Practical advice
Financial planners (F.Pl.’s) with expertise in the seven areas of financial planning analyze your situation based on your priorities, goals, needs, constraints, and potential opportunities. The analysis incorporates many different aspects of your life to create an overall portrait of your personal finances. Learn about the six situations that affect financial planning and what to ask yourself about each one to get the most out of the process. You can then discuss these elements with your F.Pl.
1. Personal and family situation
Your marital status has a major impact on your financial planning. The analyses and recommendations your financial planner gives you will be affected by whether you are married or in a civil union, widowed, divorced or living common law.
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2. Financial situation
Your financial situation is the foundation of your personal financial plan. But what exactly does "financial situation" mean? Basically, it means the state of your finances. To evaluate your financial situation, you need to draw up a personal balance sheet and figure out your cost of living. Your personal balance sheet has to be completed before any recommendations can be made. To estimate your cost of living, the first step is to prepare an annual budget. You should reevaluate your financial situation every year.
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3. Tax situation
Your income tax returns contain a slew of information essential to your tax planning. It may be a good idea to have them analysed by a professional who can identify issues or strategies you haven't thought of, in order to reduce your income taxes.
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4. Retirement situation
Perhaps the most widely known aspect of financial planning is retirement planning, which considers a broad range of data to assess your current savings situation. This is compared with your desired retirement situation to determine the best savings approach and strategies to achieve your goals.
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5. Situation at death
The purpose of analyzing your situation at death is to identify potential legal, tax, and financial implications upon the end of your life and determine strategies to achieve your estate transfer goals.
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6. Protection situation
This situation examines the mechanisms that can be implemented to alleviate the financial consequences of an illness or an accident, the worst consequence being the permanent inability to earn a living. It goes further than this, however, as it extends to situations where the ability to care for oneself and administer one's own property is so diminished that another person must do it on your behalf.