this community and this Birthing unit is where the next generation of our family, our team’s families, our customers’ and neighbours’ families will be born,”

“These funds will help the Foundation fund urgently needed equipment in our birthing center and in support of women’s health care,” added Event Committee Chair Julie Munro. “Over the years, supporters of the Run have helped the Hospital to purchase ultra sound machines, fetal heart monitors, operating room lights, and a specialized baby-weigh scale. This year’s funds will help fund Pander Warmers in Labour 1 and the OR, an Epidural Pump and several Vital Signs machines.”

New this year, the top individual fundraisers, both individual and team, were awarded the inaugural Margaret Duncan Memorial Top Fundraising Award. A life-long resident of Mississippi Mills, Margaret was a tireless Hospital and Manor booster who participated and supported the Run last year but passed away earlier this year at the age of 94. This year’s first recipients were Tina McLelland, who raised $2,639 and Team Country Roads, comprised of Foundation Board member Jesse Lowe, Mary-Ann Tiffany and Chris O’Connor, who collectively raised $4,058. Members of Margaret’s family were on-hand to present the awards during the event’s closing ceremony.

Prizes were also awarded to the top two female and male finishers in all timed events. Official times for all participants are available at: www.runninggoattiming.com/results

This year’s event also features an online auction well supported by local merchants. You can still bid on items up until Sunday, Sept. 11. Please visit Almonte General Hospital and Fairview Manor Foundation | BiddingForGood Fundraising Auction

As well as Canadian Tire (Carleton Place), other partners who contributed to the success of the event included: Westview Projects, Almonte Civitan Club, Orchard View by the Mississippi, Kevin Frost, Art & Helen Levi, Union 108, Kris Parsons, Joanne Beaton, Lanark Springs Water, BrokerLink Insurance, and Dock Master and Clearwater.

A recent poll conducted by Abacus Data found that almost 8 out of 10 residents of Ontario did not know that although the Ontario Government funds the operation of hospitals, the Government does not provide funding for replacement or new clinical equipment. The AGH FVM Foundation works with the community through events and activities like the AGH Run for Women’s Health to raise the necessary funds to allow the Hospital and Manor to purchase urgently- needed medical equipment. For more information on supporting the Hospital or Manor visit: www.almontehospitalfoundation.com or call 613-256-2500 ext. 2296

Media, for more information:

Al Roberts, CFRE

Managing Director, 613-256-2500 ext. 2297 or (cell) 613-277-6203