Life insurance exemption test

Life insurance policies are subject to an annual test called the exemption test. If the policy fails the test, the policyholder could be subject to taxation every year thereafter. Since the exemption test was implemented almost 30 years ago, there have been a number of product innovations. The budget outlines proposed revisions to the exemption test rules to update it and to take away much of their tax benefits.

The Department of Finance will consult with the insurance industry on the proposed amendments, which is good news for both you and your clients. Any amendments will only apply to policies issued after 2013. There is no immediate change but after the deadline on January 1^st, 2014, life insurance in Canada will not be as tax effective as it is today for you and your clients.

Insurance Tax Minimizing Solution

The #1 insurance innovation in the last 30 years has been known in the market place as the 10/8 Life Insurance Tax Solution. Recently, CRA tried to attack it but the tax courts ruled in favour of the insurance companies and CRA was ordered to pay all their legal costs. With the changes in the life insurance exemption test, what CRA could not do in the courts, the federal government will accomplish with the changes in the approved formula for exempt funds allowed in a life insurance policy.

The Benefits for a client implementing the 10/8 insurance tax solutions have been:

• Your money would stay in Canada, where you can see it, touch it, feel it and smell it.

• Corporate deposits can be structured to be deductible.

• All personal deposits can be structured to be deductible over time.

• Large annual deductions are provided each year against income for the rest of your life.

• Money would be invested on a deductible basis, so the money grows tax-free. The individual retires tax-free, dies tax-free, and all the while having savings protected from creditors.

• The corporate or personal deduction creates a cash-on-cash return every year, year in and year out, in a plan where tax will never be paid as you use the funds for either retirement or investing.

In recent years clients’ needs have become increasingly varied and sophisticated, particularly so in the areas of wealth accumulation, management and preservation.  Satisfying these needs has become increasingly complex in today’s taxation and regulatory environment. At the same time, clients have become more knowledgeable and aware, and increasingly tend to focus on maximizing their economic wellbeing by managing their financial affairs as effectively as possible.

It’s important for public accountants to understand that if a client has a need, they will find a way to satisfy that need. The areas of wealth accumulation, management and preservation are no exception to this rule. Although it may seem logical to many clients that their accountant would address these needs, such is not always the case. Unfortunately, when accountants do address these needs, they often do so with a deficiency of knowledge and expertise.

It is well recognized that today’s public accountants practice in a litigious environment. Risk management is a mantra in the business world. To render advice without sufficient expertise or knowledge is worse than not giving advice at all. Not only does it create a real vulnerability from a litigation viewpoint, but it also exposes the practitioners to a possible breach of their professional rules by not sustaining their competence in those areas on which a client relies on them due to their professional status.

The reality is that whether or not they realize it, most public accountants are constantly practising in the areas of wealth accumulation, management and preservation and are on shaky ground when they do so.

The opportunities for delivering real value to clients are there for the taking, as are the traps for delivering poor, incomplete or as your client and their lawyers might argue, incompetent service. These opportunities flow from real needs which real clients have. To ignore them is to ignore the reality of the world in which we all practice today.

Readers should consider whether the 10/8 Insurance Tax Solution outlined above is appropriate for one or more clients, either to adopt or at the very least to consider before the proposed January 1^st, 2014 changes impact your clients and potentially your practice. If you have not addressed this issue with your clients, it could be argued that you have not been providing your clients with the most complete adv ice.

Be mindful

We all desire clients of means.  However, these same clients, if they find out that they have not received the advice they believe they have hired you to provide, have the means to sue. Now that you know, I don’t know why you would wait.

A Variable Annuity contract in the US is defined within the IRS code and is regulated by individual state regulators and by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Annuity contracts can only be issued by life insurance companies. Variable annuities are a contract created by the individual and an insurance company. The insurer agrees to make periodic payments to the annuitant, beginning either immediately or at some future date. In the US you purchase a variable annuity contract by making either a single purchase payment or a series of deposits.

