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Do you ever find yourself asking questions like, how can I manage my family's higher tax burden and lower our taxes? How can I reduce the financial risks facing my family? How can I maximize my after-tax retirement income? How can I leave a greater legacy to my family and charity? If you're asking questions like these, you may have reached a stage in life where your financial affairs have become more complex.

That's where wealth management can help. So, what is wealth management? Wealth management is a term often used synonymously with investment management. But it's actually much more than that. Wealth management goes beyond investment management to look at your overall financial situation. It brings together the different areas of expertise and solutions you need in a single overall wealth plan.

This includes investing, financial planning, tax minimization strategies, retirement planning, business succession planning, wealth protection strategies, and estate planning. Essentially, wealth management looks at everything you need to address your various financial concerns at each stage of your life, from building your wealth for future goals like retirement to converting your wealth into a tax-efficient retirement income to transferring your wealth to the next generation.

One of the most important benefits of wealth management is that it's a coordinated approach. That means that you have one key advisor who links in experts from other areas. For example, RBC wealth advisors each specialize in different areas, such as investment management, financial planning, or private banking. But they work together to make sure their clients have the benefits of all of these different areas of expertise.

And at RBC, each of our wealth advisors also has the support of the RBC wealth management services team. The RBC wealth management services team has over 200 tax, legal, and financial experts all focused on helping RBC advisors manage their clients' wealth.

So what is wealth management? Ultimately, wealth management is really all about helping you make sense of the greater financial complexity you face and giving you greater confidence in your financial future. If you would like to learn more about how you can benefit from wealth management, I invite you to contact your RBC wealth management advisor.

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In all honesty, we were a little surprised by the breadth of services that RBC offered us. It is nice to know that the people that you're working with are working in tandem as a team.

In my heart, I believe that we're helping to solve problems that they'll hopefully never know existed.

One of the unique things that we bring in our approach is our ability to combine tax, legal, and investments all into one conversation. Holistically approaching all three of them allows us to really have a unique view on our clients' wealth.

We are part of a great team. We have best professionals working with our team from lawyers, accountants, business valuators.

I'm someone who helps you think through how you own your assets and what you ultimately want to do with them for yourself and your family over time.

I was 33 years with one of the big four accounting firms. And my expertise is tax laws on both sides of the border.

I have a very special interest in disability law. I myself have five children. I have one son that has disability. I can work with families that have children or family members with disability and help them in quite a special way. It's a great job.

There's always a benefit to having one person look at your entire structure and look at your whole situation from a bit of a higher level and ensure that everything is really in place and that everything works together.

The term "financial plan" often suggests financial. But obviously, a financial plan is really a plan to meet personal objectives. So it's really important that when we meet with the client that we have a good understanding of what's important to them.

They come up with answers, or they will find the answers.

It's just--

Yeah.

--crazy. I mean, there's just no way we could have accomplished without the Wealth Management team where we are today. I mean, we'd never be this far.

You can't put a price I guess.

It's invaluable.

Yeah, invaluable.

And that's the reward that you can't measure. It's just what makes me want to get up the next morning to help more families.

The need for tax-smart estate plan, has never been greater. With the massive baby boomer generation inheriting trillions of over the coming decades, and taxes on those inheritances likely to remain high. Here's some tips for creating your tax-smart estate plan. First of all, make sure your will is up to date, especially if there have been important changes in your life. Your will names your beneficiaries and your executor. Consider having an open discussion with your family, you may feel uncomfortable about doing this. But it can help your family understand your intentions, and what they might need to do. One of the things you may want to discuss with your family is your choice of executor.

It's an honor to be named an executor, but there are a lot of responsibilities. Make sure your chosen executor is comfortable with what they will have to do. And remember, you don't have to choose a family member. Especially if you have a complicated estate, it may make more sense to choose a professional executor. You may also want to discuss taking care of certain family members. Perhaps you have younger children or grandchildren that you want to provide for. You can leave them a bequest through a testamentary trust in your will, or you can create a family trust during your lifetime. Trusts have important tax advantages when they are properly structured. Let's assume your beneficiaries have no other income. For example, a minor child, they can earn about $10,000 of interest income tax free, every year on the assets you transfer into the trust.

Here's another way you can reduce the impact of taxes on your estate, with life insurance. Consider this, if you leave $300,000 in your RSP or riff when you pass away. Your estate may have to pay as much as nearly half of that in tax, that's nearly $150,000. Similarly, your estate may have to pay taxes on any capital gains on things like your investments, your cottage, and US property. With a life insurance policy, you can cover these taxes. It can be very cost effective because the insurance premiums are often just a fraction of the tax bill. As always, with insurance, it's most cost effective when you're younger and in good health. One last tip for creating a tax-smart estate, and it's important. Make sure you speak with a qualified legal professional first, before you put any estate planning strategies in place.

Did you know, your family can save on taxes by having a high-income family member loan cash at the current CRA prescribed interest rate — to a lower-income family member?

Any investment income earned by the low-income family member, exceeding the prescribed rate, is then taxed in their name.

For example, a high-income spouse can loan cash directly to a low-income spouse.

Or, a high-income parent can loan cash to a family trust to income split with their children.

The investment income earned in the trust can be used to fund child-related expenses, such as private school fees, lessons, or other expenses that directly benefit the child.