Overview
For individuals, families and business owners, effective wealth planning is about more than preparing a Will. It requires sophisticated tax planning that considers how wealth is owned, taxed, protected, managed and ultimately transferred.
Gardiner Roberts’ Private Client practice is a specialized estate planning and administration practice within the firm’s Tax Group, focused on the succession and tax planning needs of high-net-worth individuals, families, entrepreneurs and business owners. Taking a holistic approach, we work with our clients to develop and implement integrated strategies to preserve wealth, minimize and defer tax exposure and facilitate the transfer of wealth to the next generation.
Our lawyers advise clients on the personal, family, business, trust and tax considerations that arise throughout the lifecycle of wealth. This includes lifetime tax planning, succession planning, trusts and estate structures, probate tax planning, business succession, philanthropy, incapacity planning, estate administration and post-mortem tax planning.
We take the time to understand each client’s unique family circumstances, assets, business interests, and long-term objectives to develop practical, tax-efficient strategies tailored to their particular needs.
Private Client Tax Planning
Our Private Client tax specialists advise on a broad range of sophisticated planning matters, including:
- Comprehensive estate and personal tax planning
- Tax-planned Wills and trust structures
- Intergenerational wealth transfers
- Estate freezes and other succession structures
- Family business and private company succession
- Family trusts and other tax-efficient trust structures
- Alter ego and joint partner trusts
- Testamentary and inter vivos trusts
- Probate tax planning and probate tax reduction and avoidance strategies
- Tax deferral strategies
- Income-splitting and wealth-transfer strategies
- Life insurance and insurance-related estate planning
- Charitable and philanthropic planning
- Powers of attorney, guardianship matters and incapacity planning
- Domestic contracts involving family wealth
- Complex and multi-generational estate planning
- Cross-border estate, trust and personal tax planning
- Planning involving U.S. citizenship, foreign property and non-resident beneficiaries
- Estate and trust administration
- Advice to executors, estate trustees, trustees and beneficiaries
- Fiduciary relations and obligations
- Post-mortem tax planning and implementation
For business owners, succession planning may require consideration of both the family enterprise and the tax consequences of transferring ownership. We work with clients to develop structures that address the needs of the business, the family and the next generation while considering the applicable tax implications.
Our Private Client lawyers bring tax expertise directly into the estate-planning process. Tax is not an afterthought to the estate plan; it is a central part of how the plan is designed.
Trusts can play an important role in sophisticated estate and succession planning. We advise on the establishment, structuring, administration and ongoing tax considerations of trusts, including family trusts, alter ego trusts, joint partner trusts, testamentary trusts and other structures used to preserve and transfer wealth.
We consider the objectives of the client, the needs of beneficiaries, control and succession issues, the nature of the assets involved and the applicable tax rules in developing and implementing appropriate trust strategies.
The transfer of significant wealth can give rise to substantial tax and probate costs. We advise clients on lawful strategies to manage, reduce or defer these costs as part of an overall estate plan.
Our advice may include planning for probate tax, structuring ownership of assets, trust planning, estate freezes, intergenerational transfers, charitable giving and other strategies designed to achieve the client’s objectives while considering the applicable tax consequences.
Tax planning does not end at death. The period following death can present important opportunities and deadlines for executors and estate trustees. We advise on post-mortem tax planning and implementation, including strategies to address income tax arising at death, the taxation of estates and trusts, asset transfers, distributions to beneficiaries and other issues arising during estate administration.
We also advise executors, estate trustees and trustees on their tax and legal responsibilities and assist with the administration of complex estates and trusts.
We advise clients whose families, businesses, investments or assets extend beyond Ontario or Canada.
Our Private Client tax specialists assist with Canadian tax considerations arising from foreign property, non-resident beneficiaries, U.S. citizenship, dual residence, international family structures and cross-border estates and trusts. Where appropriate, we coordinate with trusted advisors and counsel in other jurisdictions to develop integrated strategies for clients with international interests.
For entrepreneurs and owners of privately held businesses, personal wealth and business wealth are often inseparable.
We help business owners consider the tax and succession implications of transferring a family enterprise, introducing the next generation, restructuring ownership, implementing an estate freeze or planning for death or incapacity.
Our Private Client practice can work alongside the firm’s corporate and business lawyers where required, bringing private client tax expertise into the broader succession and business-planning process.
Private Client planning is not a one-time exercise. Family circumstances change. Businesses grow and evolve. Assets move between generations. Tax laws change.
We work with clients and their professional advisors to review, refine and implement their plans as circumstances change, with the goal of ensuring that their estate, trust, business and tax strategies remain aligned with their long-term objectives.
Whether planning for the preservation of family wealth, the succession of a privately held business, the establishment of a trust, the reduction or deferral of tax, or the administration of an estate following death, Gardiner Roberts provides specialized private client tax advice designed around the realities of each client’s family and financial circumstances.
Protecting wealth is not simply about what you leave behind. It is about planning how your wealth is owned, managed, protected and transferred today and for generations to come.
Get in touch
To learn more about how our Private Client team can support your business, get in touch with one of our team leaders.