Variable annuities have features of both Life insurance and investments.

A variable annuity gives an entire host of investment options. The value of your investment as a variable annuity owner will vary depending on the performance of the investment options chosen. The investment options for a variable annuity are typically mutual fund type investments such as stocks, bonds, money market funds, or a combination of the three.

How do variable annuities differ from mutual funds?

Variable annuities differ from mutual funds type investments in three important ways in the United States that one should be mindful of:

1)   They let an annuitant receive periodic payments for the rest of their life (or the life of their spouse or any other person they designate). This feature offers protection against the possibility that, after the  annuitant retires, they will outlive their assets.

2)   They have a death benefit. If the annuitant dies before the insurer has started making payments to the annuitant, the annuitant’s beneficiary is guaranteed to receive a specified amount – typically at least the amount of the purchase payments. The annuitant’s beneficiary will get a benefit from this feature if, at the time of the annuitant’s death, the account value is less than the guaranteed amount.

3)   They are tax-deferred in the United States. That means the annuitant pays no taxes on the income and investment gains from the annuity until the annuitant withdraws their money. The annuitant may also transfer money from one investment option to another within a variable annuity without paying tax at the time of the transfer. When the annuitant takes money out of a variable annuity, however, the annuitant will be taxed on the earnings at ordinary US Federal and State income tax rates rather than lower capital gains rates. In general, the benefits of tax deferral will outweigh the costs of a variable annuity only if the annuitant hold it as a long-term investment to meet retirement and other long-range goals.

How Variable Annuities Work?

A variable annuity has two phases: an accumulation phase and a payout phase. During the accumulation phase, you make purchase payments, which you can allocate to a number of investment options. For example, you could designate 50% of your purchase payments to bonds, 40% to stocks, and 10% to a money market fund.

The money you have allocated to each fund investment option will increase or decrease over time, depending on the fund’s performance. In addition, variable annuities often allow you to allocate part of your purchase payments to a fixed account. A fixed account, unlike a mutual fund, pays a fixed rate of interest. The insurance company may reset this interest rate periodically, but it will usually provide a guaranteed minimum (e.g., 4% per year).

Accumulation Phase: In the U.S. Internal Revenue Code unlike in Canada’s Income Tax Act the growth of an annuity value during the accumulation phase is tax-deferred and is not subject to current income tax for the annuity’s owner. The tax deferred status of deferred annuities has led to their common usage in the United States. Under the U.S. tax code, the benefits from annuity contracts do not always have to be taken in the form of a fixed stream of payments and many of annuity contracts are bought primarily for the tax benefits rather than to receive a fixed stream of income.

If an annuity is used in a qualified pension plan or an IRA funding vehicle, then 100% of the annuity payment is taxable as current income upon distribution.

Payout Phase: At the beginning of the payout phase, the annuitant may receive their purchase payments plus investment income and gains (if any) as a lump-sum payment, or they may choose to receive them as a stream of payments at regular intervals (generally monthly).

If the annuitant chooses to receive a stream of payments, they may have a number of choices of how long the payments will last. Under most annuity contracts in the United States, the annuitant can choose to have their annuity payments last for a period that they set (such as 20 years) or for an indefinite period (such as the annuitant’s lifetime or the lifetime of his or her spouse or other beneficiaries).

During the payout phase, the annuity contract may permit the annuitant to choose between receiving payments that are fixed in amount or payments that vary based on the performance of mutual fund investment options. The amount of each periodic payment will depend, in part, on the time period that the annuitant selects for receiving payments. Be aware that some annuities do not allow the annuitant to withdraw money from their account once they have started receiving regular annuity payments.

In addition, some annuity contracts are structured as immediate annuities, which means that there is no accumulation phase and the annuitant will start receiving annuity payments right after they purchase the annuity.

Remember: Before one of your clients, who are US residents purchase a variable annuity, you owe it to both them and yourself to learn as much as possible about how they work, the benefits they provide, and the charges that will make.

