Do more for your business
Wiegers Financial & Benefits provides expert corporate financial planning services to business owners like you. Our role is to help you make the most of your business assets to efficiently achieve both short and long-term goals. This includes exceeding all stakeholder expectations and objectives, including those of other owners, shareholders and employees.
Our financial planning process has proven effective for clients of all sizes, and we’re confident that you’re going to like it. One (or more, if appropriate) of Wiegers Financial & Benefits’ corporate financial advisors will meet with you for a detailed discussion about the objectives you have for your business, your current state, as well as your future aspirations. We will then work with you to design a plan that will effectively help you reach them. The plan will be thorough, but also flexible enough to allow for unexpected impacts (both internal and external). It will be reviewed regularly to ensure you remain on track and are up-to-date based on current market trends.
Our process will involve regular discussions with you about any number of the following:
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Goal Setting
Wiegers Financial & Benefits can help you get more out of life, both personally and professionally. Having financial security, as well as having the time to enjoy it, is very important to your well-being. Our goal setting process is designed to help you set goals, frame the path for accomplishing those goals, and help you identify your challenges and help you reduce or eliminate them so you can achieve your goal. Goal setting will also help you identify your unique abilities, and focus on what parts of life you are truly passionate about. With a little coaching, and a lot of teamwork, we can help you achieve all that you are capable of.
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Shareholder or Partner Planning
If shareholders are among your business stakeholders, we can assist you to ensure that, in the unlikely event of a shareholder disturbance, business will continue to operate smoothly. Unanimous Shareholder Agreements (USA) define when, why, how, to whom, and under what terms a shareholder must turn over beneficial ownership of shares to others. A USA typically outlines what will happen if a working shareholder is unable to perform his or her business responsibilities because of retirement (voluntary or involuntary), disability, or death.
A Buy/Sell Funding Agreement can supplement, or be used in lieu, of a USA. It is designed to ensure that partners or shareholders have the funds available to purchase the interest or shares of a disabled or deceased partner or shareholder. If this type of agreement is appropriate to your situation, your Wiegers Financial & Benefits advisor can help advise you accordingly. Advisors will also make insurance policy recommendations that could also provide the funding necessary under the terms of the agreement. If this sounds complex, don’t worry. We work with you to make the complex, simple.
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Retirement Savings Planning for Business Owners Investing
In addition to traditional retirement savings programs (including Registered Retirements Savings Plans, or RRSPs), business owners and other higher-paid employees have the option to save for retirement by way of an Individual Pension Plan (IPP). An IPP is a one-person maximum Defined Benefit Pension Plan that allows business owners to accrue retirement income on a tax-deferred basis – an amount that exceeds what is available within traditional RRSP limits. It also allows a business to create a tax-deductible expense when moving funds to the personal control of the business owner without immediate taxation.
Another retirement savings option is a Retirement Compensation Arrangement (RCA). Similar to an IPP, an RCA funds a business owner’s (or other key person’s) retirement, but it is funded using various investments and insurance products.
If you believe an IPP or RCA is an appropriate retirement savings option for you, your Wiegers Financial & Benefits advisor can help provide a recommendation and assist you in implementing your plan accordingly.
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Business Succession
As a business owner, you’ve likely sacrificed – and will continue to sacrifice – a lot on a daily basis. It’s important to you to know that in the event of your death or disability, your business will either continue to operate smoothly under new management or ownership, or, will close its doors, and an orderly transfer of assets to your beneficiaries will follow.
Wiegers Financial & Benefits, in consultation with a business succession specialist, will ensure that through careful tax, investment and insurance planning, your wishes for the future of your business will be met.
*Any endorsements of 3rd party services are made by Wiegers Financial & Insurance Planning Services Ltd. Manulife Securities Investment Services Inc. does not make any representations regarding any 3rd party services mentioned on this website, and will not accept any responsibility for services provided by any 3rd party mentioned.
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Key Person/Executive Benefits
You’re a stellar employer. You already provide your employees with a group benefits plan that looks after their immediate health needs, and one that can provide financial help in the event they become disabled or suffer a premature death. However, your executive team might need more.
Wiegers Financial & Benefits’ Executive Benefits Suite offers seven distinct benefits designed to supplement your company’s existing benefits plan for your executives and other top performers. We offer valuable guidance and a customized program that will ensure they – and you – are prepared for the unexpected.
Your executives care about your company’s success, and they work hard for you. Executive Benefits are some of your best tools for helping look after them.
