Sheena Magnotta PFP, QAFP - Financial Planner, Sun Life

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Sheena Magnotta PFP, QAFP - Financial Planner, Sun Life I help individuals and small business owners retire with confidence. I am pleased to be associated with WSC Financial Solutions.

These are my personal opinions and do not constitute professional advice nor do they reflect the official position of Sun Life. A clear connection: Your relationship with Sun Life can be viewed by copying and pasting the following link: bit.ly/3FevgFo. Advisors and their corporations conduct insurance business through Sun Life Financial Distributors (Canada) Inc. Mutual fund business is done with your advisor through Sun Life Financial Investment Services (Canada) Inc.

This is one of the first questions almost every business owner asks me.Salary or dividends isn't just a payroll question...
10/26/2026

This is one of the first questions almost every business owner asks me.

Salary or dividends isn't just a payroll question. It touches your RRSP room, your CPP, how you qualify for a mortgage, and how much tax your corporation pays versus you personally.

I worked with a client last year who had been taking dividends only for years because it was simple. Once we looked at the full picture, a mix made more sense for where she was headed.

There's no single right answer. It depends on your income, your goals, and what your corporation is doing with the money it keeps.

If you've never sat down and actually run the numbers on this, now is a good time.

What does your accountant have you doing right now, salary, dividends, or a bit of both?

10/22/2026

AI can be an incredible tool, but it should not be your financial advisor.

I learned that in a pretty funny way when I asked ChatGPT to translate a thank-you message into Italian for my family and it confidently gave me Spanish instead.

The message looked polished. It sounded right. I had no reason to question it.

That’s the danger with relying on AI for financial advice too.

It can give you an answer that sounds informed and confident, but it doesn’t necessarily know your full financial picture, your tax situation, your estate plan, your business, your family, or the long-term implications of the decision you’re making.

Use AI to learn, organize your thoughts, and come up with questions.

But when it comes to decisions about your money, there is no replacement for qualified advice from someone who understands your situation and can tell you when the seemingly “right” answer actually isn’t.

Retirement changes more than your schedule. It can change the rhythm of your relationship, too.One person may be ready t...
10/19/2026

Retirement changes more than your schedule. It can change the rhythm of your relationship, too.

One person may be ready to retire at 60. The other may want to work until 65.

One may picture more travel. The other may want to stay closer to home.

And then there are the financial decisions. When do you start drawing income? How much can you comfortably spend? What happens if one person lives significantly longer? What do you want to leave behind?

These conversations are easier to have before retirement decisions become urgent.

A strong retirement plan gives both partners a voice and turns individual expectations into a shared strategy.

Because retirement shouldn’t just work on paper. It should work for both of you.

If retirement is getting closer and you’re not sure you’re on the same page, book a free call with me. We can start looking at the decisions that deserve a conversation now.

Your corporation’s year-end is more than an accounting deadline. It’s a planning opportunity.Before the books are closed...
10/16/2026

Your corporation’s year-end is more than an accounting deadline. It’s a planning opportunity.

Before the books are closed, there may be decisions worth reviewing, including how you pay yourself, whether you have unused RRSP or TFSA contribution room, and whether there are balances or tax planning opportunities inside the corporation that deserve attention.

The key is timing.

Once year-end has passed, some planning options may no longer be available. That’s why I’d rather have these conversations before your accountant is preparing the return, not after.

Good planning is proactive. It looks at your corporation, personal finances, investments, and long-term goals together.

If your corporate year-end is approaching, book a free call with me. Let’s identify what’s worth reviewing before the deadline.

10/14/2026

Just because you CAN pay yourself a salary or dividends doesn’t mean you know which is right for you.

How you pay yourself from your corporation can impact your taxes, retirement planning and long-term financial goals.

And the right answer isn’t always one or the other.

It’s about having the right professionals working together to build a strategy that makes sense for your business AND your future.

Your accountant shouldn’t be the only professional involved in this decision.

Do you have the right team behind you? Let’s have a conversation about what that could look like. Send me a DM to connect.

Thanksgiving has a way of bringing us back to what really matters.As a financial planner, I spend a lot of time talking ...
10/12/2026

Thanksgiving has a way of bringing us back to what really matters.

As a financial planner, I spend a lot of time talking about numbers. Retirement income. Investments. Taxes. Estate plans.

But money itself is rarely the end goal.

It’s the freedom to spend more time with family.
The ability to help your children or grandchildren.
The confidence to retire on your terms.
The opportunity to give generously.
The comfort of knowing the people you love will be taken care of.

A good financial plan should help protect and support the life you’re grateful for.

So this Thanksgiving, I’ll leave you with one question:

What are you building your wealth for?

Wishing you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving.

A loss in your portfolio isn’t always just a loss. In the right circumstances, it may also create a tax-planning opportu...
10/08/2026

A loss in your portfolio isn’t always just a loss. In the right circumstances, it may also create a tax-planning opportunity.

Tax-loss selling involves selling an investment at a loss so that loss can potentially be used to offset capital gains. From there, you can decide how to reinvest in a way that still supports your broader investment strategy.

But this isn’t a strategy to use simply because an investment is down.

Your overall portfolio, tax situation, timing, and the applicable tax rules all matter. The goal is not to make a tax decision in isolation. It’s to make sure your tax strategy and investment strategy are working together.

Year-end planning is often about identifying opportunities before the calendar closes.

If you have investments in a non-registered account and want to know whether tax-loss selling could fit into your year-end strategy, book a free call with me.

Market drops are uncomfortable. But discomfort doesn’t mean your financial plan is off track.A well-built plan isn’t des...
10/05/2026

Market drops are uncomfortable. But discomfort doesn’t mean your financial plan is off track.

A well-built plan isn’t designed only for the good years. It should account for volatility, changing markets, your income needs, tax strategy, and the goals your money is ultimately meant to support.

The question isn’t simply, “What is the market doing today?”

It’s “Does my plan still support where I’m going?”

When your strategy is built around your life, not the latest headline, you can make decisions with perspective instead of emotion.

If market volatility has you questioning your retirement or investment strategy, let’s review the bigger picture together.

Book a free call with me to talk through your plan and make sure your strategy still aligns with where you want to go.

09/30/2026

You can be doing incredibly well financially and still have gaps you don’t know are there.

A strong income, successful business, investments, insurance, an accountant and an estate plan are all important. But the real question is: **is anyone looking at how all of those pieces work together?**

As your wealth grows, good financial planning becomes less about finding the next investment and more about making sure the decisions you’re already making are working toward the same goal.

Sometimes the biggest opportunities aren’t about making more money. They’re about finding what’s being missed.

Do you have a financial plan that looks at the full picture?

If not, let’s chat.

Saving for retirement gets most of the attention.But eventually, the question changes from "How much have I saved?" to "...
09/29/2026

Saving for retirement gets most of the attention.

But eventually, the question changes from "How much have I saved?" to "How do I actually turn this into income?"

Two people can retire with similar-sized portfolios and have very different experiences depending on where they draw their income from, how those withdrawals are taxed, and how their decisions affect things like government benefits.

A bigger portfolio doesn't automatically mean a better retirement.

The goal is to create an income strategy that allows you to enjoy what you've built while being intentional about taxes, benefits, and how long your money needs to last.

Because retirement isn't about having the biggest number on a statement.

It's about having the income to live the life you planned for.

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