Trusted Tips and Resources

Trusted Tips & Resources

Trusted Saskatoon Financial Planners at Wiegers Financial & Benefits Help Keep Your Financial Plan Current

Wiegers Financial & Benefits is one of the largest private financial planning and employee benefits consulting firms in Saskatchewan. Its Saskatoon Financial Planning Division provides business owners, households, retirees, and students with expert investment and insurance planning services to help them reach their long-term financial goals. They also have a Benefits and Personal Insurance division. 

They explain everything you need to keep current in your financial plan in their latest Wiegers Financial tip. Wiegers Financial & Benefits are Trusted Saskatoon Financial Advisors 




Up to Date or Out of Date? Everything You Need to Keep Current in Your Financial Plan

It seems like just yesterday that we first started hearing about the COVID 19-virus, and now it’s been almost a year of uncertainty with only a blurry horizon in the future. What that horizon will look like, or when we will reach it, is still unknown but the hope is that we get there soon… and that we can hold our loved ones tight again!

As we all know, life can change in an instant, leaving our best-laid plans torn to pieces. However, it is critically important to pick up the pieces and find the new course we are to take so that despite the interruption, we can get to where we want to be. As a Certified Financial Planner with Wiegers Financial & Benefits for almost seven years, I have experienced with every client some kind of change in their lives and ultimately their financial goals. Given that life is not stagnant, it’s critically important that your plan and goals change with it to keep up.

What kind of life changes can impact your financial plan? Any number of things can change your goals but some of the most common changes are those concerning:

  • Job and pension
  • Income
  • Marital status
  • Dependents (children or elderly parents)
  • Real assets (e.g. primary residence or rental properties)
  • Other investments
  • Insurance policies
For instance, if you changed jobs due to COVID-19 or something else, your pension might have changed too, which will impact your projected retirement income. Without advising your advisor and potentially modifying your plan accordingly, you might find yourself behind, or ahead, of your retirement goals.

As another example, a change in your marital status or in how many dependents you have and who they are could make your beneficiary designations outdated. The last thing you likely want is for your insurance benefit to be paid to people you no longer want to receive it, or for any loved ones – including children – to be left out (and potentially taking the issue to court in an attempt to get it sorted out in their favour). Given that the solution to avoiding this kind of upset is a simple beneficiary change, it makes a world of sense to ensure that you regularly review your beneficiary designations to ensure that they remain current with your plans and wishes.

Life changes; so should your financial plan. If you have any questions or wish to review your financial plan, please speak with your financial advisor.


Kim Chicoine, CFP, B.Comm.
Insurance Representative, Wiegers Financial and Insurance Planning Services Ltd.
Financial Planner, Manulife Securities Investment Services Inc.


Contact Wiegers today for a no-obligation consultation to determine how they can help you.

Wiegers Financial & Benefits are Trusted Saskatoon Financial Advisors 

Trusted Saskatoon Group Benefits Advisors at Wiegers Financial & Benefits Explain Employee Wellness Programs

Wiegers Financial & Benefits is one of the largest private financial planning and employee benefits consulting firms in Saskatchewan. Its Saskatoon Financial Planning Division provides business owners, households, retirees, and students with expert investment and insurance planning services to help them reach their long-term financial goals. They also have a Benefits and Personal Insurance planning division. In this latest Wiegers Group Benefits tip, they explain flex benefits for employee wellness. Wiegers Financial & Benefits are Trusted Saskatoon Insurance and Group Benefits experts.

 

The Future is Flexible: Flex Benefits for Employee Wellness

A proper employee benefits program is a quintessential tool in helping to ensure employee health and well-being. As long as your employees utilize the program, it can help keep them healthy, happy, and focused at work. However, with the changing generations in the workforce – and the fact that millennials now comprise a majority of it – standard employee benefit programs need to change as well.

Younger staff are looking for flexible, digital offerings that let them get what they want out of a plan. They want solutions to support their mental health and wellness. A recent survey indicated that only 53% of Canadians indicated that their mental health was good or very good; this is quite a drop from last year’s report of 67%.[1] An easy solution is to provide an employee and family assistance program (EFAP). While counseling is at the core of an EFAP, it also has many other valuable mental health solutions for employees who are struggling.

A great way to combine the need for flexibility and for wellness is a flex account. A flex account is a pool of money that employees can direct to either a health or wellness spending account. A Health Spending Account (HSA) covers claims for health, dental, and prescription drugs, and is regulated by Canada Revenue Agency. A wellness account, on the other hand, allows you the flexibility of letting your employees choose what they want to be covered.

Some of the most common wellness expenses are gym memberships and sports fees but vet bills and even home office furniture can qualify too. This can be of huge value to employees when at least two-thirds of Canadian businesses have 60% of their staff working from home (and up to 55% of employees will continue to work remotely post-pandemic).[2]

Digital telemedicine offerings are another way that you can offer flexible wellness solutions for your employees. Available through the telephone or through an app, telemedicine offers your employees the ability to connect with a physician or nurse practitioner 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Canadians are showing higher satisfaction rates when meeting with a doctor digitally and many are even saying that they prefer a digital meeting as a first visit.[3]

Having a range of digital and flexible wellness options for your employees gives you not only a leg up on your competition for recruitment but also lets you take care of your employees’ physical and mental wellness. It’s an investment that for most employers, is well worth making.


Matthew Hill, B.A.

Benefits Advisor, Wiegers Financial and Insurance Planning Services Ltd.


Wiegers’ Benefits Consulting Division includes many consultants and support staff who custom-design the most employee-valued and cost-effective group benefit, personal insurance, employee assistance programs, and retirement plans available. Contact Wiegers today for a no-obligation consultation to determine how they can help you.

Wiegers Financial & Benefits are Trusted Saskatoon Insurance and Group Benefits Advisors 


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Saskatoon, SK   S7K 1N7
Ph: 306.244.4150

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