Jillian Vukovich, IG Wealth Management

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Jillian Vukovich, IG Wealth Management

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Senior Wealth Advisor, CFP, MFA-P
IG Wealth Management Inc.

10/15/2026

Blended families change the estate planning conversation completely. In a first marriage with all biological children, a simple will often covers what's needed. In a blended family, it rarely does.

Without careful planning, a well-meaning will can accidentally leave out stepchildren, leave a second spouse without enough to live on, or spark conflict between a surviving spouse and children from an earlier marriage. Tools like spousal trusts, clear beneficiary designations, and documented intentions can prevent most of that.

It takes more thought than a standard will. It's worth every bit of it. If your family has been blended by marriage, remarriage, or new relationships, this is a conversation worth having sooner rather than later.

jvig.ca

10/14/2026

If you're in a higher tax bracket than your spouse or adult child, a prescribed rate loan is one of the more underused ways to legally shift investment income to someone taxed at a lower rate.

Here's the basic idea. You loan money to a family member at the government-set prescribed interest rate, they invest it, and any investment income above that interest cost is taxed in their hands, not yours. The loan has to be properly documented, and the interest actually has to be paid each year for it to hold up. Skip that step and the strategy falls apart.

It's not complicated once it's set up correctly. It's just easy to get wrong without help. If your family's income is split unevenly across generations, this is worth exploring.

jvig.ca

10/13/2026

I've spent a fair amount of this year in rooms full of donors, invited in by the charities themselves.

Here's why. Most people in that room have already decided they want to give. What they don't always know is how. The overwhelming majority default to writing a cheque, which is usually the least tax-efficient way to make a gift, for the donor and sometimes for the organization too.

My goal in those sessions is simple: same generosity, same cause, same amount if that's what someone wants, just a smarter structure behind it. Organizations are starting to see that a little donor education goes a long way. If your charity or board would find that kind of session useful, I'd be glad to talk.

jvig.ca

10/09/2026

This weekend, most of my clients will be around a table with the people their financial plans are actually for.

It's easy to lose sight of that in the day-to-day: the statements, the spreadsheets, the contribution deadlines. But underneath all of it is usually something much simpler. Wanting the people you love to be taken care of, now and after you're gone.

Whatever your Thanksgiving looks like this year, I hope it's full. And if sitting around that table reminds you there's a conversation about your family's future you've been meaning to have, I'll be here after the leftovers are gone.

jvig.ca

10/07/2026

There's a stretch of life a lot of my clients are living through right now: still raising kids, while also becoming responsible for aging parents. It's often called the sandwich generation, and financially, it's one of the most demanding stages there is.

You're covering your own household. Possibly helping with a parent's care costs. Still trying to save for your own retirement, which is arriving faster than it feels like it should. Something usually has to give, and too often, it's the retirement savings, because the other two feel more urgent.

A plan that accounts for all three at once, rather than treating them as separate emergencies, makes an enormous difference. If you're in the middle of this stretch right now, you're not the only one, and you don't have to figure out the tradeoffs alone.

jvig.ca

10/06/2026

Two business partners without a buy-sell agreement are one health event away from a very expensive problem.

A buy-sell agreement is a contract, usually funded by life insurance, that spells out exactly what happens to a partner's share of the business if they become ill, disabled, or pass away. Without one, a surviving partner can end up in business with a spouse or estate that never wanted to run the company, or scrambling to find the cash to buy them out at all.

It's one of those documents that costs very little to put in place and an enormous amount to live without. If you're in business with a partner and this has never been formalized, it's worth fixing before you need it.

Connect with me at jvig.ca

09/30/2026

Everyone knows they're supposed to have an emergency fund. Almost nobody enjoys having one.

It sits there, unused, earning less than your other investments. Until the furnace dies, the truck needs work, and the business has a slow quarter, all in the same six months. Then it's the only part of your plan that matters.

Its whole job is to exist quietly, so you're not selling investments at the worst time or reaching for a credit card at the worst rate.

Food for thought!

09/28/2026

Kids learn what to do with money the same way they learn anything else: by doing it, not by being told about it.

One of the simplest habits I've seen work: three jars, or three envelopes. Save. Spend. Give. Every time money comes in, birthday cash, allowance, whatever it is, it gets split three ways before anything gets decided.

The giving jar is the one that matters most and gets talked about least. It teaches a kid, in a way no conversation can, that some of what you have was never entirely yours to keep. By the time they're old enough to understand percentages and tax receipts, the habit is already built.

You don't need a financial plan to start this. You need three jars and a few years of consistency.

09/25/2026

One of the best pieces of financial advice I ever received had nothing to do with money.

Someone once told me: don't ask people what they want to buy. Ask them what they want their life to feel like. The money part sorts itself out once you know that.

It's stuck with me because it's true almost every time. Nobody actually wants a bigger RRSP. They want to stop lying awake doing math in their head. They want the freedom to say yes to their kid's wedding without checking a spreadsheet first. They want to know the business they built will still mean something after they're gone.

Numbers are just the vehicle. The feeling is the destination. If we've never talked about what you actually want your life to feel like, that's where I'd start.

09/23/2026

A charitable bequest, a gift to a cause written into your will, is one of the oldest tools in philanthropy, and still one of the most useful.

You can leave a specific dollar amount, a percentage of your estate, or what remains after your family is taken care of.

Done well, a bequest can also generate a donation tax credit that meaningfully reduces the tax owed by your estate.

It doesn't cost you anything during your lifetime.
It doesn't reduce what you can spend or give away while you're here.
It's simply a decision about what your estate does after everyone you love has already been provided for.

If a cause has mattered to you for years, your will is one place that can say so.

Address

Suite 120 5441 45 Street
Red Deer, AB
T4N1L2

Website

http://linktr.ee/jillian.vukovich, http://www.ig.ca/en/legal/disclosures/

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