April 29, 2024

Federal Budget 2024: Changes to the Capital Gains Inclusion Rate and the Home Buyers’ Plan (HBP)

We have adjusted the app to reflect these two changes proposed in the last federal budget and subsequently harmonized by Quebec:

First, the budget proposes to increase the capital gains inclusion rate for individuals from 50% to 2/3 for realized capital gains in excess of $250,000 in any year, effective June 25, 2024. The $250,000 threshold will apply to capital gains realized after the deduction of capital losses of the year or of other years.

We take this opportunity to remind you that the app allows you to enter capital gains and losses realized since the beginning of the year of calculation, as well as unused capital losses of other years, on the “Financial Data/Income Taxes” page.

With respect to the HBP, the budget proposes to increase the withdrawal limit from $35,000 to $60,000 for withdrawals made on or after April 17, 2024. In addition, a temporary repayment relief is proposed for participants making their first withdrawal between 2022 and 2025, inclusively. This relief will defer the start of the 15-year repayment period by an additional three years.

April 23, 2024

Institute of Financial Planning Assumption Update

The Institute of Financial Planning and FP Canada have jointly published the “2024 Projection Assumption Guidelines” today.

You can select these assumptions today in the application for your assumption sets by visiting the “Assumptions/Select and Edit” page. New assumption sets will now use the 2024 assumptions by default.

April 10, 2024

New Feature: Part-time Work

If you’re thinking of working part-time or reducing your working hours before your full retirement, the app can now help you plan your phased retirement and enjoy life sooner.

In fact, you can now indicate your current percentage of working time and vary it in the future as many times as you like. You can also use this option for parental leave or seasonal work.

For members of a defined benefit pension plan whose pension is based on an average salary (the RREGOP, for example), this new function will provide greater precision when calculating future years of credited service and average salary.

If you are employed, you can enter information on your current and anticipated working time on the “Financial Data/Occupations/Compensation” page.

February 14, 2024

New Solver: Should I Delay the Start of My Government Pensions?

Did you know that you can defer payment of your government pensions beyond age 65? When you choose this option, the pension will be calculated by applying an adjustment factor that varies according to the number of months of deferral and the maximum deferral age. The adjustment factor can be as high as 136% for the Old Age Security (OAS) pension and 158.8% for the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) pension.

A new solver has been added to the app to help you determine whether to delay the start of these pensions. With a single click, the solver presents you with the combination of payment commencement ages that maximizes your projected net asset value, in today’s dollars.

Deferral of government pensions is a topic that regularly makes the news. However, the suggestions offered don't necessarily apply to everyone. Fortunately, this unique new tool allows you to validate whether you should delay your government pensions by considering your own situation. It’s the most powerful and comprehensive tool in the industry for answering this question.

You can try out the new solver in the “Optimizations” section and see how you can improve your decumulation strategy!

January 31, 2024

New Solver: How Effective Are My RRSP Contributions?

A new solver has been added to the app. This solver will help you determine how tax effective is your personal RRSP contribution strategy.

With a single click, the solver shows you the financial impact of your strategy on your projected effective income taxes and net asset value, in today’s dollars.

It’s a unique new tool that not only helps determine the suitability and amount of your RRSP contributions compared to other types of investment such as TFSAs and non-registered investments, but also helps understand the impact of these contributions on your decumulation strategy.

If you’re still in your accumulation period, you can try out the new solver in the “Optimizations” section, and see how you can maximize the effectiveness of your retirement savings!

January 26, 2024

Changes to the Québec Pension Plan (QPP)

Changes have been made to the QPP as of January 1, 2024, and we have adapted and improved the app to reflect this and better serve your needs.

In line with the new rules, the app will now allow people aged 65 or over to stop contributing to the QPP after their QPP retirement pension begins, even if they continue to work. In addition, the pension protection measure calculated at age 65 has been incorporated into the calculations. Finally, you can defer the start of your QPP pension until age 72, and benefit from a positive adjustment factor until that age.

