AskTMFG The Podcast

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AskTMFG, brought to you by The McClelland Financial Group of CI Assante Wealth Management Ltd, offers clear and straightforward guidance on investing, retirement planning, and wealth management. We address your most pressing financial questions and share practical strategies to help you plan with confidence and stay on track toward achieving your goals. Hosted by: Carlo Cansino, Senior Financial Advisor and John Iaconetti, Financial Advisor at The McClelland Financial Group of CI Assante Wealth Management Ltd. Follow us: Click here to request a meeting: https://tmfg.ca/schedule/ Check the episode video on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TmfgCa Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tmfg.ca Instagram: instagram.com/themcclellandfinancialgroup_/ Please visit www.assante.com/legal for important legal and regulatory disclosures.

  1. 20h ago

    Pension vs. RRSP at 75: Which One Saves You More Money?

    In this episode of AskTMFG, Carlo Cansino compares two common retirement income profiles at age 75: a retiree with a $60,000 a year indexed defined benefit pension, and a retiree holding $900,000 in an RRSP. The RRSP balance appears larger on paper, but a closer look at the tax treatment of each reveals a more nuanced picture. Both retirees start at 65 with the same CPP and OAS baseline, but their income paths diverge fast. The pension grows only with inflation, reaching $73,140 by 75. The RRSP, converted to a RRIF, faces mandatory minimum withdrawals that climb every year regardless of market performance, forcing out roughly $69,000 at age 75 alone. In year one, the RRIF holder actually shows less taxable income than the pension holder, and both retirees cross the 2026 OAS clawback threshold, with the pension giving back more in that single year. But the real risk isn't the annual grind, it's what happens at death. Carlo walks through how a RIF balance is fully taxed in the year of death with no spreading out, potentially creating a tax bill between $400,000 and $510,000 on an account that grew to nearly $950,000. A pension simply stops or drops to a survivor benefit, with no lump sum for the CRA to claim. He closes with the planning levers that matter most: naming a successor annuitant or beneficiary on the RIF, drawing down the RRSP earlier between ages 60 and 71, and using permanent life insurance to offset the eventual tax hit. 👉 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/xwWVMDdQ1_c  Question for our listeners: Which would you rather be holding at 75, the pension or the RRSP? 👉 Complimentary portfolio analysis: https://tmfg.ca/portfolio-analysis/ Follow us: LinkedIn: The McClelland Financial Group Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tmfg.ca Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themcclellandfinancialgroup_/

  2. 6d ago

    5 Changes Canadian Retirees Wish They Told Themselves At 55

    In this episode of AskTMFG, Carlo Cansino and John Iaconetti break down the five changes Canadian retirees consistently say they wish they'd made at age 55, using a real client couple to show what happens when a plan is missing. At 55, you still have time to course correct: understanding CPP and OAS eligibility before you're locked into a claiming decision, diversifying and rebalancing your portfolio as risk tolerance shifts, maximizing RRSP and TFSA contribution room while it's available, paying off high-interest debt before fixed retirement income has to absorb it, and budgeting for health care costs provincial insurance won't cover. Carlo and John also walk through a client couple who ran a successful business and saved consistently, but had no real plan for what retirement income would look like, a gap that's common even among high earners. 👉 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/T4lprJQBIu0  Question for our listeners: Which of these five changes would you tell your 55-year-old self to make first? 👉 Complimentary portfolio analysis: https://tmfg.ca/portfolio-analysis/  Follow us: LinkedIn: The McClelland Financial Group Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tmfg.ca Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themcclellandfinancialgroup_/

  3. Sep 4

    11 Brutally Honest Retirement Truths Every Canadian Should Know

    In this episode of AskTMFG, Carlo Cansino walks through 11 assumptions that quietly derail retirement plans, even for people who did everything right on paper. Carlo covers the blind spots most retirees never plan around: treating home equity as income when it's rarely touched, assuming a spouse can step in without a written plan, letting kids' requests erode savings without a set number in advance, and waiting too long to gift an inheritance that would matter more now than later. He also breaks down why 20 years is the wrong number to plan retirement around (a healthy 65-year-old couple has close to a 70% chance one of them reaches 90), why unspent savings get hit hard by tax at death, and why income can stack higher than peak earning years once CPP, OAS, a pension, and RRIF minimums all kick in at once. The back half gets into long-term care costs that many plans leave out entirely (private facility care can run $6,000 to $15,000 a month), why inflation does more long-term damage than a market crash, and why staggering retirement with a spouse instead of stopping the same month can change the whole plan. 👉 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/EzJZdgQM8e8  Question for our listeners: Which of these 11 blind spots hits closest to home for your own plan? 👉 Complimentary portfolio analysis: https://tmfg.ca/portfolio-analysis/  Follow us: LinkedIn: The McClelland Financial Group Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tmfg.ca Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themcclellandfinancialgroup_/

