Chénard Wealth & Advisory

04/16/2026

Some days I miss posting regularly on social media about personal finance, tax strategies, and investing.

Truth is, when you stop the regular weekly posts, it can feel strange to post just one thing out of the blue. I sometimes reach for my keyboard, pause, and go "nah..."

Social media has changed a lot in the last few years, and that could be a big post in itself but I'll spare that (don't even get me started on those Chat GPT posters...)

So I'll share a couple of updates here:

This last year, I've been provided with more opportunities to dive in some tax planning for corporations, assessing various unique retirement planning scenarios, and navigating investment decisions with larger sums of money, which often involves mixed (often strong) feelings. Is now the right time? What if the market goes down? What if I need access to the money? How much cash is too much cash? The nuance when making these decisions is important, and weighing the risks and potential rewards carefully has been impactful work to be involved in and be trusted with. It's been a very, very busy year, and the deep financial planning work has been so, so rewarding on a personal and professional level - thank you.

On the business growth front - there are many ways to measure the growth of a financial advisory business, and a key one I've been focused on in the last year was growing our client assets under management. I'm thrilled that as of March 31, Chenard Wealth has grown by 32% in net assets invested since a year prior, equivalent to just under $7M in net assets or over $10M if you include market growth during that time. For a small independent firm like mine, those are meaningful numbers that make a big difference.

Even better, is that our firm growing means our clients money is growing along with it, to help them create a retirement income and long-term wealth. And often times, with meaningful improvements in their investment performance, fees, and/or tax planning from what they were doing previously. I can't think of a better win-win.

On the personal side, I'll be off on maternity leave starting in just a few weeks. We are expecting our second (another boy!) around late May. Everyone is healthy and well. Although it feels bittersweet to step aside from client work for the summer, I plan to fully embrace stroller walks, morning coffee on the balcony, and all the extra family time this summer will bring. So grateful to have a team to take care of things over the next few months (thanks Shurui and Tara!)

And in case you were hoping for a tax post... here is one on my LinkedIn about capital gains tax, CCA recapture, and alllll that fun stuff. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dominiquechenard_tax-season-is-actually-a-great-time-and-share-7450336323393015808-Ws_t?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAABmAHYkBZzvMqCC8n9j2UqxDenHUtC9D2ds

12/21/2025

"2025 has brought forward so much personal and financial growth for many of our long time clients.

It’s also been our firm’s biggest year for personal referrals from clients to friends, family, and colleagues, and growth in managed investments overall.

I’ve also noticed an increased interest in individuals seeking an independent financial planning firm, as a transition away from having investments at a more traditional financial institution.

Thank you to everyone that not only shares our contact information directly with friends and family that seek an advisor; but also to everyone that makes finance part of the conversation, when it’s not always an easy thing to bring up.

Whether it is: discussions about investing with your family and friends that have not started yet. Or discussions about planning for sickness and death with close family members.

And having open conversations within your household about short-term and long-term goals, setting a standard for how you utilize debt, make decisions for large purchases, and when to access access emergency savings.

Those are all key, and being part of making those conversations more mainstream encourages others to do the same.

I wish you amazing holidays, and look forward to continuing to work together in the new year."

^ From our wealth management client newsletter sent last week. I wanted to share it on our socials because the feeling goes out to everyone that has supported myself and the firm since day 1. Merry Christmas!

10/30/2025

Still have a few tickets for clients and their friends - reach out if you're interested :)

https://sleepinggiantbrewing.ca/product/midlife-lounge-at-the-barrel-house/?fbclid=IwY2xjawNwRtpleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFKSkZwSlhrNGVKUkhNZWhGAR4h0Jamim1eATP_WB0s-sMMfStFIfy6D-RbXiA0TrdhKAqBSaFNaXYsvZGc7g_aem_NiJ_lra5geBItZDbJe6QCg

09/03/2025

Preparing for the year-end as a business owner, is most often interpreted as: organizing your bookkeeping, and lining up someone to do your taxes. But as the business grows, the bookkeeping is happening year-round, and the same accountant does your taxes, those parts can be on auto-pilot. Leaving room for actual planning.

I remember before owning my own business, hearing of people "stocking up" on a bunch of inventory and large purchases before the end of their business year. As an accountant student at the time, I thought that was odd, as inventory isn't quite an "expense", nor is buying large pieces of equipment.

(read more below)

Preparing for the year-end as a business owner, is most often interpreted as: organizing your bookkeeping, and lining up someone to do your taxes. But as the business grows, the bookkeeping is happening year-round, and the same accountant does your taxes, those parts can be on auto-pilot. Leaving ro

08/20/2025

RRSPs have been a well-known tax savings tool for quite some time. For younger investors, they can often be a second thought, though; as there are now three accounts to consider:

- the FHSA (First Home Savings Account), created in 2023
- the TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account), created in 2009
- the RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan) (around since 1957!)