Over the last few days I have incubated in the recesses’ of my mind what self mastery means to me as I choose to personally define this concept, as a result of a conversation I had some times ago with a student, where I was ask the question: “What should I do?”

In the Merriam-Webster Dictionary the word mastery is defined as the “possession or display of great skill or technique.” For me that definition does not fully express what ignites a person to commit to mastering a subject or activity. The dictionary definition leaves out the motivation of the “why” behind anyone choosing to master any activity or subject matter at all.

I can only speak from my own personal point of view because I know of no other, which I would like to believe is derived from my own life experiences. I know that for me to invest time into anything which leads to my mastery of it, whether it reading, writing, work or a hobby, I need to feel a deep seated passion for it. This passion comes from deep within, it can never be imposed by outside forces because I know myself well enough to know that if I don’t feel it, the activity that is imposed on me, that I try to master will never be sustainable and enduring on my life journey.

For me to commit to master anything I need to see in my mind’s eye the value behind its mastery. It must have an intrinsic value that supports my greater plan/vision for my life which has no attachment to monitory gain. I chose to master for the achievement of my own satisfaction, that’s all. Other benefits that might be derived from mastering anything are only secondary benefits and sometimes maybe obstacles for achieving enjoyment from the self mastery itself. Then and only then could I see myself doing that activity for the rest of my life and for the purpose of learning the more integral aspects and details of what I have chosen to study to master. I have to have a powerful “why” behind what I choose to master. This “why” gives me the motivation to make the commitment to all the “hows” to achieving this mastery.

Another aspect that the dictionary definition of mastery does not address is how love plays into self mastery. Love to me is finding the good in any activity or person and moving in a direction that breeds more good. So if one finds something that they are both passionate about and love, they become more addicted to doing that activity that in return will bring them closer towards mastery. These activities feed on one another creating more passion and opportunity to create more love in one’s life.

The opposite of love and passion to me is what others call work or a slow soul death. I call work an enslavement which again is a slow painful death. When we are involved in work we feel our lives slipping away from ourselves while we trade our most precious asset that once spend will never return back to any of us. This asset is our time. We are only given so many sunsets and we never know when our time is up walking on this earth. So by committing our all to our purpose and self mastering to that which draws us to personal satisfaction is the key to what I think makes our individual heavens on earth.

When I reflect on what wasting our life is all about I can’t help myself but to think about Dr Seuss’ warning to future generations in his last and his most insightful book “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” It is about his take on life and mastery.  Dr Seuss’ had this to say on wasting our time doing the things we don’t like doing:

“I fear toward a most useless place. The Waiting Place…

… for people just waiting. Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for the wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just waiting.

No!

That is not for you! Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying. You’ll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing.”

I believe passionately that it is our personal responsibility that we get out of our own self created, self imposed Waiting Place/ our individual hell, by finding what we love to do. I have often said to myself that I have free will in so much as I have a choice to listen to what life tells me where I should point myself and be drawn towards. Or I can fight what I am called to do in this life and then suffer the consequences. I choose to exercise my freewill by committing to move towards what I love and I am meant to contribute to this life. The words that seem to rise up from within me as I write this thought are “fallow your path of least resistance, your purpose, and the universe will come meet you 99% of the way in achieving your soulful path of living out your purpose.”

Joseph Campbell, the famed author of “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, a study of the human basic story of the struggle we all face between birth and death from one stage of life to the next found throughout classical mythology the main universal truth described by ancients is if you want to find your happiness you must make the conscious commitment to “follow your bliss”.

Each person on this planet is as unique as a snow flack and we all have a gift/love to share with our world. It is when we perform jobs that deaden us because we think that this is what we are supposed to do because all of the other Worker Bees are doing it, is when we find ourselves in what Dr Seuss called the Waiting Place.