  4. Aug 30

    When It Makes COMPLETE Sense To Draw From RRSPs First…

    In this episode of AskTMFG, John Iaconetti and Carlo Cansino tackle a question they hear constantly: should you draw from your RRSPs early to delay starting CPP? They walk through the false beliefs that trip people up, like assuming CPP is always best taken early or that avoiding tax now is automatically the smarter move, and how those beliefs can lead to higher tax brackets, OAS clawback, and smaller lifetime CPP benefits. Using a client case, Gary and Susan, both 63 with $500,000 in RRSPs, they show how drawing RRSPs first to defer CPP to 70 works for cash flow but forces more aggressive withdrawals, since deferring costs them roughly $150,000 in extra premature RRSP withdrawals combined over seven years. Because they also want to leave an estate to their adult children, and CPP offers no benefit beyond a surviving spouse, the better fit is often the reverse: take CPP earlier, let the RRSP keep growing, and pass it on through beneficiary designations, with strategic melt-down into TFSAs later to soften the estate tax hit. The takeaway: there's no one-size-fits-all answer; it depends on income, retirement age, other assets, life expectancy, and estate goals. 👉 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/jubodV1vIuA  Question for our listeners: If leaving an estate to your kids matters to you, would that change whether you take CPP early or defer it? 👉 Complimentary portfolio analysis: https://tmfg.ca/portfolio-analysis/  Follow us: LinkedIn: The McClelland Financial Group Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tmfg.ca Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themcclellandfinancialgroup_/

  5. Aug 28

    If You Have $1M Saved, Don't Take CPP at 65

    In this episode of AskTMFG, Carlo Cansino breaks down when delaying CPP actually makes sense for retirees with significant savings, using a client example, Doug, to walk through the math. Most Canadians start CPP the moment they're eligible, but for someone like Doug, with $1.3 million saved and a $20,000 guaranteed income floor before CPP even enters the picture, the decision becomes a planning lever rather than a cash flow necessity. Carlo names four cases where delay isn't the right call: a shortened life expectancy, no spouse to leave a survivor benefit to, an early-retirement market downturn, or already having more guaranteed income than needed. For Doug, waiting five years grows his CPP by 42% for life, with a breakeven around age 81-82, and delaying to 90 nets him roughly $38,000 more overall. Carlo also covers the OAS clawback question and how to use the pre-CPP years to draw down the RRSP at a lower tax rate while moving surplus into the TFSA. 👉 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/nBPPqp6p0OU  Question for our listeners: If you're sitting on significant retirement savings, would you take CPP as soon as you're eligible, or test what delaying it could do for your plan? 👉 Complimentary portfolio analysis: https://tmfg.ca/portfolio-analysis/  Follow us: LinkedIn: The McClelland Financial Group Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tmfg.ca  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themcclellandfinancialgroup_/

  6. Aug 23

    We Have Reviewed 10 RRSP Strategies...Is The Meltdown The Best One?

    In this episode of AskTMFG, John Iaconetti and Carlo Cansino review 10 common RRSP strategies and mistakes, and break down which approach actually wins out for long-term retirement savings. They walk through nine missteps clients bring to them again and again: contributing right at the deadline instead of throughout the year and losing months of tax-deferred growth, contributing only the minimum instead of maximizing long-term benefit, parking funds in low-risk assets like GICs that can't keep pace with inflation over decades, concentrating everything in one stock or sector, over-contributing and triggering CRA penalties, treating the RRSP like an emergency fund and paying the tax and penalty cost of early withdrawals, ignoring the core benefit of tax-deferred compounding, and never rebalancing as the portfolio's risk profile drifts over time. To make it concrete, they run a real client case: a 50-year-old contributing $5,000 annually at the deadline into GICs, projected to grow from $100,000 to about $248,000 over 15 years. By shifting to monthly contributions (capturing tax-deferred growth sooner), indexing contributions to inflation, reinvesting the tax refund back into the plan, and moving into a diversified stock-and-bond portfolio targeting a 6% return, that same starting point grows to roughly $440,000, nearly $200,000 more from those adjustments alone.  👉 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/AcPvUp28q7I  Question for our listeners: Which of these nine RRSP mistakes hits closest to home for you: deadline contributions, GIC-heavy allocations, or skipping the rebalance? 👉 Complimentary portfolio analysis: https://tmfg.ca/portfolio-analysis/ Follow us: LinkedIn: The McClelland Financial Group Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tmfg.ca Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themcclellandfinancialgroup_/

