Protect Your Legacy.
Transfer Wealth. Leave Nothing to Chance.
Comprehensive estate and business succession planning that preserves your wealth, minimizes probate and capital gains tax, and ensures your legacy transfers exactly as you intend — across generations.
Your Estate Is Your Life's Work —
Plan It With the Same Care You Built It
Without a proper estate and succession plan, your family and business could face forced liquidation, CRA deemed dispositions triggering large capital gains taxes, probate fees, family disputes, and double taxation — all at the worst possible moment. A well-structured plan eliminates or dramatically reduces every one of these risks.
For business owners, succession planning is even more critical. Transferring a business is one of the most tax-complex events in Canadian law. Done right — with estate freezes, family trusts, and LCGE planning — it can be accomplished nearly tax-free. Done wrong, it can cost your family hundreds of thousands of dollars unnecessarily.
- Business succession and ownership transfer strategies
- Estate freeze and holding company restructuring
- Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption (LCGE) planning up to $1,016,602
- Discretionary family trust creation and administration
- Post-mortem tax planning and terminal return preparation
- Executor support, estate accounting, and beneficiary reporting
Legacy Protection
Ensure your wealth goes to who you want, in the way you intend — protected from CRA, probate, and family disputes.
Tax Minimization
Reduce or eliminate capital gains, estate taxes, and probate fees through proven Canadian planning structures.
Coordinated Approach
We work alongside your lawyer, financial advisor, and other professionals to implement a fully integrated estate plan.
Annual Reviews
Estate laws and your circumstances change. We review and update your plan annually to ensure it remains optimal.
Comprehensive Estate & Succession Services
Every strategy is designed to maximize wealth transfer to your beneficiaries while minimizing tax — coordinated across corporate, trust, and personal structures.
Business Succession Planning
Structured ownership transfer to family members, management buyout, or third-party sale with maximum LCGE utilization, buyer-readiness analysis, and coordinated tax structuring.
Estate Freeze
A corporate reorganization that freezes the current value of your business for you while allowing all future growth to accrue to the next generation — at little to no immediate tax cost.
LCGE Planning
Strategic use of the $1,016,602 Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption on qualifying small business shares, farm, and fishing property — including crystallization strategies to lock in the exemption early.
Family Trust Structures
Discretionary family trusts for income splitting, asset protection from creditors, flexible wealth distribution across generations, and access to multiple LCGE claims within the family.
Post-Mortem Tax Planning
Terminal return preparation, estate return filing, and sophisticated post-mortem strategies — including loss carryback elections and pipeline planning — to minimize taxes triggered on death.
Executor & Estate Accounting
Complete accounting support for executors: estate financial statements, beneficiary distribution calculations, T3 trust tax filings, and passing-of-accounts documentation.
Our Estate Planning Process
A thorough, coordinated process ensuring every element of your estate plan works together seamlessly.
Estate Assessment
Comprehensive review of assets, corporate structures, family situation, and succession objectives — mapped to current tax legislation.
Strategy Design
Customized estate plan with freeze structures, trust design, LCGE optimization, and beneficiary strategies — coordinated with your lawyer.
Implementation
Execution of corporate reorganizations, trust creation, and share restructuring — all with full CRA compliance and GAAR analysis.
Ongoing Reviews
Annual plan reviews to update for changes in tax legislation, business valuation, and new planning opportunities.
The Estate Planning Advantage
Depth of experience, proven results, and a coordinated approach that protects your family's financial future.
Average LCGE Captured
Average Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption utilized per business-owner client — real, documented tax savings that preserve family wealth.
CRA-Compliant Structures
Every estate plan designed to withstand CRA scrutiny and GAAR review — no aggressive positions, no risky structures, ever.
Generations of Planning
We build structures designed for multi-generational wealth transfer — serving your family for decades, not just the immediate estate.
Estate Planning FAQs
Answers to the most common questions about Canadian estate and succession planning.
Without a plan, your business may face forced liquidation, family disputes, and a CRA deemed disposition of all assets at fair market value — triggering large capital gains taxes payable immediately from the estate. There is also risk of double taxation when shares are distributed to beneficiaries. A proper succession plan can eliminate most or all of these consequences through estate freezes, trusts, and LCGE planning.
An estate freeze is a corporate reorganization where you exchange your common shares for preferred shares fixed at today's business value. New common shares are issued to a family trust or your children. From that point forward, all future appreciation accrues to the next generation — outside your estate — at little to no immediate tax cost. When the business is eventually sold, family members can each claim their own LCGE.
The LCGE shields up to $1,016,602 (2024, indexed annually) of capital gains on qualifying small business corporation shares, farm, and fishing property from tax. Through estate freezes and family trusts, multiple family members can each claim the full exemption on their respective shareholdings, multiplying the total exemption available within your family.
Ideally 5–10 years before your planned exit. Many strategies — estate freezes, family trust structuring, LCGE crystallization, and corporate purification — require time to implement. The earlier you start, the more options you have and the more tax you can save. That said, it is never too late — we have helped clients structure exits with as little as 12 months notice with strong results.
Yes — both are essential. Your lawyer drafts the legal documents: wills, trust deeds, share purchase agreements, and powers of attorney. We handle the tax structure, CRA compliance, business valuations, financial modeling, and filing obligations. We coordinate closely with your legal counsel so every element of the plan is seamless and tax-efficient.
Your Legacy Is Too Important
to Leave Unplanned
Book a confidential estate planning consultation and we'll map out your complete succession and legacy strategy — including a preliminary estimate of your available LCGE and potential tax savings.