PPI

Andrew Fink, CFP earns all the credit he gets as a leader. His leadership reasonates throughout HUB Financial Inc. . This excellent podcast is a joy to listen to. Bravo Andrew and master podcaster Reh Bhanji, CFP, CLU

Most advisors I know can quote the tax rules in their sleep. They know the products. They know the illustrations. They know the strategies cold. But put them across the table from a client who’s anxious about money, grieving a parent, or trying to have a hard conversation with a spouse about estate planning… And the technical knowledge only takes you so far. The soft skills are where the real work happens. How you ask a question without it sounding like an interrogation. How you listen in a way that makes someone feel actually heard. How you reflect what you’ve heard back to them so they know you understood. The language you use matters. The pace matters. The questions you choose matter. On April 28 at 9:30 AM Eastern, Advocis Ottawa and Advocis Ontario North are running a virtual session on exactly this. Jonathan Schjott from RBC Insurance and Randy Little from DFS Independent Network are leading it. Both have spent decades sitting across from clients and advisors. Both have watched what works and what falls flat. It’s called Conversations That Convert: Why Language Matters. Free for Advocis members. $35 for non-members. Link in the comments. If you want your client conversations to feel easier, and you want your clients to walk away feeling like they were actually heard, this is two hours well spent. Erin Meisner, CHS, PFA, MFA-P ⭐️Jodi Bodkin Lisa Hyman Advocis Advocis Ottawa Advocis Ontario North Lucas Di Rocco, CDMS-SMM Todd Boyd Jonathan Schjott, BA, CLU, CFP, CHS Randy Little, CFP®

Wanted: New FALUs Heather Yates and Giancarlo Vitagliano, FALU , making their way to AHOU: Association of Home Office Underwriters 25th Anniversary Meeting to be recognized along with other new recipients of this distinguished designation. This special AHOU also reunites past presidents including Nazir Damji and father of Aly Damji , my colleague and a leader at HUB Financial Inc. A special thanks to the great Stephen Cooley PartnerRe , as well as Steven Miller and Jeff Norman, FALU for their hospitality and support.

Met with an advisor last week who’s getting back into a networking circle he’d been away from for a while. He’s heading to an event. Business owners in the room. People who could move the needle in his practice. He asked me what he should say when someone asks what he does. Here’s what I told him. Don’t pitch. Nobody at a networking event wants your full value proposition. They want a reason to keep talking. Give them one specific thing. A strategy. A problem you solved. Something that makes them go, “wait, tell me more about that.” I walked him through a corporate insured annuity as an example. Is it the right strategy for everyone? No. But that’s not the point. The point is, someone at that event hears it and goes, “I need to know more.” And now you say, “Let’s grab a coffee. I’ll walk you through it.” That coffee isn’t really about the strategy. It’s about building the relationship. Doing a proper fact find. Figuring out how you can actually help them. The strategy got you the meeting. The meeting is where your real value shows up. That’s one example. There are plenty of others. Most advisors pitch. The ones who add value grow.

What a whirlwind. From hosting our amazing PPI advisor partners in Whistler at our BC Symposium, full of great conversations, new connections, inspiring presentations, and some unforgettable laughs, to CAILBA where I engaged with carrier and industry partners from across the country. Reconnecting with many from my previous chapter was a highlight; they continue to shape the industry and elevate how we serve Canadians. Finished off with a lucky Helijet ride home. Walking away inspired. Proud to represent an industry where great financial advice truly matters. #FinancialAdvice #FinancialPlanning #CAILBA #AdvisorCommunity #Leadership #Inspired #PPI

Fier d’être de retour à Montréal et de partager la scène avec Keith Newhook aux côtés d’un groupe exceptionnel de leaders de HUB Financial Inc. Keith et moi avons eu l’occasion de discuter du développement d’une offre stratégique en sélection des risques-un pilier central de notre proposition de valeur, visant à renforcer encore davantage le soutien offert à notre réseau de conseillers. Un merci tout spécial à Jean-Francois Murphy Filiatrault et Kristina pour l’organisation remarquable de cet évènement ainsi qu’à nos partenaires assureurs pour leur soutien, leur expertise et leur enthousiasme Proud to be home in Montreal and to share the stage with Keith Newhook , alongside an outstanding group of HUB Financial Inc. leaders. Keith and I had the opportunity to discuss the development of a strategic underwriting offering-one that will serve as a core pillar of our value proposition and further strengthen the support we provide to our advisor community. A special thanks to Jean-Francois Murphy Filiatrault , Kristina and HUB team for organizing such a successful event and to our carrier partners for their continued support, expertise and positive energy.