- Critical Illness Insurance – Quickly becoming mainstream insurance coverage. It helps with the financial burden of convalescence, private nursing, reduction of income, medical bills, and debt. You can add it as either a mandatory or optional benefit to your company-wide benefits plan.
- Personal Spending Account – Provides your executives with a pre-determined number of credits that can be applied to whatever health and wellness-related expenses you are willing to cover.
- Second Opinion Medical Services – Expands your executives’ healthcare options by providing access to medical experts around the world. This will guarantee that they get the right diagnosis and can pursue the most promising treatment options wherever they are.
- Personal Medical Care Insurance – Supplements second opinion medical services by finding the best doctors, arranging travel, and reimbursing medical expenses.
- Long-Term Care Insurance – Provides a pre-determined benefit amount when an executive is unable to perform basic activities of daily living or is cognitively impaired. Options include coverage for in-home or facility care.
- Key Person and/or Buy-Sell Insurance – Provides your business with compensation for losses as a result of the death or extended incapacity of a key member of your team, or the termination of a partnership.
- Disability Insurance – Provides income to help your executives meet their financial obligations and maintain their lifestyle if they become disabled. Your top earners might need more than is provided through your group plan.
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Group Benefits
If you’re like most business owners in Canada, you may have experienced (or soon will experience) a labour shortage. With more employees retiring than there are new employees to replace them, employers are having to offer an unparalleled level and number of employee incentives to attract and retain good employees.
One of the foundations of a competitive employee rewards and compensation plan is a group benefits plan that includes group Life and Disability Insurance, Health, Vision, and Dental benefits. Wiegers Financial & Benefits’ Group Benefits Division, with over 30 years of combined benefits consulting experience and one of the largest service and support teams in Saskatchewan, is ideally positioned to help. We have an unbiased relationship with all of the top insurance carriers in Canada, and offer a number of additional and less traditional (though increasingly popular) benefits like Health Spending Accounts (HSAs), Employee and Family Assistance Plans (EFAPs), and Second Opinion Medical Consultation Services.
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Group Retirement Savings
As the Canadian population continues to age and the Canada Pension Plan strains under the weight, more people are recognizing the importance of taking their retirement planning in their own hands – and early. A 2012 survey identified that 80% of Canadians age 18 to 34 are not confident about being able to save enough money for retirement.
For a growing number of employees, finding the right employer that will make things easier by offering and contributing on their behalf to a group savings plan, is important. Some of these options include:
- Group Retirement Savings Plan (GRSP)
- Deferred Profit Sharing Plan (DPSP)
- Registered Pension Plan (RPP)
- Tax-free Savings Account (TFSA)
Employees want a group savings plan because it provides them with a simple way to save for their retirement while providing them with additional advantages:
- Instant tax savings – This happens because employees participating in a group savings plan can have their contributions reduce their taxable income each month before the tax deductions are taken off their paycheques.
- Higher rates of return on investments – With higher volumes of pooled money from payroll savings plans, Management Expense Ratio (MER) fees are usually lower than “retail” individual MER fees, leaving employees with more money in their investment pockets.
- Reduced payroll taxes for the employer – Some payroll savings plans are structured in such a way that they do not attract employer payroll taxes, like CPP and EI.
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Retirement Savings Outside of Pension Funds
Business owners are often faced with the dilemma of how to plan for their retirement when all other registered investment options have been maxed out. It is at this point that your Wiegers Financial & Benefits advisor can explore and explain other options, including:
- The use of life insurance as part of your retirement plan – not just your estate plan. By using modern applications of today’s insurance plans, a tax-efficient additional retirement income stream can be developed.
- Retirement Compensation Agreements – These are designed for high income earning business owners that can provide income over-and-above what is provided through traditional registered plans. By looking at your unique situation, we can determine if this type of plan is right for you.
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Investment Planning
Very early in your career, or when you’re a student, long-term investment planning might be low on your priority list. Wiegers Financial & Benefits will show you how to maximize return on the types of accounts you have right now. Are you maximizing the investment return on your savings account? What fees are you currently paying? If we take a longer-term focus, we can illustrate the impact that a delay in investing can have on your long-term accumulation.
The key at this stage is not how much you can invest, but rather when you can start investing. We can show you which investment products (including Tax-Free Savings Accounts, Guaranteed Investment Certificates, segregated funds, mutual funds, and fixed-income investments) will work best for you.
- Estate Planning
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