Mortgage
Is your mortgage maturing? Four questions to ask before signing.
The renewal offer arrives by mail, with a date. Here is what a broker would ask before letting you sign.
Articles
Understand before deciding.
Short pieces on what comes up most in conversations: renewal, registered savings, coverage. No rate, no recommendation.Investments and savings
FHSA: what to know before you open an account.
The account combines two tax advantages that rarely come together. It also has strict rules, including a clock that starts the day you open it.
Exempt market
Exempt market: start with the risks.
The word “exempt” describes a prospectus exemption, not an exemption from risk. Here is what that changes in practice for an investor.
Mortgage
Five ordinary moves that derail a financing file.
None is a mistake in itself. All of them get made without thinking, in exactly the weeks when nothing should move.
Mortgage
The offer arrives by mail with a date on it. It is not the market rate.
What a renewal offer actually contains, why it is what it is, and the one thing to do before signing.
Mortgage
Same income, same job, smaller amount. There are specific reasons.
Four causes that cut borrowing capacity without any of your personal numbers having changed.
Mortgage life insurance
It is a checkbox ticked in three seconds at the counter. Here is what it does not do.
Four differences between the coverage offered with your mortgage and individual life insurance, worth knowing before you tick the box.
Life insurance
Three questions that reveal whether the proposed contract fits your situation.
No need to become an expert. Three questions are enough to surface what an illustration does not show.
Disability insurance
Excellent coverage. It does not belong to you, and it changes partway through.
Four checks to run on your group plan before concluding that you are protected.
Damage insurance
There is not one water, there are several. Each has its own endorsement.
Why that phrase tells you nothing, and the four questions that actually do.
Damage insurance
Your landlord’s policy covers neither your belongings nor your liability.
The costliest misunderstanding in home insurance, and what a tenant policy actually covers.
Travel insurance
You may already be covered. Partly, and with conditions.
Three existing sources of coverage, their usual limits, and what is left to fill.
Investments and savings
The deadline is about the deduction, not the investment.
What you are actually buying by contributing the day before the cutoff, and the two decisions not to conflate.
GICs
The principal is guaranteed. Your access to that principal is not.
The difference between safety and liquidity, and the three questions to ask before locking money away.
Exempt market
Four signals that, on their own, are enough to end a conversation.
None of these has a legitimate explanation. Recognizing them takes seconds; verifying takes minutes.