To Dave:
Keep your property. Fight the urge to dabble in those other investments. It always seems greener on the other side.

I agree with dividend investing or purchasing a large apartment building and hiring a property manager. This is much smarter then dying broke.. what a stupid concept. With the right planning you can pass it on to your children without touching the principle.

I can’t believe all the sheep investing in sinking funds and RRSP’s it’s so stupid. Most people don’t even realize that the government controls your retirement if you invest in their programs… They make the rules, they tell you when/how much to withdraw, they tax you to death. You can’t even borrow from your own RRSP’s to invest in something else without penalty/having to pay it all back.. why even give them anything to begin with? The paltry tax savings they dangle in front of you can easily be won by investing in something with much higher returns. We looked for the right rental property for 1.5 years and have a 30% R.O.I. from it right now (not looking at capital gains, that’s the cash flow after expenses). It takes time to find it but it happens.

You’re right about GM, although I’m not sure if they ever were a dividend aristocrat. Regardless, I never considered them a dividend grower. The key is diversification and due diligence with the fundamentals. There are still a lot of great dividend growers out there. I’m not giving up on them yet.

Cheers!

If an annuity quote is ONLY dependent on prevailing interest rates, then why can a bank post their rates for savings/chequing accounts, term deposits, loans and mortgages and insurance companies (which also offer many of the above) can’t post annuity quotes? Do they ever factor in the age/health of a person?

I’m curious as to what other information you need to provide to get a quote.

I don’t know about investing in any stocks these days – let alone blue chip stocks. Because GM was considered blue chip until they went under.

To be honest i don’t know of any sites where you can get an instant annuity quote because they’re dependent on prevailing interest rates. As an advisor i usually shop them out to my insurance companies who take a day to get back to me with numbers. If you find a site though, let us all know! lol

Nathan,
First of all, sorry to hear that you had to go through the estate process and sorry for your loss. With most RRSP accounts people wil name beneficiaries thus by-passing the estate true. It’s when somebody either doesn’t name a beneficiary OR in the case of a non registered account (and not jointly held) where these accounts will typically go through the probate process and get caught up in fees etc. There’s definately ways around it luckily you found them because if you did the math it could have cost you and your family about $12,000 in probate fees. Well done on that!

Almost all mutual fund companies allow you to name beneficiaries on your accounts so in most cases probate can be avoided. Having gone through the estate process recently we were able to take close to 750K out of various accounts without any probate. If you plan correctly and ensure that the Mutual Fund companies/Brokerages allow you to name benificeries there should be no reason to go through probate. A notarized copy of the Will and/or Letters of Indemnity guaranteed by your bank will satisfy most institutions these days.

There are many sites which scour the market and post mortgage rates for various terms at many different FI’s… is there an equivalent site that posts annuity income based on amount purchased?

“Finance Matters” just answered that so thanks “Finance”, good idea.

When he passes the amount remaining based on the guaranteed death benefit would go to the beneficiary tax free because it’s an insurance contract.

As well, with your seg fund strategy, does the 5% withdrawal adjust for inflation every year? And what exactly happens with to the account when the account holder passes away?

If he is selling his investment real estate, he likely doesn’t want to own an apartment building, and since he has no experience investing in equities, he would likely be uncomfortable with anything riskier than blue-chip dividend stocks.

You’re right, as it is all non RRSP money there will be very little if any taxes payable when he passes (capital gains) but there are still probate fees by having about $1 million left in your estate. In ontario probate fees are $250 + $15/$1000 over $50,000 which would just be a pain in the butt. This insurance program allows you to name beneficiaries and eliminate these fees unlike putting the money into other mutual funds/GIC’s/Bonds etc where they would be subject to this.

Cheers!