Are You in the Retirement Risk Zone?

Are you in the Retirement Risk Zone? The Retirement Risk Zone is the five to 10 years just before and after your retirement date. It’s the critical time when short-term losses can have negative long-term effects since there’s little time left for investments to recover.
As a CFP for nearly 20 years, I meet many individuals, families and business owners and what I find most common is that they don’t have a written financial plan. The most common goal that they want is an assessment of their current Retirement Income Plan to determine if it’s on track and if it’s not what needs to be changed. That is the focus of my company, Advantage Wealth Planning.
Common Questions
- Am I saving enough for retirement?
- When can I retire?
- How long will my money last?
- When to convert RRSPs to RRIFs and how quickly should RRIFs be drawn down?
- Should we buy an annuity to fund retirement?
- What are my Canada Pension Plan benefits? When is it best to start CPP?
- What are my Old Age Security options and when is it best to start?
- How do I setup a proper investment portfolio for my risk tolerance?
- Am I invested in the proper products?
- Will my investments last my lifetime?
- Are my investments suitable for my risk tolerance?
- How is my income taxed?
The list is virtually endless!
Types of Financial Plans
Advantage Wealth Planning offers two choices of Financial Planning solutions for clients.
- A Full-Service Financial Plan is what many clients would refer to as the traditional financial plan. All six-steps from goal setting to implementation and monitoring (including an annual review) are desired by those who don’t have the time nor expertise to do it themselves. The advisor compensation in this ongoing relationship is based upon your assets-under- administration (AUA).
- A Fee-for-Service Financial Plan is most suited for someone who wants an assessment of their situation but is comfortable making their own decisions, implementation and monitoring of the results going forward. The advisor compensation in this case is a flat fee (some advisors charge an hourly rate) for the one-time analysis.
Latest Articles

Annuity Update – August 2021
In September 2020, I began a quarterly report on “Annuities”. In a nutshell, I’ll show the change in annuity payments over time, when all other parameters are held constant except current interest rates. I now have sufficient data and will reduce these updates to twice annually. This is the second and final update for 2021. Methodology […]
Think Annuities are Only for Individuals? Think again!
The other day I came across an article from GM Canada. They recently transferred $1.8 billion of their pension assets to an annuity for their salaried pension plan members who retired prior to June 2020. This represents about $300,000 per employee on average. Why would GM Canada do this rather than manage a pension plan […]

Annuity Update – April 2021
In September 2020, I began a quarterly report on “Annuities”. In a nutshell, I’ll show the change in annuity payments over time, when all other parameters are held constant. Since I began reporting, interest rates have increased slightly, and so did annuity payouts. Methodology Every three months, I update the default annuity quote (using the Cannex […]
The Smart TFSA Strategy
In a recent article, see reference below, the “report found that the average amount held in a TFSA climbed more than nine per cent to $30,921 from a year ago, December 2020. With a TFSA limit in 2020 of $69,500, this represents about 45% of the maximum limit (excluding any growth in the TFSA). What […]
Consumer Confusion: What’s In a Title
Most people generally understand what a doctor, lawyer or engineer is and when they might likely need one. When a consumer needs financial advice, should they go to a “financial adviser” or “financial planner”? My industry is still working on that issue after 20 years. I started in financial services in the year 2000 with […]