This is the detailed discovery tool. It ensures the plan we build is based on your actual situation rather than assumptions. Work through it in whatever order suits you — sections open and close independently, and estimates are fine.
Sections
Relevant to insurance options and to longevity assumptions — nothing more.
Spousal or child support, or property division still in progress. It affects both cash flow and estate planning.
Include anyone financially dependent on you, at any age.
These override a lot of standard advice, so it's worth being precise.
Leave a row entirely blank if you don't hold that account.
Salary, bonus, dividends, rental, self-employment, pension, CPP/OAS, investment income, support received.
Over a 30-year retirement, indexing is often worth more than the headline amount.
Concentration in your employer's stock means your job and your portfolio can fail at the same time. Worth quantifying before it's tested.
Not a test. How confident you are in your own numbers changes how much weight I put on them.
The Cash Flow Statement captures planned purchases going out, but not one-off money coming in.
Annual insurance, tuition, professional dues, seasonal costs, support for a family member.
Principal residence, rentals, a cottage, land, a business interest, vehicles, collectibles.
Mathematically optimal and emotionally sustainable are different things. I'd rather know which one you need.
Scores flatten nuance. If an answer felt wrong as you clicked it, this is the place to say so.
Life, disability, critical illness, long-term care, mortgage insurance, and any business coverage.
Disability is the most likely major setback and the least insured against. Worth thinking through properly.
Group coverage usually ends when the job does, and often at exactly the moment it's needed.
Only if you're comfortable sharing. It affects what's realistically available, and timing.
Beneficiary designations override your will. An ex-spouse still named on an RRSP is the single most common — and most costly — thing found during intake.
For a spouse, successor holder is almost always better — the account survives intact rather than collapsing. Most people have it set wrong or blank.
A blended family, an estranged relative, a dependant who needs protecting, a business succession question.
The right mix depends on RRSP room, CPP, the small business deduction, and your province. It's rarely obvious.
Above $50,000, the small business deduction begins to grind down — and it disappears entirely at $150,000.
Every year deferred past 65 adds 8.4% permanently, to age 70. Taking it at 60 costs 36% permanently.
That's the 2026 threshold where OAS begins to be clawed back at 15 cents on the dollar.
Full OAS requires 40 years of Canadian residency after 18. Partial residency means a partial pension.
This is usually irreversible and usually time-limited. If it's live, it should jump the queue.
Drawing the RRSP down early is often better than deferring it — it can lower lifetime tax and reduce the estate hit at the end. It's counter-intuitive and it's worth modelling.
Contribution room only starts building once the account is open. Opening one with $0 in it still starts the clock on your room — which is why it's usually worth doing immediately.
Lets you withdraw up to $60,000 from an RRSP tax-free for a first home, repaid over 15 years. It stacks with the FHSA.
$2,500 a year captures the full $500 CESG. Missed years can be caught up, but only one extra year at a time — so a long gap can't be fully recovered.
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