Robb Engen
Lump Sum vs Lifetime Payment: The Defined Benefit Pension Dilemma

For folks that leave a workplace with a defined benefit pension plan, there is no bigger decision than whether to take that large “pot of gold” one-time payout, or to keep your money in the pension plan so that you can benefit from a steady stream of monthly payments once you hit a specific age.

Robb Engen drops by to explain why he often recommends that his clients take the lifetime payment option, but why there are certain situations - such as the one he found himself in - that sometimes lead to taking the commuted value/lump sum being the better bet.  We dive into the tax specifics behind the decision and weigh the pros/cons of various strategies.

We finish by explaining how you should frame the situation for your decision, and how to get the most out of your commuted value if you choose to go that route.

Sandy Yong

How to set up and manage a side hustle

Many people have thought about starting a side hustle but aren’t sure how to get one started and what it takes to keep things going. Personal Finance Writer, Award-Winning Author, and TEDx Speaker, Sandy Yong shares how she’s managed to grow her side hustle while still having a full-time job. From taxes to growing your business, this chat is the perfect place to start for anyone who wants to start a side hustle.

Dr. Preet Banerjee

The value of financial advice to households in Canada

Traditionally, many people value financial advice in two ways: it’s either worth it, or it’s a ripoff. However, it’s not always that simple, Dr. Preet Banerjee discusses his thesis on the value of financial advice to households in Canada and how many different factors come into play.

Ellen Roseman

Lessons Learned 20 Years of Teaching a Canadian Investing Course

Ellen Roseman has been thinking and writing about Canadian personal finance for four decades.  Over the last 20 years, she has been teaching an all-ages introduction to investing course at the University of Toronto.  Tune in to hear us chat about what has changed (for better or for worse) in Canadian investing since she has started.  She fills us in on how her teaching has evolved and what her main takeaways are in 2023.

Kevin Cochran

How to Evaluate a Financial Advisor

There are lots of options when it comes to financial advice. You may only rely on your “financial advisor” to invest the annual contributions to your TFSA or RRSP, or you may receive regular guidance on everything from life insurance to retirement planning. Regardless of your needs, the fact remains that you are putting a lot of trust (and a lot of cash!) in their hands! You owe it to yourself to carefully evaluate your decision. Learn about the various types of financial advisors available and the range of products and services they offer. You will also learn the key questions to ask your current (or potential) advisor to ensure they are working in your best interest, and you are getting value for your money.

Rob Carrick

What Do Higher-For-Longer Interest Rates Mean for You?

Longtime Summit veteran and personal finance columnist drops in to tell us where he sees interest rates going in the next year or two, as well as the first and second order effects of what high interest rates could mean for you.  You’ll hear us talk about what high interest rates mean for: Housing, GICs, Cash ETFs, Annuities, and Canadian dividend stocks.

Jonathan Chevreau 

The Personal Finance Book Hall of Fame

After reading every new book on the Canadian personal scene for several decades, (as well as writing a few himself) I figured who better than Jonathon Chevreau to lead us in an all-encompassing discussion on the best personal finance books to ever be written.  We’ve got books written exclusively for Canadians, as well as those written for international readers.  We’ve got classics, new takes, lesser-known gems, and best-in-class selections.  Don’t miss this one if you love to get your info from written text!

Jason Heath

Common Financial Planning Mistakes and Uncommon Advice

Jason is one of Canada’s best-known fee-only, advice-only Certified Financial Planners. He writes for the Financial Post, MoneySense, and Canadian MoneySaver, and is a frequently-featured media contributor.

He will be talking about investing mistakes from stocks to real estate; how to maximize RRSPs, CPP, and OAS; how to plan for retirement spending and longevity; and tax and probate planning.

Danielle Neziol, VP Online Distribution, BMO ETFs

The golden opportunity in fixed income

Over the last few years, many investors have paid little attention to fixed income investments. However, with interest rates on the rise, this asset class is trendy again. Danielle Neziol, Vice President Online Distribution at BMO ETFs shares what you need to know about the golden opportunity in fixed income.

