Jerome Bitun

Life insurance, especially Permanent Life insurance like Whole Life and Universal Life Insurance is one of the most underrated tool that one can use as a savings vehicle. Depending on the type of insurance used, you can get returns like you get from a GIC or like a mutual fund with he added benefit that the returns in a life insurance policy are tax deferred or can potentially be tax free. These are some of the benefits of a life insurance policy with cash values. Did you also know that the cash value in a life insurance policy is also protected from creditors? All life insurance policies and life insurance products like segregated funds offer creditor protection if set up properly. This is because there is a designated beneficiary in the policy. However, for a life policy to be properly protected, the beneficiaries have to be set up properly. Bankruptcy I recently came upon a client who is undergoing bankruptcy. The bankruptcy happened because of a divorce and the ex-wife is now en

When you're planning for retirement, first, cover your basic needs. Basic needs are income you need to cover the basics like food, clothing, shelter, etc. Watch this short video on how to plan to cover your basic needs. If you are interested in learning more, ask me how you can set one up for yourself.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 14,700.80 today which is just off its all-time high. It has surpassed where it was before the 2007 financial crisis. It took about 6 years for the market to get back to even and the lesson here is that investors who are in it for the long term (10 years or more) usually do okay. When the market started crashing in late 2007 all the way through 2009, a lot of investors left the equities market and went into bonds or GICs. While it is prudent to protect your capital, the problem is, these same investors were slow to get back to the market. At its peak in 2007, the Dow Jones was at 14,093.08 and went down as low as 6626.94. It’s impossible to time the market and nobody knew 6547.05 would be the bottom of the market. But as the market started coming back from the low, investors were still sitting in bonds and GICs. When the Dow Jones hit 8,000, people were still in the sidelines waiting and being cautious. At 10,000, people start

Here are some helpful information on who to contact from the Richmond RCMP in case you lose some of your IDs. Birth Certificate* Call Vital Statistics: 250-952-2681 (Victoria) or visit: www.vs.gov.bc.ca/births/certificate.html Driver’s License Replace your license in person at any driver licensing office. You will need to bring: one piece of primary and secondary identification and the replacement fee of $17.00 Passport Call: 1-800-567-6868 or visit: www.passport.gc.ca/planification/203.aspx?lang=eng Medical Services Plan card Health Insurance BC 604-683-7151 (Vancouver) or 1-800-663-7100 Auto insurance papers Contact your auto insurance agent. Citizenship papers Call Citizenship and Immigration Canada: 1-888-242-2100 or visit: www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/guides/5545E2.asp Permanent Resident Card “Landed Immigrant” Card Call Citizenship and Immigration Canada: 1-888-242-2100 or visit: www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/applications/prcard.asp

Happy New Year! I apologize for not writing lately. I've been busy and had not had time to write anything. Also, there hasn't really been much news to report so I haven't had anything to write about. However, I want to inform you of two things today which would be important going forward. Inflation and new TFSA limits. Inflation Inflation is defined as a general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money. As I have discussed before, the biggest risk we all face since the financial crisis of 2008 is going to be inflation. We all know now that market risk is there (up and down of the stock market). But for the longest time, we've never really had to deal with a lot of inflation since prices were quite stable from 1990 to 2002. We started seeing inflation after gold and oil went up in price. Most of us ignore it, but now it's impossible to ignore. Everything cost a lot more and most things feels like it cost double what it was 10 years ago