Business Succession, Estate & Tax Planning

You Built the Wealth. Now Build the Plan to Protect It.

You may own a successful business, an operating company, a holding company, commercial properties, investments or a growing rental portfolio. The key question is what happens to everything you built when you retire, sell or die?

Succession planning brings your family, tax, business, real-estate and retirement decisions into one coordinated roadmap. Mackisen helps owners understand their options before a transition becomes urgent.

What Is Succession Planning?

Succession planning is the roadmap for what happens to your business, real estate and wealth when you are no longer running it. It answers who will own, control and operate the business; what your spouse and children receive; what tax could arise; and where the money will come from to pay it.

The decisions a proper plan brings together

A serious succession plan can combine tax planning, estate planning, business valuation, estate-freeze planning, corporate reorganization, preferred and common share planning, intergenerational transfer, real-estate succession, financing, insurance, retirement, management buyouts, sale planning and business continuity.

It is not one tax form. It is not simply a will. And it is not simply deciding that your children will get everything.

Why Succession Planning Matters in Canada

At death, capital property is generally treated for income-tax purposes as though it were disposed of at fair market value immediately before death, unless a tax-deferred rollover or another specific exception applies. This is commonly called a deemed disposition at death.

A simple real-estate example

Suppose you bought a property for $2 million and it is now worth $7 million. You never sold it, but the fair market value may still be used in determining the capital gain on your final tax return. If capital cost allowance was claimed on a rental building, CCA recapture may also need to be considered.

The result depends on adjusted cost base, capital improvements, land-versus-building allocation, CCA history, ownership structure, available losses, your province and applicable tax rules. Valuable property does not automatically mean your estate has liquid cash.

Protecting assets your family wants to keep

Your children may want to keep the buildings or business for the next generation. But without liquidity, they may need to refinance, borrow, sell investments, redeem shares, find an investor or sell part of the portfolio. Proper planning aims to address that risk before it happens.

What If Assets Go to Your Spouse or Children?

Qualifying capital property can generally transfer to a surviving spouse or qualifying spousal trust on a tax-deferred rollover when the relevant conditions are met. The tax may be postponed, not necessarily eliminated. The family still needs a strategy for the future.

There is no general rule that rental properties can simply be transferred to children tax-free. Depending on the assets and structure, potential pathways can include intergenerational business transfers, holding companies, family trusts, estate freezes, preferred shares, common shares, financing, gradual redemptions or management succession.

Estate Freeze Planning: Fix Today’s Value, Shift Future Growth

An estate freeze is a tax and succession-planning technique that can fix the founder’s economic interest at approximately today’s value while allowing future growth to accrue to the next generation.

Before and after an estate freeze

Imagine a company worth $10 million today that could become worth $30 million over the next 15 years. The founder’s existing growth shares may be reorganized into fixed-value preferred shares. New common growth shares may then be held by adult children, intended successors or, where appropriate, through a properly structured family trust.

If the company grows from $10 million to $30 million, the additional $20 million of future growth may accrue to the new common shares rather than continuing to accumulate entirely in the founder’s estate. The founder’s preferred shares remain focused on the value already built, subject to the actual terms and redemptions.

Preferred shares and common shares

Preferred shares can preserve the founder’s accumulated value and may carry fixed redemption value, voting rights, dividend rights or gradual retirement redemptions. Common shares generally participate in future growth. The right implementation requires proper valuation, tax advice and legal documentation.

A Transition Must Work for Parents and Children

Succession planning should never leave the founder asset-rich but cash-poor. A $10 million business does not automatically provide the $3 million a founder may need for retirement. The plan should consider gradual preferred-share redemptions, dividends where appropriate, consulting income, partial sales, vendor financing, refinancing, management buyout payments or a sale to children over time.

The aim is a financially secure retirement for parents and a realistic ownership path for children or other successors.

Estate Planning, Tax Planning and Liquidity

Estate planning determines what happens to your business interests, real estate, holding companies, investments, registered accounts, insurance, debts, beneficiaries and family obligations. It answers who gets what, when they receive it, who controls it, and how the estate will fund its obligations.