Allan Norman, MSc, CFP, CIM

All your FHSA questions answered

The first-home savings account is brand spanking new and Canadians have questions. In the similar format of MoneySense's popular Ask A Planner column, executive editor Lisa Hannam will ask Certified Financial Planner Allan Norman real questions from Canadians about the FHSA, from what it is to where to open this account.

Bob French 

Retirement Planning’s Secret Weapon: Annuities

Bob and the team over at Retirement Researcher have really pioneered a lot of the space when it comes to balancing - and explaining - how to create a balance between assured income and probability-based growth investing, when it comes to retirement portfolios.  

We discuss how to think about annuities, why more people should really consider them as a building block of their portfolio, and what the trade-offs are as far as the overall plan.  Then we look at how to think about annuities and relative risk of the investments in the rest of your portfolio.

Christine Zalzal, SVP, Head of Qtrade online brokerage and digital wealth

Optimizing Self-Directed Investment Behaviour In a Turbulent Market

Christine Zalzal has been in the investing world for over 25 years, and under her leadership, Qtrade continues to improve on what is already Canada's premier online broker platform. Join us as we chat about how investors can cut costs to the bone - without succumbing to the behaviour concerns that often affect DIY investors. Learn how to use your brokerage to aid in productive investing habits, and avoid the noise can trip up both new and veteran investors.

Mike Heroux

Setting Up Your Portfolio for Retirement Withdrawals

Our most requested topic coming out of last year was more information on how to think about withdrawing money from our portfolio once we hit retirement.  Mike Heroux is not only Canada’s Dividend Expert, he’s also a former High Net Worth Financial Planner - so he knows his way around multi-account planning!

Mike explains why tax planning in retirement is all about the Three Ds: Defer, Deduct, Divide.

Then we get into the mechanics of withdrawing dividend income versus “creating your own dividends” by harvesting capital gains.  Mike reveals his 3-step process for deciding which of his stocks to sell, and then goes on to compare dividends stocks versus increasingly-attractive fixed income products like bond and GICs.  We’ll also cover how to think about when to withdraw your RRSP investments, and how this plays into your RRIF transition timing.

Kevin Hamilton, Senior Editor of Wise Publishing
How I learned to give a damn about money — and make other people care too.

A lot of people don’t pay very much attention to their money. However, sometimes a light goes off, and they want to be more informed. Kevin Hamilton, Senior Editor of Wise Publishing shares his “aha” moment and how he’s using his position at Wise Publishing to help Canadians care more about their money.

Court @Modern FImily

Early Retirement Insights From the Folks Who Have Done It

After Court and her wife Nic hit financial independence before most of their peers they kept running into unique people who found their own creative paths to some version of early retirement.  They decided that it would be a cool idea to compare and contrast all of the different ways

Shawn Stewart, President, AIR MILES Reward Program

AMRP as a technology company and the benefits it can offer partners

AIR MILES is known as one of Canada’s most recognized loyalty programs, but it has evolved into so much more. Shawn Stewart, President of the AIR MILES Reward Program, explains AMRP as a technology company and the benefits it can offer partners

Mark Seed 

Step-by-Step Case Studies for Your Retirement Income Withdrawals

Mark Seed is one of Canada’s preeminent DIY retirement planning experts.  In this session he not only describes how to go about planning your own retirement, he shows us (in precise detail) how he has helped Canadians go about making their own retirement decisions - and thus avoiding crippling adviser fees.

Mark and I will dive into two separate case studies and explain how to use software planning tools to plan for your long-term retirement (no matter what your current age).  By illustrating how small changes to personalized variables can have large effects on your outcomes, Mark shows just how valuable it is to learn how to create your own flexible retirement plan.

