BGY advisor says client tax savings often exceed service fees
The 2025 tax season is coming to a close this week, a welcome end date for the many who view tax filing as a burdensome procedure that they simply want to get over and done with.
But for David Poliquin, the process of sifting tirelessly through clients’ tax filings to find the ideal tax optimization strategies is a puzzle he thoroughly enjoys solving – plus, it provides value to clients which he says is not found elsewhere.
Poliquin emphasizes the importance of BGY’s 15-person tax specialist team, which works solely in value added strategies sphere, meaning the department has no competition with outside lawyers or accountants. While the large tax team is a significant outlay, Poliquin says the value they offer reaps rewards in the end.
“There are no drawbacks. Because it's important we manage this strategy, and we work mainly with the accountant of the client,” said Poliquin, portfolio manager at BGY . “So what we try to do is to avoid the time of our clients.”
When working with high-net worth clients, Poliquin says a custom approach is always needed. He points to a recent family office client where his team was able to save $1.8 million in taxable earnings, an achievement he says was mainly reached by using flow through shares.
While clients could use a mutual fund to reach the same objective, Poliquin says his team are able to offer these results at a lower cost than the one per cent demanded by mutual fund providers. He says the use of rerouting interest into foreign income, RRSPs and TFSAs allow clients to maintain maximized taxation benefits while paying lower fees.
“We try to avoid interest and other revenues highly taxed by capital gains deferred at 100 per cent so we can use investment that can do it for a very low cost,” he said. “You can convert interest and foreign income into the capital gains a low cost, that's the first solution. The other one is to put the other interest in foreign income, in the RRSP of the client or the TFSA. Even it's a small portion, put the best investment there. So here we're doing accelerator structure note that can generate five six times in term of return of the capital invested.”
He says once he has acquired a new client, the first thing he does is link the client with his internal tax specialist team. They then work with the clients’ own accountants and lawyers, a tactic Poliquin says ensures no opportunities to optimize taxes are missed.
With clients looking to optimize their taxes through philanthropy, Poliquin says he prioritizes using assets in a balanced fund to avoid high capital gains taxes. He says that when looking at a client’s balance fund, he is always looking to transfer dividends and interest into capital gains. But he also puts a portion of the charitable donation into concentrated investments so the investment will grow before the client donates.
“What we will look at it is an investment that can convert dividend and interest in capital gain. But it's going to be even more interesting to have a portion of his investment in more concentrated investment,” he said. “We will recommend a change in the portfolio to have more concentrated investments, to have more capital gains down the road, to make the donation more effective.”
Spreading earnings to untaxable family members is another strategy Poliquin employs, though he admits this method is less straightforward now than it had been before. He says he can often distribute renumerations to younger and older family members up to the $15,000 mark before the assets get taxed.
“We have to look at how to share the remuneration with for example, the husband or spouse or with the child,” he said.
Poliquin says he usually saves clients more through tax optimization than they pay in fees, a justification in BGY’s services that he says sets the firm apart from its competitors.
“We really often find more tax optimization savings than what we cost so clients are coming and getting more savings than the total cost for all our services.”
Navigating ever-changing provincial and federal tax laws is always challenging for Poliquin, who points to a dedicated team with a sharp eye for detail and creative approaches to taxation headaches.
“In every budget, federal and provincial, we always have bad surprises. We always work hard,” he said. “In every budget, federal and provincial, we always have bad surprises. We always work hard. We don't choose what the government will change in the future. What's important is to adjust our strategies in real time. That's so important because it's changing at the pace that we just can’t believe.”
