Private Client Estate and Succession Advisors
The CRA does not send a letter of condolence. They send a bill, and payment can be required in as little as six months. We plan the liquidity to pay it, so more of what you built goes to the people and causes you love.
01 The stakes
The funeral was two weeks ago. Then the accountant calls. On death, the CRA treats the cottage, the company shares, and the RRIF as sold. A lifetime of gains becomes one tax bill, due within months, at exactly the moment the estate needs liquidity most.
Canada has no estate tax. It has something quieter. At death, your assets are treated as sold at fair market value, and the gains are taxed all at once. How the deemed disposition works.
Without a liquidity plan, executors sell what sells fastest, at whatever price that season offers. Often it is the cottage or the business, the one asset everyone wanted to keep.
Grief and money are poor partners. When the plan is vague, children fill in the blanks themselves. Some families never recover from the argument.
The right planning alleviates these stressors and creates family estate harmony.
Request a Consultation02 Three situations
The names change. The shape of the problem rarely does. Three situations, drawn from the patterns we see most.
He built his company over thirty years. The profits that were not needed personally have accumulated within the corporate retained earnings. Pulling them out as dividends would mean a second layer of tax. So the money sits inside the company.
A corporate-owned policy can move that parked money to his estate through the Capital Dividend Account. Far less is lost along the way.
Request a ConsultationThree generations learned to swim off the same dock. The parents always said the cottage stays in the family. Then their accountant explained what the deemed disposition would do at death.
A policy sized to that future bill pays the CRA in cash. The family keeps the dock.
Request a ConsultationTheir daughter runs the business. Her brothers built other lives. The parents want the company to pass whole to the child who grew it, and they want all three to feel the estate was fair.
Insurance can hand the other two equal value on the same day the shares transfer. Same table. Same number.
Request a Consultation03 The strategies
Move corporate money to your estate with less tax, using corporate-owned policies and the Capital Dividend Account.
Cover the bill from the deemed disposition. The cottage, the company shares, and large RRSP or RRIF balances stay in the family.
The business goes to one child. The others receive equal value. Everyone hears the same number at the same table.
Ease the tax drag on passive income building up inside your company.
Replace low-yield fixed income with a tax-exempt asset, and leave more behind.
Life insurance is the instrument behind each of these. It is a tax-exempt asset class. We consider it the most effective tax exempt investment in Canada. The instrument is not the point. Your legacy is.
See the strategies in detail04 Your guides
Doug and Jordan bring more than 35 years of combined experience in tax, accounting, wealth management, and life insurance. They are independent, with access to all major Canadian life insurance companies.
Doug concluded that any firm which both manufactures investment products and sells investment advice is in a conflict of interest. So in 2000 he left and founded his own independent firms, yourCFO Advisory Group and yourCFO Insurance Solutions.
In 2013 he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with his children. The guides kept saying pole pole. Slowly, slowly. He protects and grows wealth the same way.
Jordan is the Treasurer of Shifra Homes and a member of the Estate Planners’ Council of Halton. Clients get a tax mind, a steady manner, and answers in plain English.
Read full bioThe plan comes first · The instrument earns its place
Meet the teamDoug and his team have been instrumental in safeguarding and growing our family’s wealth and legacy. Their proactive approach to our insurance needs brings me comfort. They’ve significantly impacted our estate planning, ensuring our family’s future is secure.
Ray · Entrepreneur
“Doug and Jordan helped us understand how insurance plays a crucial role in our wealth and estate planning, guiding us through options to strengthen our legacy. Their patient approach and detailed analysis made it easy for us to make informed decisions. They’ve become vital members of our trusted advisory team.”
Tamara and Martin · Entrepreneurs
“I have dealt both personally and professionally with Doug and Jordan for several years. They have a long history of helping our firm’s clients create tax efficient estate plans using tax exempt life insurance strategies. Doug and Jordan are CPA, CA’s so they bring both tax knowledge and a practical approach that I have not experienced with other insurance advisors. They are independent and seek to source the best insurance provider to best suit my client’s needs.”
Kais Aziz · Partner, International Tax, BDO Canada
06 The plan
Talk through what you own, what worries you, and what you want your wealth to do.
We model the strategies in plain numbers. You choose. We implement with the chosen insurer(s).
At least one review every year, as your estate, your family, and tax law change.
CPAs, estate lawyers, and wealth managers send us their high-value clients. We work in confidence, beside the client’s existing advisors, never around them. How referral partnership works.
08 The reading room
How to start the estate planning conversation. How wealth passes to the next generation. Which kind of policy fits which job. Short articles and short videos. Clear, concise, and complete.
Featured reading
A satirical note, written with a straight face and with sincere thanks to Dr. Tom Deans for inspiring the list. If any of the ten gives you pause, that pause is the point.
Read the list
One conversation starts it. Confidential, and without obligation.