Advisor helps 74-year-old client, wife plan for what’s next

As the adage goes, if you find a job you enjoy, you will never have to work a day in your life. For James, that still rings true, one month before his 75th birthday.  

For decades, he’s provided advice on crop production and farm management to Canadian agribusinesses and farmers. While his wife Sharon decided to fully retire recently, James decided to scale back his hours but keep working.

That’s allowed him to spend more time with his family and focus on serving clients he enjoys working with the most. One of those is a dairy farmer launching an ice cream business. He admits he’s sampling as much as advising.

James said he and wife Sharon couldn’t plan their next phase without financial advisor Sarah Mulder. Though he’d been managing their investments through an online broker for several years, the couple decided they needed help with a financial plan. Sharon wanted to start drawing down her retirement savings and James wanted to start taking mandatory RRIF withdrawals while working part-time. Mulder was recommended by their son. 

“I don’t regret that for one minute, … it’s paid off in terms of returns and it’s paid off in terms of reducing the stress and providing some certainty,” James said. 

The decumulation plan 

• The expert: Sarah Mulder, a senior investment advisor with Harbourfront Wealth Management in Winnipeg.

• The clients: James, a 74-year-old man in the Prairies who consults part-time for clients in the agriculture sector, and his wife Sharon, who is fully retired. (Their names have been changed for this story.) 

James and Sharon like that Mulder has both the chartered professional accountant and certified financial planner designations, and that her focus extends beyond investments. 

“We mentioned that we have an accountant that we’ve worked with for the last 20 years,” said James. “[Sarah] said, ‘Let’s get together. Do I have permission to talk to your accountant?'”

That impressed James and Sharon.

“She had quite a different approach … than some of the other wealth management organizations I’ve talked to,” he said. “We felt very comfortable after having our initial discussion with her.” 

Mulder started with cash flow. She asked how much money they need, and did they have any large expenses coming up.  

She learned that they have “more than enough” to fund their retirement, but James still wanted to consult part-time. Sharon was ready to fully retire. 

James’ desire to continue working at 74 is “pretty rare,” Mulder said, noting that only two or three of her other clients are continuing to work through the traditional retirement years.  

But James said the shift to part-time consulting has given him enough flexibility to work when he wants to and still find time for woodworking, travel, birding and the couple’s seven grandchildren.  

“We’ve got lots of things to do. But at the same time, if I was to quit work completely, I think I would find it really stressful,” he said. “My health is good. My dad lived to be 97, my mother lived to be 98. I think I have a little bit of a runway ahead of me.”  

The numbers 

The couple sold a farm in 2024, which Mulder determined would have tax implications for that year. By speaking with the couple’s accountant, she got a comprehensive picture of their financial situation. 

“We [took] a deep dive into all the financial aspects of their life as well as their goals,” she said.  

With all that information, Mulder and the accountant began laying the groundwork for the couple’s plan.  

“What we wanted to focus on was managing their cash flow while minimizing taxes and finding that balance,” she said. “So, we wanted to structure their plan to take full advantage of any tax shelters, topping up their tax-free savings accounts automatically every year and using tax-efficient investments as much as we could.”

For 2024, they decided that Sharon — who’s not yet at the age to convert her RRSP to an RRIF — would max out her RRSP contribution limit and use “a little bit of that going forward, so we can preserve some RRSP deductions for future use.”  

Going forward, Mulder said she expects to use techniques such as income splitting to ensure the couple’s taxes are minimized. 

“You can shift retirement income so funds coming from RRIFs or even pensions can be split between the spouses,” she explained. “So, say one spouse is in a higher bracket, we can bring them down by shifting some of that income to the lower income spouse.” 

Mulder said she’ll meet with the couple again in the fall to get a better idea of how much James will make this year from consulting, which will allow her and the accountant to decide what tax saving strategy makes most sense and update their plan. 

“We want to make sure they’re kind of at a similar income level, so we may draw down out of her registered accounts as well to bring her income up a little bit, and kind of start picking at her side,” Mulder said. “When we’re sending them, let’s say, a retirement paycheque every month, it’s coming from their non-registered investments. … We [will] continue to fund the non-registered investments from their registered [accounts].”  

With Mulder’s help, James said he and his wife figured out that they’ll need at least $2,500 a month after taxes to maintain their lifestyle. But if they need more for home repairs, for example, they can make adjustments. 

Bring in professionals 

Mulder believes strongly in partnering.  

“Don’t hesitate to collaborate with clients’ other professionals,” she said. “Accountants are particularly useful with these types of situations, especially when there’s additional legwork that needs to be done for a big transaction, like selling a farm.”  

Getting to know clients beyond their finances is also beneficial, she said. 

“Really getting to know them and having that relationship where you can, yes, talk about business, but you also are getting to know them on a personal level, and knowing what really makes them get up in the morning is important too,” Mulder said.  

James said he values professional advice.  

“Getting professionals involved is really, in my mind, critical, because they’ve got ideas, they’ve done this before,” he said. “And with the way the world is going with Trump and everything else, I was thinking, ‘He could do something tomorrow that would knock my investments out the door,’ so I just felt the timing was right.” 

His advice for people who want to continue to work past 65 is simple: “Go for it. Do the things that you love doing, as long as it doesn’t impair what your partner wants to do.”