Have you ever wonder what does financial advisor do? Financial advisor can help you improve your current financial situation. If your car is broken, will you fix it yourself or will you look for a mechanic to fix it. If you are sick, you will see a doctor. If you have some financial concern like saving for your retirement, saving for your children education or protecting your family against you dying prematurely, financial advisor can help create you a plan.

Financial advisor are trained professional in the financial services industry. They can help you plan for the future. Let say you are thinking of buying a house but you don’t have enough down payment or you have no down payment at all, a good financial advisor can help you and educate you on how to buy a house without down payment. How about you own a house already and have an existing mortgage, a good financial advisor can help you pay off your mortgage in a lot less time without paying extra.

How about retirement planning. Do you know that there is a lot of investment vehicle you can choose to save for your retirement? Financial advisor can help you understand those investment vehicles. RRSP is where most people invest. The number one reason people buy RRSP is to minimize tax liability.  But when you take out your money from RRSP, that money will be 100% taxable. The new TFSA is also a good plan to implement, unlike RRSP you cannot use it to minimize your tax liability but when you take out money from the plan you don’t have to pay tax. Another plan for retirement that is unheard or almost no one knew except for the wealthy is the Insured Retirement Plan. The disadvantage of this plan is your monthly savings plan is not tax deductible. The advantage is you can access the income, tax free. The best advantage of Insured Retirement Plan, it is creditor’s proof. Life insurance coverage is also included in the plan. A good financial advisor should not tell you what are the best plan for you but will educate you about the advantages and the disadvantages of each plan. With proper information provided by a financial advisor you can decide which plan is best for your retirement, RRSP, TFSA or IRP.

Life insurance is the foundation of a great financial plan. Without proper life insurance you are exposing your family against financial hardship if you die prematurely. The three type of life insurance that is available in Canada are Term, Whole Life and Universal Life. All insurance are good insurance  A good rule of thumb to find out if the financial advisor is well informed and well educated in the life insurance industry is to ask them if they are able to explain the advantages and disadvantages of these three type of life insurance. Also they must be able to offer you a life insurance that is best fit your need. If they can only offer you one type of insurance, ask yourself, is he/she working in your best interest or his/her best interest?

Bottom line is a Financial Advisor can help you make your money work hard for you.

Marlon Antonio is the general manager of GreatLife Financial. If you have a financial question that you want to be answered in this column or if you need expert financial advice, please email Marlon Antonio at [email protected] or call him at 403-608-0996