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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.

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.

As a business owner, it can be difficult to find the time to focus on your eventual exit from your business when you're focused on the success of your business, but investing the time now can pay important dividends later including a smoother transition and a well-funded retirement.

So how can you build a successful business succession plan?

First, consider your various exit options.

You may wish to keep your business in your family, but family dynamics can complicate things.

Often family businesses fail in the second generation, so make sure you carefully consider your family member’s ability to take on a leadership role.

If there is a potential leader in your family consider grooming them as soon as possible.

Another option is a management buyout.

Normally the management team already understands the business and is well-known to your customers and suppliers.

However, they may have limited personal cash, so you may need to offer a favorable purchase price or financing to close the deal.

A third exit option is selling to an existing business partner.

This can be an attractive option with a quick close, especially if you have a shareholders agreement in place which sets the terms for selling your business interest.

Finally, they're selling to a third party.

Generally., this is the best option for maximizing your sale price.

However, it may involve disclosing confidential information, in some cases to a competitor.

Whichever exit option you choose it's important to get ready in advance.

Here are a few things to consider to make your business more attractive to potential buyers.

Develop a deep and talented management team, expand and diversify your customer base, established consistent recurring and high-margin cash flow and lastly keep your information systems up to date.

Another important part of your business succession plan is your retirement plan.

For many business owners their business is their retirement plan, but often it can take longer than you'd like to sell your business or you may not get the price you thought you would so it's important to set some money aside outside your business for your retirement.

One way you can do this is to an individual pension plan or IPP.

An IPP is a special retirement plan for incorporated business owners.

It enables you to make higher contributions compared to an RRSP that are tax deductible to your business.

And finally make sure you have the right advisory team in place including your lawyer, accountant, banker and financial advisor.

To learn more about business,succession planning, I invite you to contact an RBC Wealth Management advisor today.

If you're retired, you know firsthand how difficult it can be to get a satisfying retirement income.

Traditional retirement Investments Like GICs and bonds continue to pay very low interest after taxes and inflation there can be very little left over.

What's more people are living longer so they need their retirement savings to last longer too.

So what can you do to maximize your after tax retirement income without taking on too much risk?

Here are a few ideas.

First, get the most out of your interest paying investments with a GIC or bond ladder.

For example, with a 5-year Bond ladder you invest equal amounts in a 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 year bond.

Now as each bond matures you reinvest in a new five-year bond. At the end of five years you hold only five year bonds.

The advantage?

Longer-term bonds historically pay higher interest than shorter term bonds.

Second, look at other investments that pay higher income.

Some options include corporate bonds, insurance company guaranteed investments, and dividend paying stocks.

They all have higher risk than traditional GICs and government bonds, to varying degrees, but you can reduce the risk through diversification.

The key is to find the right balance between higher income and lower risk based on your individual situation.

Third, consider how different investments are taxed in your regular non-registered accounts.

For example, dividends from Canadian corporations enjoy tax advantages while interest from GICs and bonds are fully taxable.

Sticking with the tax theme, also consider income splitting with your spouse to enhance your combined after-tax income.

With this strategy you transfer income from the higher-income spouse to the lower-income spouse so your combined tax rate is lower.

You can split up to 50% of your eligible pension income like RIF income with your spouse.

You can also split income with a spousal RSP or a spousal loan strategy.

These are just a few ideas for enhancing your retirement income.

If you would like more ideas specific to your situation, I invite you to contact an RBC Wealth Management advisor.

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With success comes opportunity.

Opportunity to focus on what matters most.

Your values

[A young child on a play structure]

Your loved ones

[People seated around a table filled with food]

Your passions

[A couple hiking]

Your community

[A conductor in front of an orchestra]

To create lasting change in the world.

[Person wearing hard hat and Team RBC shirt lifting plywood on a building site, a partially completed high-rise, field of wind turbines]

At RBC, we build relationships with trust and integrity, managing wealth with diverse expertise, a global outlook and a personalized approach to help you create a meaningful legacy because we believe the best returns are more than financial.

[Grow more than wealth. RBC Wealth Management]

In the coming years an estimated four trillion dollars in wealth will transfer across Generations in Canada the UK and the US.

But are we ready? Our study found both inheritors and benefactors are unprepared.

In fact only 26% of benefactors surveyed have a full wealth transfer strategy in place.

And just 35% of inheritors say they are prepared to receive wealth.

So while many people are making initial arrangements like writing wills, one and three have done nothing at all to prepare.

What we found was a direct correlation between preparedness and confidence.

For those with a full wealth transfer plan 58% are confident the next generation will sustain their wealth.

For those with no preparations only 33% are confident their wealth will endure.

When it comes to building financial confidence it pays to start early.

Those starting with financial education before age 18 are the most confident.

However, our study found education typically does not begin until age 27 and it tends to be informal and led by family members, despite the fact that almost four of five respondents found Financial education led by professionals to be effective.

So, how can you preserve and protect your legacy? Important steps can be taken to ensure a confident transition of wealth including preparing yourself, your heirs, and your financial affairs.

Before you transfer wealth transfer your knowledge and supplement it with professional financial education.

Your legacy is about more than wealth the steps you take today will lay the foundation for a legacy that lasts

RBC Wealth management - Grow more than wealth]

[rbcwealthmanagement.com/wealthtransfer - Download the full report]

[Wealth Transfer Report 2017]

[Lasting legacy - insights into giving and inheriting wealth across generations]

Wealth Transfer Report 2017 - How prepared are we in Canada? Tony Maiorino Vice President and Head RBC Wealth Planning Services

Based on our estimates over 400 billion in wealth is set to pass from one Canadian generation to the next.

Canadians really need to take this opportunity to evaluate their current state of preparation for both transferring wealth as well as educating the next generation on money and financial matters.

[Only 22% have a full wealth transfer strategy]

From our research less than 1/4 of Canadians have a full wealth transfer strategy in place and one in three have done nothing so far to prepare.

While some preliminary steps have been taken with 52% of Canadians indicating they have prepared a will important steps remain particularly given the aging population in Canada.

This lack of preparation has Canadians worried about their legacies in the next generation.

Almost 60% of Canadians are not confident their children will preserve or grow the wealth they inherit.

Canadians need to take further action to adequately prepare for the significant wealth transfer that will occur in the upcoming years.

A solid grounding and financial fundamentals help set the stage for a successful transfer of wealth across generations.

This includes first transferring knowledge as well as opening up communications between both the givers and receivers of wealth.

It's up to the givers of wealth to proactively prepare the next generation to manage wealth to ensure that the family legacy can endure.

[Leave a legacy that lasts. RBC Wealth Management - Grow more than wealth]

[rbcwealthmanagement.com/wealthtransfer - Download the full report]