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Most financial advice is geared to middle- and upper-income Canadians. Ironically, the low-income earners most in need of financial advice feel they can’t afford it, while fee-based advisors have little incentive to seek out those with tiny accounts.

A research report led by Securian Canada from October 2024 revealed that more than one in five Canadians, or about 7.3 million adults in Canada, participate in the gig economy. Further, the study revealed that almost three-quarters of them do gig work as a “side-hustle”, meaning they are also employed full-time or part-time.

I am a 46-year-old widow. My late husband’s accounts were recently transferred to me, and I would like your opinion as to what I should do with the holdings. My goal is to maximize growth over the long term for the benefit of my two young children. I will have no need to draw income from these sources. My husband’s TFSA and RRSP are in an RBC Monthly Income Bond Fund - Series A and RBC Select Balanced Portfolio - Series A.

Longer lifespans mean planning now for later-in-life cash flow. Traditionally, employer-sponsored pension plans provided a solid income base. Today, fewer than 40% of Canadians have one. While public sector pension coverage is over 90%, the number drops to around 23% of workers in the private sector. The latter tend to be Defined Contribution (DC) plans versus the more secure and valuable Defined Benefit (DB) plans. In 2023, nearly 14% of seniors 65+ had an after-tax income of less than half the national median; obviously, some folks face a cash shortage later in life when they have fewer options.

It was a dark and stormy night…

Uncertainty and danger lurked around every corner as an eerie orange glow lingered over the street. While elbows were up, they could only remain so for so long, and one misstep could spell disaster.

Millions of retail investors remain underserved by traditional financial advice channels due to high account minimums, excessive fees, poor service, and a lack of trust in the advice being offered. Historically, many turned to their banks for guidance. Unfortunately, bank branch sales personnel—often cynically referred to as "regulated finfluencers"—typically promote only proprietary products, essentially acting as distributors of sponsored content. These products are frequently high-cost, actively-managed mutual funds with embedded sales commissions, creating significant conflicts of interest that regulatory frameworks attempt, but often fail to mitigate.

Many Canadians have been experimenting with Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, whether it’s a chatbot, like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, or it’s an AI-built application like video editors, content creation, audio translation, note-taking apps, etc. It has become a fast-evolving space, and we believe the tools will continue to grow at a rapid pace, but even in these early days of widespread AI, we feel there are many ways to utilize AI as a finance companion.

In terms of net worth, what does it take to be considered rich today? In the HBO series Succession, loosely based on the Murdoch family, naïve Cousin Greg boasts that he expects to inherit $5 million from his grandfather’s will, and he’ll be “golden”. “You can’t do anything with five million,” a wealthy relative tells him. “Five is a nightmare. Can’t retire. Not worth it to work. It will drive someone ‘un poco loco.’”.

In September’s issue of Canadian MoneySaver, I presented a list of eight questions to consider asking your financial advisor, and a basic overview of the sorts of answers you should be looking for. If you haven’t read that article yet, I’d suggest you go back and review it before diving into this one.