2023 May Update

by | May 10, 2023

With tax season and the coincidentally timed strike action of CRA staff members behind us, it’s time to put the old calendar year truly to rest and focus our energy on what else we’ve got planned for 2023.

Here are three things you might be planning right now:

Summer!!!

You may be planning for your upcoming wonderful summer (that’s one of the reasons our name is “Spring” – we like planning for summer!). You probably won’t be surprised that we wrote all about that too – right here.

Education

If you are a parent with children in school, you’re dealing with all the wind-down activities before summer, and if those children are starting at a new school in fall, there’s still much more to do and plan for. We wrote about education planning and your values a couple years back and definitely recommend you refresh yourself a little bit if this subject is on your mind. If you’re contemplating contributing to RESPs for young children and/or how to withdraw from them for older children, the Government of Canada website has information here. You can also read our 2018 article on RESP withdrawals and email us at [email protected] to request copies of our one-page fact sheets on this useful account.

Estate

Okay, estate planning might not be the top of your list. Or it might be! There seems to be a lot of appetite for discussions around estates lately, with no sign yet of exhaustion. We often find that people think about estate planning before the summer in an urgent way; we all want to ensure that if something befalls us while on holiday, we’ve got at least some structures in place. Those last-minute plans are significantly better than nothing, so we encourage you to put something in place if you’ve had a hard time moving forward.

Even better, though, is being able to take the time to think about it, talk about it with your family, seek advice from all those experts just waiting for you to ask, and build a thoughtful plan. Summer can be a great time to do this, as we might have a break from the day-to-day that allows us to consider the abstract idea that we or someone we love might not be around indefinitely.

Great estate planning is about so much more than transitioning assets and dealing with paperwork. There is a lot of that, but that’s not the “why”. The “why” is creating an experience for the people we love, who mourn our loss, who have to manage the incredible difficulties of grief, without making it any harder for them. As we’ve written in countless articles, estate planning might be one of the most loving things you can do for people you care about.

We invite you to watch the videos in our Spring in the News section that Julia recorded with experts in law and investment management, read our articles on estate planning (here, here, here, and here), and email us for a copy of our Estate Planning Family Meeting Guide.

The best time to contemplate something as difficult as estate planning can be when we’re relaxed, enjoying the sun, and spending time with people we love. It’s then that we are reminded of what we truly value, and can find ways to talk about it safely.

Wishing you a wonderful planning-for-summer season!

 

Spring Team

 

 

Practice Notes:

Julia has a few days off on May 26 and 29, after which she’s flying to Ottawa to emcee the Family Enterprise Canada Symposium. She’ll be back on June 2 and then off again to Toronto June 19 through 22,  attending the STEP Canada Conference (for ultra tax nerds) as well as meetings with fun folks in Ontario.

“Free” Fridays remain booked permanently in our calendars. These days are free to us at Spring in the sense that they are our opportunity to work on becoming better planners, whether through collaboration and discussion, education, research, or even a little down time. It’s been a regular practice since the summer of 2017, and we will continue to set aside the time to become better versions of ourselves every week. Even 1% better is solidly worth it, because we know that will be reflected in the work we do for you.

Events:

The CLEBC Wealth Preservation & Succession for Family Enterprise will be held on June 7th in Vancouver. Julia will be contributing a discussion on Governance and Strategic Advising for the Family Enterprise. Registration (even for non lawyers) available here.

Family Enterprise Canada is hosting a Next Generation Leadership event in Kelowna on June 11th. Julia will be giving a short talk on Stepping Into Leadership. Registration for FEC family members can be found here.

Spring in the News:

Julia was thrilled to participate in a series of Estate Planning focused videos on legacy, probate fees, and trusts, with Lucy Main, partner at Weirfoulds LLP and David Toyne of Steadyhand Investments. They’re each fairly quick and you can watch them right here:

Julia also had the opportunity to lead a roundtable discussion with family business advisors from across Canada, discussing how they work with families and other experts to create success over the long term. It’s “inside baseball” for family enterprise advisors but if you’re interested, you can watch or read about it here.

Miss some of our past appearances in the media? You can read them right here.

 

Planning News Digest:

  • When should you consider hiring an accountant? When it comes down to figuring out if you should hire an accountant or not, the Globe and Mail has some ideas on the five types of people who should be considering it. Find out more here.
  • Getting inflation back to 2%. How does the Bank of Canada plan to get inflation down to its 2% target? Higher interest rates are working to slow inflation, Governor Tiff Macklem explains (video & transcript) here.
  • What is the forecast for the housing market? The CMHC is predicting both lower house prices and less supply in 2023 across Canada. Read the summary, including a few regional highlights, and download the full housing market outlook here.

Feature from the Archives:

Education & Your Values – When children enter your life, you have a lot of immediate concerns, such as keeping them alive despite valiant efforts on their part to run into the streets to get squished, and to poke cutlery into electrical sockets. You’re also managing the suddenly limited time that you have, and trying to figure out where all the money went.

 

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Julia Chung
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