Succession planning —the exit you design, not the one that happens.
Every business owner exits — by sale, by succession, or by surprise. Insurance is the funding layer that makes the first two possible and survivable, and the third merely difficult instead of catastrophic.
A funded plan, not a hopeful one.
Succession planning answers three questions in writing: who takes over, what they pay or receive, and where the money comes from. Most owners have opinions on the first two. The third — funding — is where succession plans quietly fail, and it's exactly where insurance does its best work.
A shareholders' agreement that requires a buyout without funding it is a promise to negotiate during a crisis. Insurance on each shareholder guarantees the capital exists on the day the agreement triggers — the survivor keeps the company, the family receives full value, and nobody borrows against a grieving business.
Family successions add a second dimension: fairness. When one child takes the company, insurance can equalize the inheritance for the others and fund the tax bill on the founder's shares — so the transition doesn't force the successor to strip capital from the very business they're trying to grow. Corporately owned policies may route these proceeds through the Capital Dividend Account, subject to CRA rules.
Tanya pursues her Certified Executive Advisor (CEA) designation precisely because these transitions are where insurance, tax, law, and family meet. Her succession work is built alongside your accountant and lawyer — the agreement, the valuation logic, and the funding designed as one plan.
The four funding pillars of a real succession plan.
Buy-sell funding
Insurance on each shareholder guarantees buyout capital the moment the agreement triggers — no loans, no fire sales, no negotiating with an estate.
Key person protection
Capital to stabilize operations, reassure lenders and customers, and fund recruitment if a founder or critical leader dies before the transition completes.
Tax liquidity
The founder's shares often carry the estate's largest tax liability. Permanent coverage sized to the projection pays the CRA without touching the company.
Estate equalization
The successor gets the business; insurance funds an equivalent inheritance for siblings — keeping the transition fair and the family intact.
Every owner leaves one of three ways.
The planned sale
Insurance protects value through the sale window — key person coverage keeps lenders calm and buyers confident if the unexpected hits mid-process.
The family succession
Funding equalization and the tax bill in advance is what separates a transition from a dispute. The successor inherits a business, not a debt.
The surprise
Death or critical illness before any plan exists. Insurance is the only instrument that can retroactively make an unplanned exit survivable for the family and the firm.
Owners across Alberta, BC, and Ontario spend years maximizing business value and days — if that — planning its transfer. Tanya’s succession consultation is designed to correct that ratio in a single afternoon.
Successions that held together.
Two partners, one policy each
Co-owners of a Red Deer construction firm fund their buy-sell with corporately owned coverage. When one dies at 58, the CDA-routed proceeds complete the buyout in ninety days — the widow receives full value, the company never wobbles.
The daughter who took over
A Kelowna manufacturer passes to one of three children. Insurance equalizes the other two and pays the tax on Dad's shares — the successor starts with a clean balance sheet instead of family debt.
The five-year runway
An Ottawa founder plans to sell at 65. Key person and CI coverage protect the valuation through the runway; permanent coverage stands behind the estate tax if the timeline gets rewritten for him.
The farm that stayed a farm
Alberta farmland rich in acres, thin in cash. Insurance funds the tax and the non-farming siblings' inheritance — the section stays intact and in the family name.
Succession planning, answered plainly.
We have a shareholders' agreement — isn't that enough?+
How should buy-sell insurance be owned — personally or corporately?+
What if my successor is one of my children?+
When should succession funding be put in place?+
How does the CEA designation Tanya is pursuing matter here?+
Succession funding advice, across three provinces.
Tanya works with founders and family businesses throughout Alberta — including Grande Prairie, Edmonton, Calgary, and Red Deer — across British Columbia, including Vancouver, Kelowna, Kamloops, and Victoria, and throughout Ontario, including Toronto, Ottawa, Mississauga, and Kitchener-Waterloo.
Design the exit while every option is still open.
One conversation to map who takes over, what they pay, and — finally — where the money comes from.