The Waiting Place to me is wishing that someone or some great power outside ourselves is going to lift us out of our misery. Through life experience I have learned to believe whole heartedly in the old adage “that if it is going to be, it is going to be up to me!” Mastery only comes about when we take total responsibility for our own lives and understand that there is no such thing as a failure or a free lunch. There is only feedback to what we do and think and everything in life is a learning experience that we need to cherish and be willing to spend the time to learn and earn to master.

In Kabbalah, the ancient mystical side of Judaism there is a concept that I have found very helpful while experiencing what others might choose to refer to as setbacks, the term is known as “The Bread of Shame.”

The Bread of Shame states that we cannot keep which we have not rightfully earned for ourselves. So for example a child who is born into a wealthy family and is given everything that one could imagine from his trust accounts to being over protected from personal failure by his or her parents, this individual is being denied his rightful life experiences that will support the position he has been gifted. Worst, I believe through the lack of hard and often painful experiences, horrors will be brought into his life. Such as drugs, or not finding a vocation that brings satisfaction or the loss of everything that has been given to him which has not been rightfully earned.

The Bread of Shame is the Jewish equivalent to the Chinese’s term Ying and Yang. For everything that we lose, we also gain and for everything we gain we also loss something of value. Only through our experiences will we learn how to navigate the ups and down of our lives and more often than not towards learning how to keep what we have earned by enduring our most worthwhile life experiences. Only through living and experiencing will one achieve a more rich and fulfilling life. An experience can never be lost, experiences are the only things in the universe that are truly our own while all else is either rented or transient.

The Most Powerful Word Every Conceived

President Johnson once said:

“The only things not known is the history we have failed to study.”

I believe in our modern society we have developed an arrogance. Our society teaches us to believe our modern world is more advanced than all previous generations, like we hold the corner on universal truth while past generations were ignorant of truths. This for me could not be further from the truth. 3500 years ago in what is now known as modern India, a word popped into humankind’s consciousness which is the most powerful word every conceived by our specie’s, that for me says it all. The word is derived from the ancient Sanskrit and is known as “Meya”.

Meya has two meanings. The first is illusion, meaning everything that we call our reality is an illusion. Nothing that we perceive as being real is actually as we think it is. Just think about this thought for a moment.  Nothing we believe is true, it’s not actually real. Everything is a hologram that is created by our senses and interpreted by our mind to support our beliefs of what we think reality is whether our beliefs are tested or not. What we refer to as reality is all just a grand illusion to protect us from the truth that we each create moment to moment.

The second meaning behind Meya is directly related to the first (illusion) which is “measure”. If everything is an illusion then any measurement we make comparing ourselves with anything or anyone else just feeds our big illusions of what reality is, that we, ourselves call reality. Meya tells us what we perceive really does not exist in the first place. Reality is only how we choose to interpret what our senses are permitted to feed our little brains that filter our meaning through our beliefs.

Think how empowering it is to fully comprehend that there is no absolute reality or truth. Only subjective personal agreements that we accept as actually real. The question that arises when I think this way is:

How can this understanding about Meya be applied to self-mastery?

Everything is an illusion, so if it is, then the idea behind self mastery for me is to master our illusion of what we perceive as our reality. This is an aim worthy for each of us to pursue, and obtain self-mastery. In my humble opinion this opens the gateway for one to become the conscious creator of his or her own illusion. What I have personally found useful for me that gives me the illusion that I have control over my life is to play a simple game with myself. I accomplish this by envisioning the type of life I want to experience. What I like to refer as my “Personal Vision of Purpose”.

Each time I gain a clearer picture of what I see, smell, taste as my desired reality, I then work backwards from the goal to what I will need in resources and experiences to accomplish it, to materialize my goal into the world of the five senses. After working backwards I then work forward and the vision always expands and becomes clearer and better than I could have ever first imagined.

The gift of the illusion of our lives is that which makes life so exciting to live.  Nothing ever turns out as we first dreamt it. If life turned out the way we had planned, wouldn’t our lives be so boring and sort of a slow death/ a hell of sorts? It is the journey of self mastering our fears and turning them into our allies that is so exciting. It’s understanding that life is not work, it’s the most exciting game in town that each of us have been invited to play because it is the only game worth playing.

