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Unified & Defined: finally, some plain-English definitions for financial planners

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Here’s my latest MoneySense blog, which looks at a new book that provides unambiguous definitions of common terms like financial planning. Click on The New Definition of Financial Planner for the MoneySense blog.

Below is a guest post by Cary List himself, president and CEO of the Financial Planning Standards Council (FPSC). We thought we’d give Hub readers the take on the new book right from the horse’s mouth!

Unified & Defined: Let the Canadian Financial Planning Definitions, Standards & Competencies Be Your Guide to Sourcing the Right Professional

By Cary List, CA, CPA, CFP®

President & CEO, Financial Planning Standards Council

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

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Cary List, FPSC

Studies have clearly demonstrated that Canadians are not getting the financial help they need from qualified, professional financial planners. This is partially the result of a lack of understanding of how to identify a qualified financial planner and of what they should expect of a financial planner and/or a financial plan.

Today’s unregulated financial planning environment leaves many of us vulnerable and at risk of receiving advice from individuals who call themselves financial planners but who have not had to attain any qualifications specific to the financial planning practice and who are not held accountable to any oversight body related to the financial planning advice they offer.

Anyone outside Quebec can still call themselves a financial planner

Continue Reading…

Procrastinators get 5-day tax filing reprieve from the CRA

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May 5 is the extended tax-filing deadline this year

Every once in a while, procrastinators catch a break. Such appears to be the case for the one in five Canadians who still had not filed their calendar-2014 taxes as of the weekend.

(See the Hub’s Procrastinator’s Guide posted on Sunday/Monday, which touched on an H&R Block survey on last-minute filing.)

As I tweeted earlier today, due to a communications mixup where it had accidentally said the filing deadline was May 5th, the CRA now says it will honour that statement and officially make this year’s deadline May 5th, which is next Tuesday. You can find the short statement here on its web site and we’ve reproduced it below: Continue Reading…

The 5 money secrets of happy retirees

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Mature couple sitting back to back on a sofa with laptop computers

My latest MoneySense column in the print edition of the magazine is now available online, entitled 5 Money Secrets to a Happy Retirement. Click on the link for the full column but note that Wes Moss is no stranger to the Financial Independence Hub.

Several of the books mentioned in the column, or books like them, have been featured here in the Hub’s Review section. They include (with links to the Hub reviews): Continue Reading…

A procrastinator’s guide to filing your taxes by the looming April 30th deadline: 1 in 5 still scrambling

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H&RBlockOne in five Canadians are scrambling to make this year’s tax-filing deadline, which is now just four days away.

You probably don’t need this site to remind you that the deadline is midnight this Thursday: April 30, 2015 is the last day for most Canadians to file their 2014 tax returns. (The American tax-filing deadline of April 15th has already come and gone).

According to an H&R Block survey, Canadians are master procrastinators when it comes to taxes. And the tax preparation firm is offering a free online solution to those same procrastinating filers.

3% won’t make the deadline

The survey revealed that one in five Canadians say they file just in time, with 3% saying they miss the deadline altogether. Who are the worst offenders? Continue Reading…

Weekly wrap: TFSA fever & the looming election, how robo-advisors affect human advisors, and more

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“Glad I saved up in my super-sized TFSA for these new shoes. These are almost twice as big as my old pair.”

By Jonathan Chevreau

Judging by the post-budget media coverage, Tax-free Savings Accounts or TFSAs are now a household name. Little wonder, with nearly 11 million Canadians enrolled in them. (For any American readers, the TFSA is the equivalent of Roth plans: no tax deduction going in but no tax going out. The TFSA was introduced in Canada in January 2009).

Seeing as the TFSA is shaping up to be a major political issue, this topic won’t be going away any time soon. On Twitter following the budget, I highlighted several note-worthy pieces that touch either on the mechanics of the new $10,000 TFSA limit, the political implications or both.

Yes, Ontario followed up with a budget of its own but by definition that’s a bit “provincial.” You can find all you really need to know by reading Andrew Coyne’s piece in the National Post: Little Difference Between Ontario and Federal budget, until it comes to deficit.

No, the big kahuna was the federal budget and – as part of the Findependence Trifecta I wrote about on Tuesday – the TFSA expansion. As regular Hub readers know, we were quick to make the extra $4,500 contribution and by Friday the papers were reporting finally that CRA had blessed the strategy of topping up the TFSA immediately. For instance, the Globe’s Bill Curry in CRA clarifies time line of new limit. And John Heinzl did a Q&A with CIBC’s Jamie Golombek on some of the mechanics of transferring securities in-kind from taxable accounts to TFSAs

Over at the National Post, columnists did a good job explaining the political battles that are swirling around the TFSA, Continue Reading…