We’ve also made some improvements to allow you to test a wider range of scenarios. You can now project receiving your QPP pension before the end of your employment or self-employment. Furthermore, if you choose (or need) to continue contributing to the QPP afterwards, a retirement pension supplement will be added automatically.

You’ll find the options associated with the start of your QPP retirement pension and its contributions on the “Strategies/Decumulation” page.

With these enhancements, we’re confident that no other financial planning tool in Québec is able to provide such a personalized estimate of an individual’s QPP retirement pension, and help them choose the best time to request payment of their pension as part of an integrated decumulation strategy.

December 8, 2023

New Option for Automatic Transactions

To further customize your accumulation and decumulation plans, you can now cap annual automatic transactions. This allows you to test automatic strategies that go beyond transaction priority.

For example, in accumulation you can continue to prioritize RRSP contributions, but apply an annual cap to leave room for the TFSA. In decumulation, you can similarly prioritize RRSP withdrawals while applying a maximum to avoid excessive income taxes in any one year.

This new option has been added to the “Priority of Transactions” tables on the “Strategies/Accumulation” and “Strategies/Decumulation” pages.

November 29, 2023

Annual Regulatory Data Update

The Canada Revenue Agency and Revenu Québec have recently published the main tax data applicable to the year 2024. We have therefore added this data to the application, which will be used as the basis for your next projections.

Similarly, Retraite Québec will be publishing the complete data for the Québec Pension Plan for the year 2024 in the next few days. We’ll be making these changes very soon as well.

November 28, 2023

Enhancements to Our Income Tax Models

Income tax is the cornerstone of sound financial planning, which is why we’ve enhanced our tax models to a level unmatched by any other web app available to Quebecers. Here are three key enhancements to make your financial planning even easier.

Firstly, the app will now calculate several new government credits and benefits payable during the year, including advance payments of the work premium tax credit, the solidarity tax credit and the family allowance at the provincial level, as well as their equivalents at the federal level. The app will also calculate the Old Age Security Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) and Allowance if you choose to consider them. You can enter the amounts you currently receive or choose to consider the GIS on the “Financial Data/Revenues/Credits and Benefits” page. You can also view projected amounts on the “Projections/Financial Statements/Income Statement/Revenues” page.

Secondly, the app will calculate several new credits (e.g. child care expenses, medical expenses and the senior assistance tax credit), making ffPro.ca the most comprehensive financial planning tool for individuals in Quebec. You can consult the list of factors considered on the “Income Tax Models” page. For expenses with tax implications, we’ve added information to the “Financial Data/Expenses/Household” page to help you enter them in the right place.

Finally, we’ve added the notion of effective income taxes. This is a measure that takes into account Government credits and benefits payable as a result of income for the taxation year. It is a more comprehensive measure for decision-making, as it considers the impact of an RRSP contribution or additional taxable income on these credits and benefits. We’ve added a tab to the “Projections/Plans” page on this subject. More details on the calculation of effective income taxes, as well as a marginal impact analysis, can be found in the “Projections/Income Tax Returns” section.

We’re particularly proud of these changes, which make the app more relevant to a greater number of Quebec families.

August 8, 2023

Improvements to the Main Menu

To improve the user experience, we’ve modified the behaviour of the main menu when it’s open. Submenus will now appear in accordion mode in the menu area when you click on the submenu icon. In addition, the selected page will appear in yellow if it is part of the menu structure.

This change also helps to lighten the main content of the page by limiting the importance of contextual navigation links when the menu is open.

July 27, 2023

Addition of a “Quick Start”

To enhance the user experience at registration, we’ve added the “Quick Start” feature. This is a guided process for entering the minimum information required by the app and learning how it works and its basic settings.

This important enhancement is part of a series of changes designed to make the app accessible to a greater number of individuals.

If you are already registered with the app and would like to experience this new functionality, please contact us.

