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Situation: Woman, 58, has low investment returns and no one to provide care for her or cats Solution: Evaluate insurance based annuities to raise and guarantee income, set up trust for pets

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A retired British Columbia civil servant we’ll call Veronika, 58, lives alone. She has an adequate income of $5,000 a month after tax but no family, no children, no spouse and no one with whom to share income or, for that matter, to whom to leave her estate — currently, a tidy $879,000.

“I have no family members with the exception of two cats,” she explains. “I want to make sure I plan well for my future to old age and want to enjoy life, which, at present, means extensive travel. I might need long term care. My pets might need a trust to look after them after I have died.”

(Email andrew.allentuck@gmail.com for a free Family Finance analysis)

Family Finance asked financial planner Dan Stronach, head of the Stronach Group in Toronto, to work with Veronika. “The challenges are her worry that her government pension plan could default at some time in the future and her portfolio’s ability to pace inflation,” he says.

For now, Veronika has no financial problems. She spends $5,000 a month and takes in $5,000 a month: $4,500 from her provincial pension and $500 from investment returns. She has no liabilities, pays relatively modest condo fees, contributes the maximum allowed to her tax-free savings account and allows herself a $700 monthly reserve for travel. Nothing is out of order. Her finances are tidy.