Financial planning, AI and the Canadian file. Insights for advisors.
Practical guides on CPP/QPP and OAS timing, retirement income, tax and corporate planning, and where AI belongs in a planning practice.
From the PlanBase team.
Quick Reports or Full Plans: Matching Your Planning Software to the Meeting
Not every client conversation needs a forty-page plan. A client deciding when to start CPP needs a clear comparison. A couple asking whether to top up their TFSAs or their RRSPs needs an answer, not a binder. A business owner weighing sa...
The Future of Financial Planning Happens Before, During and After the Client Meeting
For most of the last two decades, financial planning has revolved around a document. The advisor gathers information, builds a plan, presents it, and revisits it a year later. The software was built around that rhythm: a long data-entry ...
Human in the Loop: Advisor Approval, Data Residency and Audit Trails for AI Planning Tools in Canada
Compliance conversations about AI tend to start in the wrong place. They start with the technology: which model, how accurate, how new. The questions that matter to an advisory practice are older than any of that. Who is responsible for ...
Where the Numbers Should Come From: Deterministic Engines vs Language Models in Financial Planning Software
Every AI feature in financial planning software eventually runs into the same question, usually asked by a compliance officer: where did this number come from?
What a Financial Planning Associate Does, and Why AI in Planning Should Work Like One
Ask an established advisor what changed their practice most, and the answer is rarely a piece of software. It is usually a person: the first associate they hired.
One Platform or Six Tools: The Hidden Cost of a Stitched-Together Stack
Almost no advisory practice chose its software stack. It accumulated one.
AI in Financial Planning: Capability Was Never the Hard Part
Every planning platform now has an AI story. The pitches have converged remarkably fast: the software reads the client's situation, produces the analysis, and hands you something close to a finished plan.
Flat-Rate vs Per-Plan Software Pricing: What It Does to Your Advice
Software pricing looks like a procurement question. It is actually a practice management question, because the billing model quietly determines how you use the tool.
Quebec-Ready Planning: What Software Actually Has to Handle
Ask most planning platforms whether they support Quebec and the answer is yes. Ask what that means in practice and the answers diverge sharply.
How to Evaluate Financial Planning Software as a Canadian Advisor
Most software evaluations go the same way. You book three demos, watch three polished presentations, compare three feature lists, and pick the one that felt best in the room. Six months later you discover the thing that actually matters ...
TFSA vs. RRSP in 2026: A Decision Framework That Actually Works for Every Client Type
"Should I put it in my TFSA or my RRSP?"
The Sandwich Generation Financial Plan: When Clients Are Caught Between Kids and Aging Parents
There's a growing segment of clients in their late 40s and 50s who are caught in a financial squeeze that didn't exist for their parents' generation at the same intensity: they're supporting adult children who can't yet afford to live in...
The Business Owner Retirement Blind Spot: What to Do With Corporate Retained Earnings
For many self-employed Canadians and incorporated professionals, the largest retirement asset isn't their RRSP or their home. It's retained earnings sitting inside their corporation.
Pension Income Splitting in 2026: Still the Most Underused Strategy in Retirement
Pension income splitting has been available to Canadians since 2007. It's not new. It's not complicated. And yet, according to CRA data, a significant proportion of eligible retirees don't use it, and many who do use it aren't applying i...
The RRIF Withdrawal Trap: Why Minimum Withdrawals Are a Tax Problem in Disguise
When clients convert their RRSP to a RRIF, the default assumption is simple: take the minimum each year and let the rest grow. It feels prudent. It preserves the account. It defers tax.
OAS Deferral to 70: The Case Most Advisors Aren't Making Strongly Enough
Most clients take Old Age Security at 65 without thinking twice. It shows up, they take it. But for a growing segment of healthier, still-working, or tax-burdened clients in their mid-60s, deferring OAS to age 70 is one of the highest-re...
What advisors are saying.
Real results from financial planners and independent advisors across Canada.
“Scenario Lab changed how I run client meetings. I build the comparison live on screen and the conversation closes itself. I went from 3-hour plan prep to about 20 minutes.”
“Enfin une vraie plateforme bilingue. Mes clients québécois reçoivent leurs rapports en français parfait — ça inspire confiance immédiatement et ça m'a fait économiser des heures chaque semaine.”
“The portfolio health check is something I've never seen anywhere else. Clients immediately understand what needs to change, and it starts the right conversation every time. Worth it for this tool alone.”
“The portfolio comparison tool is a game changer. It saves me money on separate tooling and keeps everything in one place. The report generator is so clean and easy for clients to follow. 5 stars.”
“WOW. This is exactly what our industry has needed. Everything in one place, built for Canada, actually bilingual. I don't know why this didn't exist sooner.”
“I've tried every planning tool on the market. Nothing comes close for Canadian advisors. The depth of the retirement modules, the bilingual reports, Finn catching things I miss — it's the full package.”