Self-Mastery for me is about Biggering and Bettering, taking our experiences and trading each opportunity for a new bigger and more fulfilling one. Where each experience empowers us to learn more from and then continue to improve and expand our mastery of our game of life. I have come to see my life all life as part of an awakened dream, where any of us can realize that we can take control of it at any moment, that we can choose to take control of our destiny and direct our perception of our individual reality. As well, I understand that as long as I have breath in my lungs and a spring in my step the game continues. The point of the game is to continue play and to expand the game, the aim is not to win but to enjoy the play. So at the end of your life trip you can say to yourself that you only regret the things you did not do, not the things you did do.

To breathe, we don’t need to ask anyone for permission and for truly living out our true life purpose we don’t have to ask either. To paraphrase from the biblical section of Proverbs: “those without vision  die.”  Our life’s fulfillment all starts with a clear vision.

Victory Frankl talked extensively in his land mark book “Man’s Search for Meaning”:

“the last human freedom is to choose one’s own thoughts, to choose one’s own way.”

He called this Logo, which is from the Greek for “Meaning”. If we find our life’s meaning/purpose we can endure any experiences that leads us closer to our purpose. I would rather at the end of my days have done one thing very well. Something that I am passionate about, drawn towards, something I had spent hours and hours every day doing. Never knowing boredom, never knowing what enough was and always desiring to discover more.

Yes, by finding what I love and having passion for it, doing that which I am called to do, it will not be work for me, its absolute joy, its life, and its life enhancing.

What others will look at as hard work and deep practice for it obtainment, I will just do it and be in flow for the love of it. Through this genuine love, this passion will guild me towards self-discovery creating the opportunity for self mastery.

Let us look at the work of professional career coaches which have popped up over the last few years.

They usually attempt to teach something they have never accomplished themselves. They talk about what other people are doing to become successful. They describe it from the outside in as from reading from cliff notes and from never experiencing the pages in the novel of this type of living first hand. They do not have the actual experiences for what they try to teach. They ignore the truth that only through experience can we develop our own hard won wisdom. We have all heard the saying “That a picture is worth a thousand words”, well I have found that an experience is worth a trillion of those. Only through an experience will wisdom blossom and permeate through one’s muscles and soul. There is no substitute for good or bad experience.

A few months ago a liberating thought bubbled up from my sub consciousness. I would like to share it now:

“You know you have found inner peace when you are no one’s bitch except yourself.”

I truly believe this to my core, I only learned this truth because life has taught me this through my own university of hard knocks. As the old adage goes “if you meet a Buddha on the road, kill him.” You must become your own teacher and be your Buddha.

Energy

Just imagine that everything you where ever taught was utter bullshit. Just words right? Are you trying to remember what your mother told you after Little Connie at the playground in school yard once called you a dumb dumb or stupid and you started to cry:

“Sticks and stones might break my bones but names will never hurt me.”

Well in my own opinion which I take complete ownership for, that old saying is the biggest bunch of bullshit.

Our words have power and are just as real as things. In modern physics, physicists have shown that when you look for a particle you find a particle and when you look for a wave you find a wave. Everything is made out of the same universal stuff. And we find what we are looking for because it is made up of pure consciousness and reality is created from consciousness. When we thought the smallest building blocks of the universe were atoms, we found atoms. When we looked for something smaller we found that quarks and then neutrinos where even smaller which also travel faster than the speed of light. Consciousness creates the reality we think we are experiencing. It is the only universal glue that holds our personal universe together.

Einstein said:

“Everything is made of nothingness and form is compressed nothingness.”