Professional tax planning reviews legitimate alternatives before a sale, transfer, retirement or death. That can include capital gains, CCA recapture, corporate and personal tax, holding companies, available losses, qualified small-business shares, share sales, asset sales, estate freezes, spousal rollovers and transaction timing.

Estate liquidity

A family can be worth $50 million and still have a cash problem. Buildings and company shares do not pay tax bills by themselves. A liquidity plan can examine cash reserves, investments, refinancing, corporate credit, insurance, planned asset sales, share redemptions, vendor financing and other business cash flows.

The role of life insurance

Where appropriate, life insurance can provide cash when a family needs it to pay tax, fund shareholder obligations, cover estate expenses, replace income, equalize inheritances or reduce pressure to sell assets. Mackisen can calculate projected liquidity requirements and coordinate with a properly licensed insurance professional.

Real-Estate and Family Business Succession

Whether you own 20 apartments, 200 apartments or 2,000 rental units, the same questions apply: how the properties are owned, their tax cost and CCA history, debt, fair market value, control, management succession, family interests, liquidity and financing capacity.

A substantial real-estate family should begin succession planning years before the founder dies. The larger and more complex the portfolio, the more important it is to coordinate ownership, tax, lenders, insurance and operating responsibilities.

Children do not all need the same assets to be treated fairly

One child may work in the business while another is a professional outside the company and a third lives overseas. A plan can consider active-child ownership, investments or real estate for other children, life insurance for equalization, preferred shares retained by parents, and common growth shares for the active successor.

When Succession Is a Financing Question

A capable child or management team may be the right successor without having the full purchase price today. A transition can potentially combine bank financing, acquisition financing, vendor financing, business cash flow, gradual purchase payments and preferred-share redemptions.

Mackisen can prepare financial forecasts, cash-flow projections, debt-service analysis, business valuation, financing packages, historical analysis, lender presentations and transaction scenarios so the proposed transition can be assessed realistically.

Business Valuation and Continuity

Before transferring anything, you need to know what it is worth. Business valuation informs estate freezes, family transfers, tax calculations, business sales, management buyouts, financing, shareholder transactions and equalization between children.

Business continuity asks a different question: what happens tomorrow morning if something happens to you tonight? A continuity plan identifies who can approve payroll, work with the bank, access financial systems, manage employees, collect receivables, sign contracts, operate properties and speak with customers, tenants and suppliers.

The Mackisen Succession Planning System

1. Succession readiness assessment: identify what you own, who owns it, potential value, retirement timeline, family objectives, possible successors and key risks.

2. Business and real-estate valuation: establish a clear financial picture of operating businesses, holding companies, investment assets, debt and shareholder interests.

3. Tax-at-death analysis: estimate potential exposure involving capital gains, CCA recapture, corporate shares, registered investments and other taxable assets.

4. Estate and family succession plan: determine ownership, control, operations, spouse needs, treatment of active and inactive children, and how the plan will be funded.

5. Estate-freeze and corporate-reorganization review: examine share structure, future-growth transfers, founder value, control, holding companies and family trusts where appropriate.

6. Tax planning and 7. liquidity and insurance analysis: assess deferral, exemptions, transaction structure, available losses, cash needs and potential sources of funding.

8. Financing strategy and 9. legal implementation: assess lender capacity and gradual purchase structures, while coordinating financial, tax, valuation and legal work with your lawyer or notary.

Start With a 2-Minute Succession Review

Tell us what you own, your approximate family asset value, what you are planning for, your timing and what concerns you most. We will help you identify the priority questions around tax, family ownership, estate liquidity, business valuation, financing, estate freezes and continuity.

Confidential. No obligation.

You Already Built the Wealth. Help the Next Generation Keep It.

Your goal may be for your children and grandchildren to still own the apartments, company or family enterprise 30 years from now. That does not happen automatically. Understand the tax, establish the value, decide who succeeds you, structure ownership, plan liquidity, arrange financing, protect your spouse and implement the plan while you are still in control.

Get My Succession Review