Harbajan Singh — Financial Advisor, Canada

Services Offered

Protection for today and a plan for tomorrow — every service below starts with a free conversation about your family's situation.

Protection & Insurance

Life Insurance
- Universal Life
- Whole Life
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Life insurance pays a tax-free lump sum to your family if you pass away, so the people who depend on you can keep the home, cover bills, and carry on. Harbajan offers two permanent types:
Universal Life — what it is: Permanent life insurance that combines lifelong protection with a savings (cash value) part inside the same policy.
Universal Life — key benefits:
- Coverage can last your whole life, not just a set number of years
- Premiums can be flexible within the policy's limits, which helps when income goes up and down
- The cash value part can grow over time on a tax-advantaged basis inside the policy — this growth is not guaranteed. Investment values inside the policy can go up and down, and policy costs can affect the cash value
- Your family receives the death benefit generally tax-free
Universal Life — who it's for: Families and business owners who want permanent protection and a long-term, tax-advantaged savings tool in one policy.
Whole Life — what it is: Permanent life insurance with set premiums and coverage designed to stay in place for your entire life.
Whole Life — key benefits:
- Premiums and coverage are set out in the contract, giving your family certainty
- Builds cash value inside the policy over time — cash value growth and any dividends are not guaranteed
- The death benefit is paid generally tax-free to the people you name
- Often used to cover final expenses and taxes, and to leave something behind for family or charity
Whole Life — who it's for: People who want simple, permanent coverage that will be there whenever it is needed, with no end date to worry about.
Term Insurance
Life insurance for a set number of years — a large amount of protection at usually the lowest cost.
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What it is: Life insurance that covers you for a set term — usually 10, 20, or 30 years — and pays a tax-free lump sum to your family if you pass away during that term.
Key benefits:
- A large amount of protection for usually the lowest cost of any life insurance
- Protects the years your family needs it most — the mortgage years and the raising-children years
- You choose the term length and the amount to match your debts, your income, and your family's needs
- Simple and straightforward — pure protection, with no savings part to manage
Who it's for: Parents, homeowners, and anyone whose family depends on their income during the working and child-raising years.
Critical Illness
A lump-sum benefit if a covered serious illness changes your ability to work.
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What it is: If you are diagnosed with a covered serious illness (such as a heart attack, stroke, or cancer, as listed in the policy), the policy pays you a one-time, tax-free lump sum.
Key benefits:
- The money is yours to use your way — mortgage, bills, treatment costs, or time off to recover
- It pays on diagnosis of a covered condition, not on death, so it protects you while you are living
- Helps protect your savings and investments from being used up during an illness
- Coverage amounts can be matched to your income and your family's needs
Who it's for: Working adults and parents — anyone whose household depends on their income and health.
Disability
Income protection if an injury or illness keeps you from your job.
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What it is: If an injury or illness keeps you from working, disability insurance replaces part of your regular income with a monthly payment while you recover.
Key benefits:
- Keeps money coming in for rent or mortgage, groceries, and bills when you cannot work
- Protects the income everything else in your plan depends on
- Especially important for self-employed workers and anyone without coverage at work
- You choose how long payments last, based on the policy you pick
Who it's for: Employees without group coverage, tradespeople, and self-employed workers whose income stops when they stop.
Super Visa
Insurance for parents and grandparents visiting Canada on the Super Visa program.
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What it is: Private medical insurance for parents and grandparents visiting Canada on the Super Visa program, covering emergency medical costs during their stay.
Key benefits:
- Meets the insurance requirement of the Super Visa program
- Covers emergency hospital and medical costs that visitors would otherwise pay out of pocket — visitors are not covered by provincial health plans
- Policies available for different ages, health conditions, and lengths of stay
- Gives the whole family peace of mind during the visit
Who it's for: Families bringing parents or grandparents to Canada on a Super Visa.
Good to know: The policy must meet the Super Visa program's medical insurance requirements, including the program's minimum coverage amount and minimum validity period.
Visitor Visa
Travel insurance coverage for visitors coming to Canada.

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What it is: Travel medical insurance for anyone visiting Canada — family, friends, tourists, and newcomers waiting for provincial health coverage.

Key benefits:

Covers emergency medical care in Canada, which visitors must otherwise pay for themselves
Flexible coverage amounts and trip lengths, from short visits to longer stays
Options for people with pre-existing health conditions, depending on the policy
Simple to arrange before or shortly after arrival

Who it's for: Visitors to Canada, and new residents in the waiting period before their provincial health card starts.

