Send Us Your Notice of Assessment

Most people file their return, receive the refund or pay the balance, and file the Notice of Assessment away, often unread.
It deserves a closer look. The NOA confirms how your income was actually assessed and surfaces the structural details we use in planning: contribution room, carryforwards, and instalment requirements for the year ahead.
Please send us your 2025 NOA at CaldwellGroup@RichardsonWealth.com. We will reach out individually over the coming weeks, but it's the most useful planning input we receive all year, and we'd rather work through it now than reconstruct it later.

What "Safe" Is Actually Earning

Cash and GICs have played an outsized role in Canadian portfolios over the last three years. With the Bank of Canada holding at 2.25% and top 1-year GIC rates around 3.30%, the headline yield might still look attractive.
The math after tax and inflation tells a different story. The chart below shows the real after-tax return on competitive GICs at a 40% marginal tax rate, across the last six years:

This is not unique to today's rate environment. GIC rates tend to move with prevailing interest rates, which broadly track inflation. The gross yield rises and falls, but tax and inflation rise and fall alongside it. The result is that a non-registered GIC tends to deliver a real after-tax return close to zero, or modestly negative, across most rate regimes. The principal is protected. The purchasing power is not.
This is not an argument against cash. Liquidity has real value, and short-term obligations should be matched with short-term instruments. It is an argument against drift, the slow accumulation of "safe" balances that quietly erode over multi-year holding periods.
If a portion of your portfolio has been parked in cash or GICs, this is the moment to decide whether it's still doing the job it was meant to do.

Coming Soon: A Masterclass for Incorporated Business Owners and Professionals

We're hosting a 60-minute session for clients and their guests:

Beyond the Basics: Advanced Tax Planning for Incorporated Business Owners and Professionals

Three of the most valuable tax planning opportunities available to incorporated owners: the Individual Pension Plan, the Capital Dividend Account, and asset location planning across corporate and personal accounts. Each is widely underused. Each compounds in value over time.
If there's someone in your life who'd benefit, please forward the invitation when it lands.
Registration details to follow.

Caldwell Group

Richardson Wealth Limited