The use of registered plans to reduce income taxes is a key component of financial planning, and the decision on which types of investments to hold in each type of plan should be considered as part of your portfolio construction and management. Because of the difference in the tax treatment of different types of investment income and registered plan contributions and withdrawals, the mix of assets that is ideal for one type of plan will not be the same as the ideal allocation to other plans or your taxable investment portfolio. So ideally your financial planning would be done first, thus determining which registered plans should be used, then investments should be selected to fill each of the available registered plans before investments are held in taxable form.

Through our dealer, Worldsource Financial Management Inc., we are independent of any bank or investment management firm, and there are few financial institutions or investment funds we cannot access.

However, with access to the thousands of investment funds available in Canada, the choices can be overwhelming. Our investment committee helps simplify this for you by narrowing the choices based on a rigorous selection process to ensure we are recommending fund managers whose track record of performance has consistently been among the top of their peer group for similar mandates.

Our process uses quantitative analysis sourced from an independent CFA firm, as well as subscriptions to Morningstar and Globe Information Services. We then apply a qualitative filter to ensure that manager changes and management team capabilities are taken into account. We end up with 2 or 3 top choices for each asset class or balanced portfolio mandate, depending on whether your goal is to minimize risk or maximize return.