As tax returns are being finalized, many advisors are looking back at how 2025 income declaration decisions affected clients’ retirement cashflow and tax position.

In recent conversations with advisors, I’m consistently hearing about OAS clawbacks as a pressure point in 2026 spring tax reviews, often tied to those past year decisions.

While they’re often appropriate in context, the tax return preparation process can bring the clawback impact into sharper focus and prompt a broader discussion around how retirement cashflow can be efficiently structured. 

These discussions can also lead to a closer look at how to optimize cashflow on an after-tax basis. 

Many advisors I work with are exploring ways to optimize retirement cashflow so clients aren’t relying entirely on taxable portfolio withdrawals each year. An alternative incorporates a non-taxable home equity release as a supplementary source of cash liquidity, allowing clients to manage income more deliberately and potentially reduce income testing pressure on OAS eligibility. The objective is to combine taxable and non-taxable cashflow in the right sequence to maximize outcomes for clients.

If this is something you’re seeing with clients this tax season, I can walk through a few financial illustrations and share how other advisors are approaching the conversation using the CHIP Reverse Mortgage as part of the solution.

If these tax conversations are extending into planning around cottages or secondary properties, we’re hosting a webinar on April 2 on strategies for transferring these assets across generations. You can register here if it’s of interest.