  7. Aug 21

    Do These 5 RRIF Tax Hacks Before Age 71

    In this episode of AskTMFG, Carlo Cansino walks through five RRIF moves that most Canadians never think to make before age 71. The mandatory RRIF withdrawal itself can't be changed, but nearly everything around it can, and that's where the tax savings are hiding. He covers five specific hacks: converting a small slice of your RRSP into a RRIF at 65 to unlock the $2,000 pension income tax credit (and open up income splitting with a spouse), transferring investments in kind rather than cashing out when your RRIF minimum comes due so you're not forced to sell during a market dip, naming a spouse as successor annuitant instead of just beneficiary so the RRIF continues rather than collapsing and triggering a full taxable deregistration, using your last-ever RRSP contribution room in the year you turn 71 before the December 31 deadline, and naming a charity directly on the RRIF (rather than through your will) so the gift skips probate and generates a donation credit that offsets the final tax bill right away. He closes by noting these are exactly the kinds of details TMFG's advisory team walks through account by account, and invites viewers whose RRSP is converting soon to request a complimentary portfolio analysis. 👉 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/7LMrNhrHlQM  Question for our listeners: Which of these five is the one you hadn't thought about before: converting early, in-kind transfers, successor annuitant, last-minute RRSP room, or naming a charity directly? 👉 Complimentary portfolio analysis: https://tmfg.ca/portfolio-analysis/ Follow us: LinkedIn: The McClelland Financial Group Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tmfg.ca Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themcclellandfinancialgroup_/

  8. Aug 16

    This NEW Retirement Calculator Makes NO Sense For Canadians

    In this episode of AskTMFG, John Iaconetti and Carlo Cansino dig into a tool most people trust without question: the free online retirement calculator. It looks simple, professional, and authoritative. Plug in your age, income, and savings, and it returns a clear chart showing whether you're on track. The problem is that these calculators are quietly getting the answer wrong for millions of Canadians. They unpack four flaws that show up across virtually every standard calculator: a flat 3% inflation rate applied to all expenses even though healthcare rises while other costs fall, a static average investment return that ignores real market volatility and sequence-of-returns risk, an assumption that spending stays flat through retirement when it actually dips in the middle years before rising again, and little to no accounting for tax-efficient withdrawal strategies.  They determined that standard calculators are built for simplicity, not accuracy, and that gap can cost you years of your life you didn't need to work. Getting a true picture means adjusting for category-specific inflation, sequence-of-returns risk, a realistic spending curve, and tax-optimized withdrawals, all specific to your own numbers, not a generic model. 👉 Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/Xl_6SWVU8Ns  Question for our listeners: Have you ever run your numbers through a free retirement calculator — and how confident are you that its answer was actually right? 👉 Complimentary portfolio analysis: https://tmfg.ca/portfolio-analysis/ Follow us: LinkedIn: The McClelland Financial Group Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tmfg.ca Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themcclellandfinancialgroup_/

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About

AskTMFG, brought to you by The McClelland Financial Group of CI Assante Wealth Management Ltd, offers clear and straightforward guidance on investing, retirement planning, and wealth management. We address your most pressing financial questions and share practical strategies to help you plan with confidence and stay on track toward achieving your goals. Hosted by: Carlo Cansino, Senior Financial Advisor and John Iaconetti, Financial Advisor at The McClelland Financial Group of CI Assante Wealth Management Ltd. Follow us: Click here to request a meeting: https://tmfg.ca/schedule/ Check the episode video on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TmfgCa Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tmfg.ca Instagram: instagram.com/themcclellandfinancialgroup_/ Please visit www.assante.com/legal for important legal and regulatory disclosures.

Information

  • Creator
    asktmfg
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    69
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    AskTMFG The Podcast

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