A pension can provide a strong foundation for retirement. You’ll still have important decisions to make.
When should you retire? When should your pension begin? How much can you comfortably spend? How should your pension work alongside your RRSPs, TFSAs, investments, government benefits, insurance, and estate plan?
Our team helps pre-retirees with pensions in Saskatoon and across Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Ontario bring these decisions together in one coordinated retirement plan.
We help you understand what your pension can provide, how your other assets fit in, and what kind of retirement your wealth can support.
Your pension’s place in your retirement plan
A workplace pension can create valuable income and stability in retirement.
Depending on your plan, you may have important choices around:
- Your retirement date
- Your pension start date
- Survivor benefits
- Guarantee periods
- Inflation protection
- Early retirement reductions
- Commuted value options
- Coordination with other retirement income
These choices can affect your income, spouse, taxes, estate, and long-term financial security.
We help you look beyond the monthly pension amount and understand how each decision fits into your broader financial life.
Can you retire when you want?
Many pre-retirees know approximately what their pension will pay, but they’re less certain whether that income will support the retirement they have in mind.
You may be asking:
- Can I retire earlier than planned?
- Will my pension cover my regular expenses?
- How much can I spend on travel and other priorities?
- Should I pay off my mortgage before retiring?
- When should I begin CPP and OAS?
- How much should I continue saving?
- Will my spouse be financially protected?
- What happens if I live longer than expected?
A coordinated retirement projection can turn these questions into clearer decisions.
We help you understand what your income may look like, how your expenses may change, and where you may have more flexibility than you think.
Coordinating your pension with your savings
Your pension may cover a meaningful part of your retirement income, while your personal savings provide flexibility.
Your broader retirement plan may include:
- RRSPs and RRIFs
- TFSAs
- Non-registered investments
- Corporate assets
- Cash savings
- Real estate
- CPP and OAS
- Insurance
- Other workplace or spousal pensions
Each income source can serve a different purpose.
Your pension may help cover regular living expenses. Your TFSA may support larger purchases or provide tax-free income. Your RRSP or RRIF may provide additional cash flow, while non-registered investments may support travel, family priorities, charitable giving, or future estate needs. We help organize these resources, so they work together as part of one plan.
Moving from saving to spending
After years of working and saving, spending your wealth can feel uncomfortable.
A pension can make the transition easier by creating regular income, but you may still worry about spending too much, drawing from the wrong account, or running short later in life.
Our team helps you build a retirement income strategy that considers:
- How much income you need
- Which accounts to draw from
- When withdrawals should begin
- How much you can spend confidently
- What should remain invested
- How inflation may affect future income
- How to prepare for healthcare or long-term care costs
- How to protect your spouse and family
Your wealth should support the retirement you’ve worked hard to create.
Tax planning before retirement
Retirement can change the way your income is taxed.
Your pension may be combined with CPP, OAS, RRIF withdrawals, investment income, employment income, or income from a corporation. Without careful planning, these income sources can create a higher tax bill than expected.
Tax planning before retirement may include:
- Coordinating pension and investment income
- Planning RRSP and RRIF withdrawals
- Deciding when to begin CPP and OAS
- Reviewing pension income-splitting opportunities
- Managing taxable investment income
- Planning around the OAS recovery tax
- Using TFSAs strategically
- Preparing for future required withdrawals
- Coordinating charitable giving with taxable income
We help you think through these decisions before retirement begins, when you may have more opportunities to adjust your strategy.
Making important pension decisions
Some pension plans give members several choices as they approach retirement.
You may need to choose between different survivor benefit levels, guarantee periods, bridge benefits, or retirement dates. In some cases, you may also be offered a choice between leaving your pension in the plan or transferring its commuted value.
These decisions can be difficult to reverse.
The right choice may depend on:
- Your health and life expectancy
- Your spouse’s income and pension
- Your other savings
- Your need for predictable income
- Your comfort with investment risk
- Your tax position
- Your estate priorities
- The terms and financial health of the pension plan
We help you understand how each option may affect your broader retirement strategy so you can make an informed decision.
Protecting your spouse and family
Pension decisions often affect your entire household.
If you have a spouse, you may need to consider how much income would continue if either of you died first. Your plan may also need to account for differences in age, health, savings, pension coverage, and retirement timing.
Our team helps you consider:
- Survivor pension options
- Life insurance needs
- Beneficiary designations
- Estate liquidity
- Income needs for a surviving spouse
- Wills and powers of attorney
- Wealth transfer to children or grandchildren
A coordinated plan can support your lifestyle while helping protect the people who depend on you.
Planning for the retirement you want
Retirement gives you the opportunity to decide what you want the next stage of life to look like.
That may include travelling more often, buying a vacation property, helping children or grandchildren, spending more time with family, giving to charity, downsizing, or simply having more freedom over your time.
Your pension can provide an important foundation. A coordinated financial plan can help you understand what else may be possible.