So thoughts and things are all found in the world of Meya, they are one and the same. The only difference is thoughts and words are faster moving vibrations than what we perceive as solid things. This brings us to the String Theory which states that everything in the known universe and the unseen universe are created through vibrations. These vibrations are similar to musical cosmic notes. Through the right music playing, galaxies, solar systems, suns, planets and yes, us of course form into our physical form because we resonate with the music/vibration that are being played and are being composed. So words do resonate and words and thoughts can and do become reality if we let them germinate.

So how does this fit in with our discussion on self mastery? How can we consciously apply String Theory to assist us in realizing our goalsIf thoughts are made of the same stuff as that what we desire to create in the physical world, mastery is first created by creating a well formed vision in our mind’s eye of the life we desire to materialize. This vision needs to be self generated from within, not imposed by the so called Meya/illusion out there that the that vast majority believe lies outside ourselves and more real than what lies within you. The West teaches us to value our outer world over our inner. This is unfortunately taught in such places still like from our background origin, parents, friends and traditional schooling.

If our vision comes from outside ourselves, it is destined to fail and worst, an outside imposed vision will enslave you like it has enslaved the majority of humanity for our recorded history.

What I believe happens when we have a clear vision is we are sending out vibrations into our world that are in sync with our perceived outer world. With the proper intent behind the vibrations we are emitting will draw in towards us the right people, experiences and things into our lives that make our outer reality eventually reflect our inner vision of our self-generated desired goal.

Is it Synchronicity or Serendipity?

How does all this relate to what people call synchronicity and its sibling serendipity?

Synchronicity is when two accausal events occur that one event does not seem to have caused the other to occur but because of their occurrence close to each other, together they have a personal deeper meaning for the person experiencing them.

Synchronicity has one main flaw to it. My issue with synchronicity is it gives our power away to create in our lives to an outside force beyond oneself. Believing that events, experiences and people that have meaning to us happen outside of our conscious awareness is for me believing that something else is pulling our strings and we are just spectators to our lives sitting in the bleachers, not on the field playing in our game of life.

Serendipity on the other hand occurs when we have a clear vision and a strong intent that is internally generated from our own desired outcome. Serendipity is having a deep unquestionable belief that what others call miracles will show up at the right time and place in our lives when we are ready to receive them. For me serendipity is earned and not just found through luck or circumstance. We have the power to will and shape our own reality, the trick is whether we are conscious or unconscious of this truth.

Serendipity is the belief that what we desire is right for our journey and Serendipitous events from the universe will show up to move us closer to realizing our internal vision. Also having the understanding that with Serendipity we will never fully comprehend it but still it will help us when we resonate/vibrate with love and passion for what we do, materializing our dreams into our living reality.

By fully welcoming this belief into our lives that through first listening to what the universe/ our individual world is telling us what our purpose is in this life and how we can express it through developing our unique ability, we will do what is referred to as deep practice and develop that mastery of the subject we desire to master. With the right vision it is like a moth being drawn to the light. It will materialize and it is amazingly that simple. Trust in yourself, you only want the best for yourself.

In essence, self mastery for me is mastering one’s fears and quieting the imaginary voices in one’s head that say:

“ It can’t be done.”

Consciousness is the act of self awareness. It requires ones total commitment to do the work to become awake to ones inner and outer worlds, this is self mastery at its purest. Each of our journeys towards Consciousness offers each of us infinite possibilities to define our own realities. In essence, choosing Consciousness, awakens our potential to become co-creators of our reality. Being Conscious gives each of us a choice to create a reality that is either a prison or a paradise.

When a vision is clear and right for each of us, the universe will conspire to help us experience it. The only thing stopping one from having one’s own self-mastery of what you love is yourself by not having a well formed intent/outcome/goal and then moving towards it.

So to answer your question: “What should you do with your life?” The simple answer is it is your illusion. So do what you find yourself passionately drawn towards doing. Your answer is only as simple or as difficult as you need it to be. Remember it’s your illusion, not mine or anyone else’s. As Dr Suess would say: “Go climb your mountain today, it awaits you.”

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“Am I gaining real value other than dollars from my clients?”

“Are my clients also my mentors?”

