Estate Planning

Your Estate Needs Attention

Wealth is about more than just assets. It's about independence, financial success, and the ability to meet the needs of your family and support your favourite causes. Regardless of how much wealth you've accumulated or want to accumulate, your estate plan, like any important undertaking requires planning, skill and ongoing attention. You need an estate plan to:

• Reduce administrative expenses and legal fees on your death
  
• Preserve and leave a lasting legacy for your heirs, favourite charities and causes
• Control, manage and allocate who receives your assets on your death

Get Your Estate In Order

Estate planning ensures that your assets and earnings can do you the most good while you are alive, and enables you to provide for your heirs after your death. The three fundamental objectives behind creating a plan are to ensure you have adequate funds to cover estate costs, to conserve your wealth and to guarantee fair distribution of your assets upon death.

Explore Estate Planning Solutions

Insurance can provide solutions for estate taxes, the security of your heirs, and protection of your income if long-term or critical illness strikes. Some of these solutions include:

• Insurance Investing
• Life Insurance
• Accident & Sickness Insurance

Take Advantage Of Our Expertise

Your CIBC Wood Gundy Investment Advisor is attuned to the significance of each of the decisions you need to make, and more importantly, the impact they can have on future generations. Contact your CIBC Wood Gundy Investment Advisor, who can introduce you to a qualified Estate Planning Specialist (Financial Security Advisor in Quebec). To find out how we can help you, use our Find An AdvisorOpens a new window in your browser. tool to locate a CIBC Wood Gundy Investment Advisor near you.

Estate Planning With Insurance Products

Life insurance has a number of important uses in estate planning. Three key ways insurance proceeds can be used are: to create an estate; to provide proceeds to offset tax liabilities, and as an effective way to pass on your estate to heirs.

Creating an estate to provide for your family and loved ones is one of the most popular reasons for purchasing life insurance. When you pass away, insurance proceeds can help ensure your family has been provided for.

Providing insurance coverage to offset potential tax liabilities that are triggered upon your passing is another means of effectively using insurance coverage. If you have illiquid personal property, real estate or business assets that you would like to bequeath one option to provide for the tax liability is through insurance.

Finally, passing an estate to heirs through insurance products is another important use in estate planning. You may use all forms of insurance for this purpose: accumulation annuities and life insurance. By using insurance contracts and designating beneficiaries, you could provide an efficient transfer of a portion of your estate to chosen heirs because insurance products offer unique estate planning benefits. Insurance proceeds are not required to pass through the probate process when a beneficiary is named and are very tax efficient when used for estate purposes. This process expedites the transfer without undue delays, and it also helps to keep your financial affairs private because the asset does not have to be included in your Will.

Additionally, because the insurance proceeds paid to your named beneficiaries are not included in your estate assets, they are excluded from the management of your estate's executors. Again, you save any executor and legal fees associated with settling an estate.

A CIBC Wood Gundy Investment Advisor can help you review these options to determine how life insurance can be part of your estate plan.

Use our Find An AdvisorOpens a new window in your browser. tool to locate a CIBC Wood Gundy Investment Advisor near you and take the first step to achieving the financial future you want.