June 15, 2023

New Optimization Mode: Solver

The “Optimizations” section now offers a new optimization mode called Solver. With a single click, it helps to solve a specific question, such as how much can I afford to spend?

The solver is being launched with two questions to start, but more will be added in coming releases. Give it a try!

June 15, 2023

Launch of ffPro.ca Express

The Express version of ffPro.ca is a free and simplified version of the app that showcases the incredible potential to plan your financial future with the full version.

The Express version is based on the new optimization mode, Solver, and with a minimum of information, quickly helps to answer the question that we all want to know: when will I be financially independent? This is the first of its kind for financial planning solutions in Quebec!

You can access the Express version from the home page (when disconnected) or by visiting ffPro.ca/Express. Try it out and tell your friends!

April 28, 2023

Institute of Financial Planning Assumption Update

The Institute of Financial Planning and FP Canada have jointly published the “2023 Projection Assumption Guidelines” today.

You can select these assumptions today in the application for your assumption sets by visiting the “Assumptions/Select and Edit” page. New assumption sets will now use the 2023 assumptions by default.

April 11, 2023

Revenu Québec’s 2023 Budget: Tax Data Update

The provincial tax data of the application were updated following changes announced by Revenu Québec in its latest budget.

The changes concern the reduction of the personal tax rates applicable to the first two taxable income brackets as of 2023, the decrease in the conversion rate for the calculation of certain tax credits as well as an increase of the amounts granted for the calculation of certain tax credits.

For details, please visit the Revenu Québec press room.

April 4, 2023

New Type of Investment: FHSA

The Tax-Free First Home Savings Account (FHSA) has been in the news since the federal government proposed it in its 2022 budget. This legislation is now in effect as of April 1, 2023.

We are proud to announce that ffPro.ca already allows you to simulate the opening of a FHSA and to add this account to your balance sheet when it is opened. You can also set up contribution, contribution deduction and withdrawal strategies.

A “Step-by-Step” learning module titled “Set a FHSA Strategy” has been added to guide you on this subject.

March 15, 2023

More Transparent Scenario Selection

For users using multiple scenarios, we have simplified the selection process in the “Projections”, “Optimizations” and “Reports” sections. From now on, you will only have to choose the scenario and the individuals for which you want to view the results.

If you are adding (or cloning) an assumption, financial data or strategy set, you will now have to create an additional scenario in the “Scenarios” section before you can call up the projection, optimization or report generation. The first scenario, i.e. the default (or base) scenario, is created automatically when the family is created.

This approach will allow greater transparency on the scenarios associated with the projection results.

March 6, 2023

New Navigation Tool

To facilitate navigation and to allow a better understanding of the application’s data structure, we have added a tool (the breadcrumb trail) at the top of each page allowing you to locate yourself in the data structure and navigate more easily through its hierarchy. This also simplifies the contextual navigation options.

The data hierarchy is not necessarily structured like the main menu. For example, the “Individuals” section is below the “Families” section in the data structure, whereas these sections are presented at the same level in the main menu to facilitate movement through the menu.

February 28, 2023

Enhancements to Term Deposit and GIC Strategies

Given the growing interest in term deposits and GICs in the current economic climate, we have enhanced the application to allow you to customize accumulation and decumulation strategies around these investments, just like your portfolio assets.

If you own these assets, you can adjust your strategies by visiting the “Strategies/Accumulation” and “Strategies/Decumulation” pages.

February 9, 2023

New Feature: Transferring Cash to a Spouse

ffPro.ca now allows you to transfer cash to a spouse during the projection if the spouse’s cash balance is insufficient. This provides an opportunity to better reflect the reality of many couples and reduce the cost associated with short-term borrowing during the projection. Transfers will be recorded in the “Transfers to Relatives” and “Transfers from Relatives” categories in individual plans, as is already the case for transfers associated with splitting pension income.

To learn more and try this new feature, visit the “Strategies/Wealth Transfers” page and select an individual with a spouse.