Estate planning with insurance —so your wishes survive the paperwork.
A will says who gets what. Insurance makes sure the money is actually there — liquid, generally tax-free, and delivered in weeks rather than years — when taxes, costs, and promises all come due at once.
Liquidity is the estate's real bottleneck.
Canadian estates rarely fail for lack of assets — they strain for lack of liquid ones. At death, the CRA generally treats capital property as sold, creating tax on accrued gains in portfolios, rental properties, cottages, and private company shares. Add probate and administration costs, and the estate needs serious cash at precisely the moment its assets are hardest to sell well.
Life insurance answers the liquidity problem by design. Proceeds arrive generally tax-free, typically within weeks of a claim, and — when paid to named beneficiaries — generally bypass the estate entirely, avoiding probate delay and cost on those amounts in most circumstances.
Beyond paying bills, insurance is an instrument of fairness. It can equalize an estate when one child inherits the farm or the business, provide separately for children of a first marriage in a blended family, or fund a charitable gift without reducing what the family receives.
Tanya's estate work is collaborative by design: she coordinates with your lawyer on wills and beneficiary designations and with your accountant on the tax projection, so the insurance is sized to the real liability — not a guess — and the whole plan pulls in one direction.
Four estate jobs insurance does uniquely well.
Funding the final tax bill
A permanent policy sized to the projected deemed-disposition liability converts an uncertain future tax problem into a defined, pre-funded solution.
Bypassing probate
Proceeds paid to named beneficiaries generally pass outside the estate — avoiding probate fees and months of delay on those amounts in most circumstances.
Equalizing inheritances
When one heir receives the business, the farm, or the cottage, insurance creates an equivalent inheritance for the others — fair, funded, and friction-free.
Guaranteeing the gift
A defined, generally tax-free amount for children, grandchildren, or charity — independent of markets, timing, or how long retirement lasts.
Three costs every estate meets on arrival.
The deemed disposition
Accrued gains on capital property are generally taxed at death — often the estate’s single largest expense, and the least anticipated.
Probate & administration
Ontario's estate administration tax, BC's probate fees, and Alberta's court fees — plus legal and executor costs — reduce and delay what heirs receive.
The forced-sale discount
Illiquid estates sell assets on the court's timeline, not the market's. The discount for selling in a hurry is a tax nobody legislated but everybody pays.
Pre-funding these three costs with insurance is usually cheaper — often dramatically — than paying them from the estate. That comparison, in your actual numbers, is the heart of Tanya’s estate consultation.
Estates that went right.
The cottage kept
Three siblings inherit an Ontario cottage carrying decades of gains. The policy their parents placed pays the tax; the family keeps the dock, the deed, and the peace.
The blended family, handled
Named-beneficiary policies deliver defined amounts directly to children from a first marriage — outside the estate, beyond dispute — while the will governs the rest. Everyone knew the plan; no one contested it.
The business that didn't break
Dad's shares carried a seven-figure accrued gain. Corporate-owned insurance flowed through the Capital Dividend Account, funded the tax, and the operating company never missed payroll.
The charity and the kids — both
A donor in Vancouver named her foundation as beneficiary of one policy and her children on another. The gift was transformational; the inheritance was untouched; the tax credits helped the estate.
Estate planning with insurance, answered plainly.
Doesn't my will handle all of this?+
How do I know how big the tax bill will be?+
Should the policy be owned personally or by my corporation?+
What happens if I name my estate as beneficiary?+
Is it too late to do this in my sixties or seventies?+
Estate-focused insurance advice, across three provinces.
Tanya provides estate planning insurance strategies to families throughout Alberta — including Grande Prairie, Edmonton, Calgary, and Lethbridge — across British Columbia, including Vancouver, Victoria, Surrey, and Kelowna, and throughout Ontario, including Toronto, Ottawa, Mississauga, Hamilton, and London — coordinating with your lawyer and accountant in every case.
Give your estate the one thing it can't create later.
A projection of what your estate will owe, and a clear plan for having it ready — in one conversation.