On December 9, 2010, at age 87, a great Canadian and friend left us. His name was George Vari and he was one of my mentors. After hearing of his passing Prime Minister Stephen Harper wrote of him: “This remarkable Canadian will be mourned and missed.” George as he preferred to be called, made Canada his home after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. His life since his arrival on our shores was remarkable to say the least. With no money in his pocket, he turned a personal vision into a living reality and legacy that all Canadians benefit from.

George made his mark in international real estate development.  Just to name a few of his many building accomplishments were Paris’ Tour Montparnesse, six of the pavilions at  Expo 67 in Montreal, and Moscow’s Hotel Cosmos. For his great contribution to our society in both his business and his renowned philanthropic work, George was recognized and appointed to the Order of Canada and to France’s Legion d’Honneur.

I was very fortunate to have personally known this man of character, not for his wealth or the great accolades he had received. I knew him as a great Canadian because he was a great teacher. We each have had these people enter our lives, who make an important contribution in us which we carry for the rest of our lives. George was just one of those individuals for those of us who chose to recognize and experience his wisdom.

One of George’s greatest strengths was his belief in investing his time and energy into people, to help them find their own purpose so they could then make their own meaningful contributions back to our society. In the late 1980s, George and his wife Helen chose to invest time and energy in me. The greatest lesson I had ever learned from George, that was far more valuable than anything material, occurred  back in 1994. I had arrived at George’s office to discuss his portfolio. George was at his desk looking a little puzzled.

Earlier that day George had talked with an able bodied man on the street, panhandling for money. He had been asking himself why this man who had been born in Canada, that George considered “the best country in the whole wide world”, who had been offered so many opportunities, how could this man’s life have turned out this way?

George shared with me that he was asking himself this question because he felt that he had come to this country late in life and was able to make a life for himself and why had so many others not taken the opportunities given to them to make something for themselves. George would often share his gratitude for this country be saying: “I came to Canada with nothing and Canada gave me everything.” It were these questions that George was asking that turned me, the professional advisor into the student of a person who had lived a full and complete life.

As we talked, I asked George a very innocent question. I asked him when he was a little boy what had he dreamed of doing with his life? George shared with me that when he was very young he dreamed passionately about building around the world.

Then he joked that in his family engineers were not considered ‘real men’. His father said  ‘real men’ became lawyers and doctors. But George then shared with me that he had decided that he was going to chart his own destiny and become an engineer and realize his inner calling to build.

Every great vision needs its muse and George’s was Helen, the true love of his life. Both George and Helen had embarked on a journey together in this country and enjoyed what life had in stored for them. Most importantly, they both felt a great inner need to give back and help the next generation make their own contributions to our society.

They accomplished this by creating the George and Helen Vari Foundation as a vehicle for much of their charitable works in Canada and internationally by making considerable endowments to universities.

As we finished our conversation that day, I asked George if he had felt that he had accomplished his vision that he had  set out when he was a young man? George smiled and then said: Yes.

I turned to him and said: “Thank you. You have given me a great gift today by sharing insight into why you have achieved so much. You had a great vision that drew you to achieving it and you had been very fortunate to have found the right life partner to enjoy and experience this with.”

That is what made all the difference from taking an ordinary life and making it extraordinary. I have always felt honoured that George had spent those hours with me and shared his insights that had been gained from a life well lived. That day George taught me a valuable life lesson that if you value something, you will be inclined to direct you energies towards it. If you don’t, you won’t.

George was a true citizen of this world, who understood his obligations to this world, to make it a better place. Through his mentorship that day, the lens I saw my world through, greatly improved. Our society has so few Wise Men and Women to be positive role models for the next generation, with George’s passing, there will be one less but he is not the last.

Isaac Newton said it best: “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” I choose to close this column with the same questions I began with, by asking  you:

“Are you gaining value other than dollars from your clients?”

“Are  your clients also your mentors?”

Life is just too short for it to be all about the money.