Savings, Retirement & Planning

Kids Saving Plan UL
A universal life savings plan started for your child early — protection plus a cash value part that can build over many years.
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What it is: A savings plan for a child, built on a universal life insurance policy started while your child is young, combining lifelong insurance protection with a cash value part that can build over many years.
Key benefits:
- Starting early gives the plan the longest possible time to build — time is the biggest advantage a child has
- Your child has insurance protection in place from a young age, which stays with them as they grow up
- The cash value part can grow on a tax-advantaged basis inside the policy — this growth is not guaranteed. Investment values inside the policy can go up and down, and policy costs can affect the cash value
- A long-term gift from parents or grandparents, built to become a financial head start for the child's future plans
Who it's for: Parents and grandparents who want to start long-term savings and protection for a child or grandchild early.
RESP
Registered Education Savings Plan for your children's future education, with government grants.
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What it is: A registered account for saving for a child's education after high school, with government grant money added on top of your contributions.
Key benefits:
- The federal government adds the Canada Education Savings Grant — 20% on the first $2,500 you contribute each year, up to $500 per year per child
- Grant room you miss in a year is not gone — it can often be caught up in later years, within the program's limits
- Growth inside the plan is sheltered from tax until it is used for the student's education
- Family plans let you share the savings among your children
Who it's for: Parents and grandparents who want to give a child a head start on college or university costs.
Good to know: The CESG lifetime maximum is $7,200 per child — starting early gives the grant, and the growth on it, the most time to work for your child.
Non-Registered Account
A flexible investment account with no contribution limit, for money beyond your registered room.
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What it is: A regular investment account with no contribution limit and no special age rules, where your money is invested outside the registered accounts such as the TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, and RESP.
Key benefits:
- No yearly contribution limit — invest as much as you choose, whenever you choose
- Useful once your registered account room is fully used, so extra savings can still be invested
- Full flexibility to take money out at any time, for any reason, with no account withdrawal rules
- Interest, dividends, and capital gains are taxed differently, so planning what you hold in this account can help you manage the tax you pay
Who it's for: Canadians who have used their registered room, and anyone who wants flexible investing with no account limits.
Good to know: Unlike a TFSA, the income and growth in a non-registered account are taxable — interest is generally taxed most heavily, while capital gains generally receive more favourable tax treatment in Canada.
TFSA
Tax-Free Savings Account — growth and withdrawals are tax-free when used as intended.
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What it is: A registered account where your money can grow and be taken out without tax, for any goal — short-term or long-term.
Key benefits:
- Growth and withdrawals are tax-free when the account is used as intended
- Unused contribution room carries forward to future years — it is not lost
- Money you withdraw is added back to your contribution room the following year
- Flexible: use it for an emergency fund, a home, a vehicle, or extra retirement savings
Who it's for: Almost every Canadian adult — it is usually one of the first accounts to open and use well.
Good to know: New TFSA room for 2026 is $7,000. Your personal total room depends on your age and the years you have been eligible, so it is worth checking your own number.
FHSA
First Home Savings Account — save for your first home with tax advantages.
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What it is: A registered account made for one job: saving for your first home, with a tax break both when money goes in and when it comes out for a qualifying home.
Key benefits:
- Contributions can reduce your taxable income, like an RRSP
- Withdrawals are tax-free when used to buy a qualifying first home, like a TFSA
- Unused yearly room carries forward while the account is open
- If you end up not buying a home, the money can generally be moved to an RRSP without tax
Who it's for: Canadians 18+ who have not owned a home in the current year or the previous four years and plan to buy their first home.
Good to know: You can contribute $8,000 per year, up to a $40,000 lifetime limit — and your room only starts building once you open the account, so opening it early matters even if you start small.
RRSP
Registered Retirement Savings Plan — tax-deferred saving for retirement.
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What it is: A registered account for retirement savings where contributions can lower the tax you pay today, and growth is sheltered from tax until you take the money out.
Key benefits:
- Contributions can reduce your taxable income in the year you make them
- Investments grow tax-deferred inside the account for decades
- First-time home buyers can borrow from their RRSP under the Home Buyers' Plan and repay it over time
- Spousal RRSPs can help couples balance retirement income and taxes
Who it's for: Working Canadians building a retirement fund — often most valuable in your higher-income years.
Good to know: You can contribute 18% of last year's earned income, up to the 2026 maximum of $33,810, plus any unused room from earlier years. Under the Home Buyers' Plan, first-time buyers can withdraw up to $60,000 from their RRSP toward a home.
Corporate Plan
Planning and protection strategies structured for business owners.
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What it is: Planning and protection strategies built for business owners — using your corporation properly for insurance, savings, and passing the business on.
Key benefits:
- Life and health protection structured through the business where it makes sense
- Strategies to move money out of a corporation in a planned, tax-aware way over time
- Protection for the business if an owner or key person dies or becomes ill
- Helps connect your business plan with your family's personal plan
Who it's for: Incorporated business owners and professionals who want their company and family plans working together.
Estate Planning
Structure what you leave behind so it reaches your family the way you intend.
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What it is: Arranging what you own so that, when you pass away, it reaches your family the way you intend — smoothly, privately, and with less cost and delay.
Key benefits:
- Named beneficiaries on insurance and registered accounts can pass money directly to family, outside the will and probate process
- Life insurance can provide ready money for final taxes and expenses, so assets don't have to be sold in a hurry
- Helps reduce surprises, delays, and family disagreements later
- Works alongside your will and powers of attorney (prepared with your lawyer) to complete the picture
Who it's for: Anyone with a home, savings, a business, or children — estate planning is not only for the wealthy.
Good to know: Probate rules and fees differ by province, so the right structure depends on where you live.
Group Plans
Benefits and coverage arranged for employees and teams.
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What it is: Benefits and coverage arranged through an employer for their employees — such as health, dental, disability, and life coverage for the team.
Key benefits:
- Helps employers attract and keep good people
- Gives employees and their families protection they may not have on their own
- Plans can be sized to fit small teams as well as larger businesses
- Often simpler and more cost-effective than every employee buying coverage alone
Who it's for: Business owners and employers who want to look after their team and stay competitive when hiring.
SEG Funds
Segregated funds — investment growth potential combined with insurance-based guarantees.