Doug Carroll BBA JD LLM(Tax) CFP TEP RI

The (not so) basic building blocks of budgeting and personal tax management

There’s nothing more basic to Canadian life than saving for retirement and understanding the tax implications that come with it. Yet comprehending the often complicated Canadian personal tax landscape can feel a long way from a ‘basic’ exercise. So how can you manage this essential task? Renowned personal tax expert Doug Carroll discusses the strategies and tools every Canadian should know to help maximize their retirement savings and make the most of their retirement experience.

Michael McCullough - MoneySense journalist

Top Canadian ETFs for This Year and Beyond

With so many ETF options available, it can be hard for investors to know what to put into their portfolios. MoneySense's executive editor Lisa Hannam and journalist Michael McCullough look at the makeup of the ETF market and will share, based on MoneySense’s ETF All-Stars Report, the ETF products Canadians could consider buying today.

Nancy Grouni

Financial Planning Pitfalls, Tax Traps, and Missed Opportunities

Nancy Grouni is a fee-only, advice-only Certified Financial Planner (CFP) with Objective Financial Partners, specializing in planning for business owners and professionals. She is a frequent contributor to the National Post’s Canadian Family Offices newsletter.

This presentation will explore various financial planning pitfalls and tax traps that clients and even their advisors can fall into at times. 

Financial planning has many interrelated components. People have a tendency to make decisions on a piecemeal or standalone basis. Holistic planning, where we look at all key areas at once, is a great way to drive informed, balanced decisions, and avoid common planning pitfalls and tax traps.

Dale Roberts

Creating Your Own Dividend for Retirement Withdrawals

Using a very simple strategy that sees you creating a retirement budget based on simple dividend income from the stocks that you own can be the ultimate in convenience - but it might not be optimal.  Tune in to hear Dale and I discuss why limiting your investment universe to high-yield dividend stocks may not be the best idea, and what he recommends instead.  We’ll wrap up by going into detail on the step-by-step mechanics on what we mean by “creating your own dividends” or “harvest capital gains to create a self-dividend”.

Arian Beyzaei

How to Plan Your Path to a Stress-Free Retirement

We all look forward to an enjoyable retirement, and we want to ensure we will have the post-retirement income and savings to pay for it. There are plenty of numbers and guidelines floating around about how much the average Canadian will need, but the fact is there is no one-size-fits-all number. Determining YOUR retirement number is going to take a lot more digging. This session will help you analyze your retirement income and expenses, and create a realistic game plan to answer the big question: What do I need to do to get on track and fund my desired retirement lifestyle?

Meghan Chomut

Can I Still Make Money in Real Estate with High Interest Rates?

Meghan Chomit is THE go-to for families who have (or want to have) an income property.  She speaks from personal experience, and has helped dozens of people get into and manage properties.  You’ll hear us chat about balancing real estate investment both from a dollars-and-cents point of view, but also as part of a broader life strategy.  Then we’ll dive into some of the primary considerations for what the world of being a landlord looks like in 2023 given this meteor of high interest rates that has just hit.

Karsten Jeske 

How Flexible Can We Be With the 4% Retirement Withdrawal Rule?

The 4% rule was created to be a starting point in the quest to answer the perennial retiree question, “How much money can I spend each year in retirement if I never want to go broke?”

Join Summit newcomer Karsten Jeske as we explain how to look at the 4% rule from the standpoint of adjusting for inflation, as well as how you can allow for certain types of flexibility depending on what type of changes you are willing to make in the short-, medium-, and long-term.  If you want real research and data instead of theory, then this is the session for you!

If you’re not familiar with Karsten’s work, he is an early-retiree who achieved a PhD in Economics, worked for the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta, and then joined the Bank of New York Mellon Asset Management.  He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.  All that to say - the guy knows his stuff!

Kyle Prevost

Worry-Free Retirement: Canada’s First Course for Retirement Preparation

After a full year of researching and editing, Kyle’s ready to unveil the first ever online course created for Canadian retirees.  Four Steps to a Worry-Free Retirement will empower you to make educated decisions on everything from whether or not you need to work “one more year” to how much money you can plan to take out if your TFSA and RRSP each month.  Tune in to hear how to save money on taxes, get the details on CPP and OAS, and how to fit it all together.  Kyle gives the first sneak peak into what the course looks like, and all the bonuses he has included!