A friend of mine just lost a client. Not because he did bad work. He did great work. He set up the DI, the CI, the term, and a small Par for a business owner years ago. The plan was always to scale the Par as the business grew. The business grew. 8-figure exit on the table. This was the moment. The liquidity event. The bigger policy. The assets to manage. Then he got the message. The client’s accountant had referred him “out” to another Advisor for a “full review.” That’s a reverse referral. It’s a referral leaving your network instead of coming into it. And it will quietly gut your business if you let it happen. Here’s the part most people get wrong. They think great service is the moat. It isn’t. If you have first-rate clients, slick Advisors are targeting them every single day. Service keeps them happy. It doesn’t keep them yours when an accountant points them somewhere else. The fix isn’t being more likable. The fix is making sure your client’s accountant knows you exist, knows that client is yours, and feels a quiet unease about ever sending them out the door. You don’t need a referral arrangement with that accountant. You need them to think twice. Most people will do anything to avoid conflict. Use that. The horde is at the gates. Likability is not a defence. Full breakdown in the comments.

📣 new case law alert Kukna Estate v. Giasson 2026 ONSC 1842 RRIFS, TFSAs Not Subject to the Presumption of Resulting Trust 📣 It is with welcome relief that in the recent Ontario SCJ decision of Kukna Estate v. Giasson, Justice Horvat found that the presumption of resulting trust should not be applied to TFSA and RRIF designations. To come to this conclusion her Honour made the following findings: *Joint accounts under Pecore do not equal TFSA or RRIF beneficiary designations. An adult child does not have access to the proceeds of a TFSA or RRIF when named beneficiary during the lifetime of the account owner, it is only accessible on death as a named beneficiary. *Unlike joint accounts, a beneficiary designated asset is only available on the death of the asset holder making the intent at the time of the designation crystal clear. When intent is unclear with jointly held assets, using the presumption makes sense. *RRIFS and TFSAs cannot have joint ownership – while a TFSA can have a successor annuitant there is never simultaneous or joint ownership with a RRIF or TFSA, it’s not technically possible (affirming arguments made by Justice McKelvey in Mak (Estate) v. Mak 2021 ONSC 4415) *Unlike joint assets, RRIFS and TFSAs are subject to a contract between the institution and asset holder triggered on death, there is also no fiduciary relationship between the asset owner of a RRIF or TFSA and their named beneficiary (affirming Justice Murray’s decision in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Fitzgerald Estate v. Fitzgereald 2021 NSSC 355) *For Justice Horvat the fact that the account holder of a TFSA or RRIF can change their mind and change or update the beneficiary designation prior to death is a unique feature of these assets. I would add to that that in cases of joint bank accounts or jointly owned real estate, it is possible for the transferor to enter into a situation where the right of survivorship cannot be changed if the Court finds that the transferor intended that the asset pass to the other joint holder on their death at time of transfer. Courts in some provinces have found that an irrevocable “gift” of the right of survivorship (not technically a gift) occurred, barring the asset holder from changing their mind. **The argument her Honour made that should provide some comfort to my life insurance colleagues is that RRIFs and TFSAs are separate creatures of statute under the Succession Law Reform Act and that accordingly, beneficiary designation issues are properly subject to provincial legislation. This bodes well for anyone afraid of lititigation advancing arguments that the presumption of resulting trust analysis should extend to life insurance products which are governed by provincial Insurance Acts. Happy reading and as always, these are personal views, and please consult your tax and estate planning experts for case specific applications. Also this was not AI generated!

Back at our favorite spot in Ottawa today for lunch. Adam Bouchard from iA was in town, sharing some great insights on iA’s products. A few things even I didn’t know. Another great room. Another great meal. Another reminder of why these lunches matter. One of the things wholesalers tell me when they walk into a PPI room: it’s just easier to talk to the advisors here. Part of that is the rhythm. We do a lot of events. People see each other. A culture builds. We even just spun up a WhatsApp chat between the advisors because everyone actually wants to keep in touch between events. The other part is the work hard, play hard energy in the room. Everyone here is doing great work for their clients. Producing real business. So when they sit down with a carrier partner over a great meal, the conversation goes somewhere. Advisors learn how other carriers are approaching different cases. Wholesalers learn what’s actually happening in the field. And everyone leaves a little sharper than when they walked in. When our partners come into town, we love bringing them into the PPI family. They always seem to have a good time. We always learn something. Stephen Beckta C.M. you did it again. Thanks to Adam and the iA team for making the trip, and to the advisors who keep showing up. Matthew Roemer Matthew MacDonald Mike Brown CFA, MBA Alec Lui, CLU, CHS, MFA-P, EPC Michael Wills Timothy McWhinney, CFP CIM Kendall Harris Todd Taylor Mark Pahwa Jim Brownlee , CFP, CLU, CH.F.C. Eric J. Orr John Thanos