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What it is: Investment funds offered through an insurance contract. Your money is invested in the markets, and the contract adds insurance-based features that regular investment funds do not have.

Key benefits:

Growth potential from professionally managed investment funds
Depending on the contract, maturity and death benefit features may protect part or all of your original investment — details depend on the contract, and market values can go up and down
Named beneficiaries can receive the money directly, outside the will and probate process
Often used by retirees, business owners, and anyone who values creditor protection features that may be available under insurance contracts

Who it's for: Investors who want market growth potential combined with insurance contract features, and people doing estate planning.

Free Family Financial Review

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2
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We look at your protection, savings accounts and debts — in plain language.
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From the Blog

Simple, plain-language money lessons for Canadian families — a new post every week.

TFSA · Money Basics October 23, 2026 3-minute read

Your TFSA Is Not a Savings Account

By Harbajan Singh, Financial Advisor

Here is a question I ask many families: "What is inside your TFSA?" The most common answer is, "Nothing — the money is just sitting there." That is the biggest TFSA mistake in Canada, and the name itself is the reason. A Tax-Free Savings Account sounds like a savings account. It is not.

A TFSA is a container, not an investment

Think of a TFSA as a basket. The basket itself does nothing. What matters is what you put inside it. Inside a TFSA you can hold cash, GICs, mutual funds, ETFs, stocks, and segregated funds — not just plain savings. When money sits in a TFSA as cash only, it usually earns very little, and inflation quietly shrinks what that money can buy year after year.

The real power: tax-free growth

The true gift of a TFSA is not the small interest on cash. It is this: growth inside a TFSA is tax-free, and when you take money out, that withdrawal is tax-free too. In a regular, non-registered account, the growth on your money is taxed. Inside a TFSA, the Canada Revenue Agency does not tax it. Over many years, that difference matters a great deal.

Three rules every family should know

1. Know your contribution room. Every year you get new TFSA room, and unused room carries forward. If you were 18 or older when the TFSA began in 2009 and you have never contributed, your total room today is more than $100,000. You can check your personal room on your CRA account — never guess, because over-contributing costs a penalty tax of 1% per month on the excess.

2. Withdrawals come back. If you take money out of your TFSA, that amount is added back to your contribution room on January 1 of the following year. A TFSA is flexible — it can work for a short-term goal and a long-term one.

3. Match the inside to the goal. Money you need next year belongs somewhere safe and simple. Money for retirement, ten or twenty years away, has time to grow — and time is what makes tax-free growth powerful. Nothing inside a TFSA is guaranteed, and investments can go up and down, so the choice inside the basket should fit your goal, your timeline, and your comfort with risk.

The bottom line

A TFSA is a basket — what you hold inside it does the work.
Cash sitting in a TFSA earns little and loses ground to inflation.
Growth and withdrawals are tax-free when the rules are followed.
Check your real contribution room with the CRA before you add money.

If your TFSA has been sitting as cash, you are not alone — and it is not too late. A short conversation is usually all it takes to see what your TFSA could be doing for your family instead.

Not sure what your family's accounts are doing for you?

Free Family Financial ReviewCall 204-297-7288 · 15 minutes Take the Free Income Survey3 quick questions · 1 minute

Educational content only. This post is general information about how a TFSA works, not personalized financial advice.