Kornel Szrejber 

Insights from 100 Expert Interviews: Most Recommended Investment Strategies for Canadians

Kornel has been interviewing some of the most influential financial experts in Canada over the last 8 years and has learned a thing or two about how to build wealth efficiently and consistently!  We sit him down to reveal just what conclusions he has come to after more than 100 chats.  We’ll look at some of the disagreements various experts have had, as well as certain recommendations where there has been almost unanimous agreement.

Jordan Kaye 

How the Tax-Free First Home Savings Account (FHSA) works

The cost of housing has increased over the years. To help make things more affordable, the Canadian government has introduced the tax-free First-Home Savings Account. Commonly known as the FHSA. Jordann Kaye, Content Marketing Manager and Spokesperson for Zolo, explains how FHSAs work and if they’ll actually make real estate more affordable.

Alanna Abramsky 

Managing Expenses, Cash Flow & Your Household Budget

High prices and interest rates are hitting hard! We all need to tighten our belts and get our household spending on track... and keep it on track over the long run. This session will teach you to analyze and categorize expenses to easily see where your money is going, and help you identify costs that are putting you in the red. We will also look at some practical tips and tricks for slashing common household expenses. If you have tried budgeting before and had no success, or you're just tired of not knowing where your money goes every month, this session will help you gain control of your finances.

Our Freedom Years (Stephanie and Gillian) 

Beating Crazy Travel Inflation in 2023

We thought travel was getting more expensive in 2023, so we brought in permanent travelers Stephanie and Gillian to let us know where they had seen the most inflation - and how they manage to stay on permanent vacation without breaking the bank.  We talk accommodations tips, air hacks, and several more money-saving tricks that they learned the hard way, so that you don’t have to!

Kyle Trattner, the CEO of Wise Publishing

How financial literacy is changing in Canada

From social media to digital publishing, how financial literacy is being absorbed is changing in Canada. Kyle Trattner, CEO of Wise Publishing, which operates Moneywise.com in the United States and Money.ca in Canada shares what his strategy is in Canada and why brands need to adapt to consumer needs more often than you would think.

Lisa Hannam and Kyle Prevost

Personal finance trends to plan for in 2023 and 2024

MoneySense executive editor Lisa Hannam and columnist Kyle Prevost work together on the popular column Making Sense of the Markets. It contextualizes headlines for Canadian investors, so together the duo will be looking at the headlines from the year and those to come, including interest rates, crypto (remember that asset?), employment, AI, GICs and so much more.

Shawn Stewart, President, AIR MILES Reward Program

The Status of AIR MILES

AIR MILES was recently acquired by BMO, which has left many members wondering what the program's future looks like. Shawn Stewart, President of the AIR MILES Reward Program, goes over what the brand offers in the future.

Patrick Ens - President, Capital One Canada
How Capital One is helping Canadians

From credit cards to credit scores, Capital One is one of the most trusted brands in Canada. Patrick Ens, President of Capital One Canada, shares how the company is positioned to help Canadians with their finances.

Ryan Markle, Senior Vice President of Loyalty, Loblaw Companies Limited
An overview of PC Optimum

With more than 16 million members, PC Optimum is one of the most popular loyalty programs in Canada. Ryan Markle, Senior Vice President of Loyalty at Loblaws shares some of the ins and outs of the program.

Michelle Robertson, CPA - Founder of Ms. Money and Math

Women and Money  

Brendan Wood - CEO and Co-Founder, SnapTrade

How Embedded Finance Is Creating New Investing Experiences

It's no coincidence that there has been an explosion of new investing experiences for users to try. In this presentation, SnapTrade will cover what embedded investing is, why embedded investing is changing your life, and how a product like SnapTrade is ushering in a new era of investing experience