The Results Are In From The Financial Survey!

Earlier this year, I wrote about a survey BDO Canada LLP was conducting to assess the impact of financial and wealth trends. Many of you took part in this study – thank you very much for your tremendous participation and input. Some of you received a free copy of my book Let’s Get Blunt About Your Financial Affairs for participating. I hope you enjoyed the book and found some useful financial tidbits.

The survey results are now in and they provide exactly the type of perspective I had hoped to glean. Almost 1000 Canadians contributed to provide a trove of valuable insights on how we deal with family, finances and retirement planning. Very interestingly, a significant number of the survey respondents were small business owners. As such, BDO decided to create two reports:

• one for small business owners, which was just released on November 21st titled "From Plan to Retirement: How Business Owners Manage Their Wealth, Lives and Legacies
• a second report, for non-business owners which will be released in early 2018.

The current report, which is very timely given the recent Liberal tax proposals for private business owners, focuses on the challenges they face in managing their wealth. If you are a business owner, I suggest you download the report which can be found here.

While this report centers on business owners, it delivers some great tips and strategies for all Canadians. Jonathan Townsend, the National Wealth Advisory Services leader for BDO Canada LLP provides a synopsis of the report in his guest post below. 

From Plan to Retirement: How Business Owners Manage Their Wealth, Lives and Legacies  By Jonathan Townsend

Business owners occupy a unique space in Canadian society. On the one hand, they share concerns with most hard-working Canadians who receive a paycheque from their employer. They strive to get ahead. They balance current-day spending with future financial needs. They worry about their family. Sometimes they worry about their health.

But business owners are also a tribe to themselves, lacking workplace standards like employer-sponsored pension plans and paid vacation allotments. The entrepreneurial tendencies that initially called them to business ownership only deepen when faced with the reality of “eating what they kill.” As their business moves through the business life cycle, their independent experience affects all aspects of their lives.

This is where this new report by BDO Canada excels: in contrasting business owners with non-business owners. Using survey results provided by almost 1000 Canadians of both groups, the report analyzes key points along the retirement/wealth management journey for business owners, from speed bumps to roadblocks to open roads under clear skies.

Among the key findings from our study:

• Preparedness - Business owners plan more for retirement than non-business owners but feel less on track

• Work in retirement - Almost one-third of business owners plan to work part-time after retirement — compared to 12 percent of the general population

• On succession - More than one in three business owners in our study plans to retire in the next five years. Without the right succession planning, these businesses are at risk of adversely affecting the owners, their families, employees and the wider Canadian economy

• On family - Financial support for children was more common among the business owners we surveyed than among non-business owners

These results — and strategies highlighted in the report — provide takeaways to fold into your own successful planning. I invite you to download the report here.

Jonathan Townsend is the National Wealth Advisory Leader at BDO Canada LLP. If you have any questions, please contact him at 519-432-5534 or jtownsend@bdo.ca

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