Generations Building Wealth Differently

Can Canadians build wealth in the current economic environment? Over the longer term?  After taxes?  These are important questions anytime but particularly at election time.  The traditional way to build wealth for Canadians families has been to buy a home, pay it off and even leverage the equity to borrow money to invest in the financial markets.  These wealth building exercises occur over a lifetime.  But today, new generations are building wealth differently.

Despite the fact that the cost of living seems to be increasing in the grocery story and when paying for transportation and costly medication, Old Age Security benefits will remain unchanged for the April to June 2025 quarter. While increases to OAS over the past year have been 2% from April 2024 to April 2025, the cost of living has increased more, as explained more fully below.  You’ll also be interested in the prescribed interest rates applied to tax refunds and balances due, adjusted quarterly:

Finance Minister Eric Girard tabled his 7th budget on March 25th. This is the most detailed, comprehensive and far-reaching budget we’ve seen from any of the provinces thus far. This budget focuses heavily on spending, producing a record deficit. It also reflects the Quebec government’s preoccupation with U.S. tariffs. The word “tariff” is mentioned no fewer than 161 times in this document.

We might be distracted by the political, tax and economic shocks dominating the daily news.  But from an investment point of view, advisors may be missing something important. The very definition of “wealth maximization” as we have commonly known it, is not resonating there is a reason why:  “business as usual” has eroded value and requires a shake up to build the economy we need in the future.  The answer, for some, is “impact investing”, and there has never been a better time to consider this.

Where are the Happy Landings in this new Era of Risk and Reward?  That will be the focus of the 2025 Acuity Conference for Distinguished Advisors November 23-26 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.   It may in fact, be the most important conference you attend this year.  Canada’s only multi-disciplinary gathering, appropriately in Mexico, will bring thought leaders together to ponder our New Era of Risk and Reward.

The news can be jarring for your clients. In these volatile times, tax accounting and financial advisors do important work, together. A special shout-out goes out today to our highly educated, skilled and experienced certificate and designation holders working hard to help their clients make sense of events that trigger financial decision-making, especially to the RWMs™.  Here’s why. 

Do you believe our tax system needs to be reformed and if so, what would be your first improvement? If not, what do you like about it?