Wealth Transfer services
Decisions That Last for Generations
Over the coming decades, Canadian families will pass more than $1 trillion in wealth to younger generations—the largest intergenerational wealth transfer this country has seen.
At Bellwether, we help families plan for this moment with clarity and confidence—coordinating with your estate lawyers, accountants, and tax professionals to build a wealth transfer strategy that reflects what you’ve built and who you’re building it for. The goal isn’t just to transfer wealth. It’s to transfer it well.
Wealth Transfer Planning
Inheritance Alone Isn't a Strategy
Canada does not impose an inheritance tax in the traditional sense, but that doesn’t mean your heirs receive everything. When you die, the Canada Revenue Agency treats most of your assets as though they were sold at fair market value. That deemed disposition generates a capital gains liability your estate must settle before anyone inherits a dollar.
Without a plan, the tax burden alone can erode a meaningful share of what you intended to leave behind. With the right financial strategy—one that accounts for your family, your assets, and the rules—more of your wealth can reach the people you care about, on terms that reflect the thought you put into earning it.
Assess Your Legacy
Understand what you own, what it’s worth, and what the deemed disposition rules would cost your family if nothing changes.
Build Your Strategy
Coordinate with your professional advisors to structure a plan that reduces tax exposure and reflects your priorities across generations.
Secure the Next Generation
Put trust structures, succession plans, and gifting strategies in place so the wealth you transfer is protected and the beneficiaries receiving it are prepared.
Tax Planning Strategies
Make it a Great Wealth Transfer
Every estate plan is different, and the strategies that make sense for a retiring business owner look nothing like those suited to a family managing a diversified portfolio.
Bellwether coordinates with your legal and tax advisors to design a wealth transfer plan around the specifics of your situation—not a template. Below are three areas where that coordination matters most.
The tax exposure triggered at death is often larger than families expect. Spousal rollovers can defer that liability to the surviving spouse’s passing. An estate freeze locks in today’s values and shifts future appreciation to the next generation. Prescribed-rate loans may allow income splitting with family members in lower tax brackets.
Each tool carries its own rules and limitations—the value is in knowing which ones fit your estate and applying them before they’re needed.
A family business can represent the single largest asset in an estate—and the most complex to hand over. Whether the plan is to transition ownership to your children, sell to key employees, or pursue an external buyer, the structure of that transfer carries significant tax consequences.
Corporate reorganizations and the lifetime capital gains exemption on qualifying small business shares can make the difference between a tax-efficient succession and one that erodes the value you spent a career building.
Inter vivos gifting in Canada comes with attribution rules that can tax the income back to the giver—not the recipient. Trusts offer a more structured path. Family trusts, alter ego trusts, joint partner trusts, and testamentary trusts each serve different purposes and stages of life. Life insurance can provide tax-free liquidity to settle estate costs or fund bequests without forcing a sale of assets.
The right combination depends on your family, your goals, and the complexity of the unique circumstances that come with the wealth you built.