Having all these options provides opportunities for choosing the best fit for each specific person… but, can also create some overwhelm, and need for professional advice.

Let’s walk through some RRSP planning considerations if you own a business, as the account can be of great benefit for you to fund (yes, even if you have a corporation)

Read more here:

Dominique Chenard 2025-08-18 Dominique Chenard 2025-08-18 RRSPs as a business owner? Read More Dominique Chenard 2025-07-24 Dominique Chenard 2025-07-24 Staying Flexible - so underrated! One of the most underrated approaches when it comes to investing, is staying flexible. Read More Dominique Chenar...

08/12/2025

We had a great time golfing at the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce annual golf tournament!

We were paired with the folks at Trans-West Process Solutions - I think we made a great team 😄

08/11/2025

Growing your money is often done for "retirement". Or at least, it feels like that's the "right" goal for growing the money.

In the past week, we've had clients make withdrawals from their investments for:
- catching up on some unexpected lifestyle and home repair expenses
- paying the mortgage and family expenses attending school for career 2.0
- helping adult children with moving expenses

The best part is, all of those withdrawals were made from the growth portion of their investments (reinvested dividends, capital gains, and interest) - without having to touch the original investment.

Sometimes we can get stuck in the mentality that adding to investments = good, and removing from investments = bad. But it's all relative.

Building a retirement plan with a financial planner helps to put into perspective how much of your money to invest for retirement. The extra can be invested, and used, for your life today.

Let's not forget what this money is all for - and "retirement" is only one of many reasons to have your money grow.

07/23/2025

One of the most underrated approaches when it comes to investing, is staying flexible.

If you know a thing or two about investing, money that needs to be accessed within 1-2 years should often times sit in cash, to prevent a possible loss when you need the funds.

However, experienced investors that have a strong emergency plan (cash, access to low-interest debt, and critical illness / disability insurance), as well as more than one source of income, can remain flexible in their approach - allowing more dollars to grow.

A personal example here - we had a maintenance fund for our rentals with approx. $11,000 in it. A regular savings account, earning minimal interest.

I decided after re-assessing our financial situation, that should we need to spend upwards of $11,000 on maintenance for our properties, we have other places to access this amount, and are open to: financing; waiting for the market to recover; borrowing it from one of our corporations.

So, I chose to invest that amount into an all-equity TFSA on April 4, 2025. The S&P 500 is up 24.7% since that day already, so, this move happened to pay off in the short-term (not always the case with investing).

If you can get one take away from this post - it is that building your financial foundation, having a strong emergency plan, allows you to be bolder with your investing approach.

Many of our new clients come to us after feeling underwhelmed at their bank; being in a generic "balanced fund", while wanting a more in-depth look at their investing approach, tax planning, and retirement income planning.

If you think you could benefit from a chat, feel free to reach out here: https://www.chenardwealth.com/lead-form

06/26/2025

When working with clients that financed the purchase of a business, the #1 thing I hear is that their "profit" on paper looks nothing like what their bank account is saying.

This is because the principal payments you are making on your loan are not deductible from your income. So in any given month, your business may show a profit of $10,000, but if $5,000 went towards paying your loan, you will only see $5,000 in the bank.

This makes sense when you really think about it, but, today I want to touch on the tax planning aspect.

(To keep this example simple, I am ignoring the interest portion of the loan payment, and focusing on the portion that pays down the loan, the principal. The business owner will also pay himself via dividends instead of payroll, and I'm ignoring depreciation on the business assets).

This business owner with a profit of $10,000 a month, or $120,000 a year, would be taxed on the full $120,000 of income if their business is set up as a sole proprietor. Cash-wise, they "made" $60,000 this year, as the other $60,000 went to pay off the loan. But they pay tax on the full $120,000 - which results in $28,523 in income tax, and $8,068 of CPP, leaving them with only $23,409 after-tax to pay themselves. Ouch.

If you instead look at this same profit of $120,000 held inside a corporation, and the loan payments of $60,000 paid inside the corporation, the business owner pays corporate income tax of $14,640 at 12.2%, and has $45,360 available to pay themselves as a dividend. That is $21,951 more dollars, nearly double the money to show for it.

(Alright, sure, let's deduct a couple grand from this to show the extra accounting fees from incorporating. Still a win!)

The takeway I am hoping people get from this post, is that you don't need to make hundreds of thousands per year for incorporating to make sense. Simply financing the purchase of a business can be reason enough to have that conversation with an accountant, and check-in with your financial advisor to explore the impact on your personal cash flow, retirement plan, and estate plan.

If you're an incorporated business owner navigating the cash-flow crunch of financing your business, or a sole proprietor wondering if the switch to a corporation makes sense - I'd love to chat! Tax planning is my jam :)