The Firm

Corkum & Arsenault Chartered Accountants provides not only tax and accounting services, but also financial planning services, bringing together all aspects of financial advice needed by you, your business colleagues, and your family.

Our focus is on:

• year-end financial statement preparation and analysis;
• tax planning and preparation, both corporate and personal;
• financial consulting for businesses; and,
• personal financial planning for individuals and business executives.

We believe we offer advice that is a notch above our competition because every client receives advice from an experienced CA. As a small growing business ourselves, we understand the challenges to business entrepreneurs through similar experiences. Being qualified and experienced for financial planning, and not being the recipient of commissions or referral fees, our financial planning advice is independent and of the highest calibre.

Located in Charlottetown, P.E.I., we have major clients in Nova Scotia as well as P.E.I. We are particularly proud that clients 600 kilometres away welcome us to their offices - it is a great compliment that they recognize not only our abilities, but our commitment to our customers and our love of our work.

Our Vision

We will encourage and assist business owners and other individuals to achieve financial success throughout their lives by providing practical, understandable and comprehensive financial advice.

Our Mission

We will deliver excellent service to small and medium size businesses, supplemented by well-rounded personal financial planning advice to entrepreneurs, investors and other individuals. We want to be a valuable player on our client’s team, being welcomed for advice whenever important financial decisions are made. As a general practice financial services firm, we will offer solutions that are understandable and practical based on our experience, education, and motivation for success, with a commitment to integrity and lifelong learning.

Our objective is to provide advice to our clients that is understandable, practical and professional. These are goals that we believe are important among professional firms. We offer a quality product and charge only what is fair for the service delivered, advising customers of our hourly rates in advance of commencing our work. We also have access to a full range of specialists to hire on a subcontract basis as needed.

The Partners – Blair Corkum and Troy Arsenault

Blair Corkum, CA, R.F.P., CFP, CLU, CHS, FDS commenced Corkum & Associates, Chartered Accountants in September 2004, with Troy Arsenault, BBA, CA joining him as a full partner in 2010, after eight years of working together. Before starting his own business, Blair had many years of experience as a partner in Charlottetown with Corkum & Crozier, Chartered Accountants and in Halifax with Lyle Tilley Corkum, Chartered Accountants. He also had twelve years of experience working with the national accounting firm of Coopers & Lybrand.

Blair obtained his CA designation in 1978, and followed that with his Chartered Financial Planner designation in 1989, Certified Financial Planner and Registered Financial Planner designations in 1996 and his Chartered Life Underwriter and Registered Health Underwriter designations in 2005 and 2008, respectively. Since 1997, Blair has worked with legal professionals in the area of child and spousal support, and provides financial advice in this area as a Financial Divorce Specialist. He also successfully completed the Investment Funds in Canada course offered by The Institute of Canadian Bankers in 2001.

Troy Arsenault obtained his CA designation in 2001, and brings important professional experience in accounting, audit, tax and business consulting to the firm. He previously worked with the national accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Our Team

In addition to the partners, the firm has four key team members. Kevin Crozier obtained his CA designation in 2004. Karla Thompson obtained her CGA designation in 2011. Lynn Moffatt is working towards her CMA designation. Sue-Ann McCabe-Farrell is a CompuCollege graduate providing full administrative and bookkeeping support to the firm, as well as assisting our clients with their Simply Accounting™ bookkeeping questions.

Our Experience

The advantage of working in Atlantic Canada is the exposure to a wide variety of industries. Our largest clients are in the fisheries, real estate development, tourism, manufacturing and processing and wholesale sectors. However, we also provide services to retailing, non-profit and service sectors, including farming, food processing, information technology and a wide variety of other industries.

What types of experience do we have? First, we are a small business ourselves, facing many of the same issues as you! Second, on a routine basis, we are involved with:

• tax preparation and planning for individuals and corporations;
• auditing, accounting and financial statement preparation;
• business advisory and planning services including preparation of feasibility studies and business plans for expansion or refinancing needs;
• estate, retirement and financial planning services;
• advice to new businesses (See our guide, “Let’s Start a Business Together”);
• set up of both manual and computer accounting systems;
• interviewing and hiring of accounting personnel;
• performance of diagnostic assessments to improve business operating success.
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Financial Consulting

Blair, Troy and Kevin have been involved in a variety of special consulting assignments. These have included: negotiations for the purchase or sale of businesses; assistance in acquisition of financing; review of management information systems to improve efficiency and effectiveness of information flow; employee search assignments; and computer consulting in the areas of needs analysis, system search, evaluation, design of control systems and training of users.

Troy and Kevin have been particularly involved with business startups and preparation of related business plans, used to determine the feasibility of the business and to seek financial assistance. Kevin also has experience with forensic auditing.

In addition to business plans, examples of Blair's special assignments include two projects for ACOA related to the Seed Capital ConneXion for Young Entrepreneur program – a Program Delivery Evaluation, including identification of issues, determination of best practices and development of a Case Management Handbook, and also development of a Diagnostic Assessment Workbook to identify training needs. Blair has also played a key role in a study of Commercial Lending Services in P.E.I. and the Role of Provincial Government Lending Agency on behalf of the Province of P.E.I.

Financial Planning

Blair prepares complete or partial personal financial plans including advice on investment strategies, risk management (insurance), taxes, retirement income, estate planning, marriage breakdown issues and special financial needs. He has written many articles on various financial planning topics, which are available from our office and on this web site.

Financial counselling to employees regarding retirement and severance compensation packages and to business owners regarding business succession, including giving education seminars, are other elements of his financial planning experience. He has provided workshops and given presentations on retirement planning to various organizations. Although he has taken the mutual funds course offered by the Institute of Canadian Bankers, and holds the insurance designations, Chartered Life Underwriter and Registered Health Underwriter, he is not licensed to sell securities or insurance. Consequently, individuals seek his independent and objective opinions when they are concerned about potential conflicts by financial advisors who sell products.

Family Law Support Services

Blair was asked to provide assistance to the Office of the Attorney General of P.E.I. upon the implementation of the Child Support Guidelines in October 1997 as a result of his combined education and knowledge in accounting, financial planning and tax. This opportunity provided him with a niche in the area of family law support services. As a result, he was appointed to the Advisory Committee on Child Support to the federal Deputy Minister of Justice until its windup in 2001 and has written and taught a variety of workshops and seminars in Atlantic Canada. He offers advice to judges, lawyers and clients on determination of income, cash flow and tax issues for child and spousal support purposes.

Education and Professional Development

Blair’s education in addition to his FDS, CHS, CFP, R.F.P. CLU and CA designations includes his Bachelor of Commerce (cum laude) from Dalhousie University in 1976 (University Award for Highest Standing in the Commerce program). He has also taken training in public speaking and presentation of seminars. Troy received his Bachelor of Business Administration (honours) from the University of Prince Edward Island in 1997 and Kevin in 2001.