Wealth transfer planning —move it on purpose, or lose it in transit.
Wealth moves between generations exactly once — through a corridor of taxes, probate, timing, and family dynamics. Insurance is the instrument that lets you choose how much survives the trip, and exactly where it lands.
Transfer is a design problem, not an event.
Every dollar you don't spend will be transferred — the only question is how deliberately. Unplanned transfers route wealth through the deemed disposition, probate, and estate administration, then distribute what's left on the court's timeline. Planned transfers pre-fund the taxes, bypass the queues where possible, and deliver defined amounts to defined hands.
Life insurance is the transfer instrument Canadian tax law treats most generously: death benefits are generally received tax-free by named beneficiaries, proceeds typically bypass probate on those amounts, and cash value can grow tax-advantaged inside exempt policies within Income Tax Act limits while you’re alive.
For incorporated families, the corridor widens further: corporately owned policies may generate Capital Dividend Account credits at death — potentially allowing corporate surplus to reach the next generation as tax-free capital dividends, subject to CRA rules, instead of exiting as heavily taxed ordinary dividends.
Tanya's transfer work always begins with intent: who should receive what, when, and with what protections — then builds the funding architecture around those answers with your lawyer and accountant, so the plan on paper is the plan that actually happens.
Four corridors wealth can travel.
Direct to beneficiaries
Named-beneficiary insurance proceeds: generally tax-free, typically probate-bypassing, delivered in weeks — the cleanest corridor Canadian planning offers.
Through the estate
The will's corridor — necessary for many assets, but exposed to the deemed disposition, probate costs, delay, and public record. Insurance pre-funds its tolls.
Through the corporation
For incorporated families, CDA-routed insurance proceeds may move corporate wealth to heirs tax-efficiently, subject to CRA rules.
During your lifetime
Strategic gifts and policies on adult children — including cascading structures — that start the transfer early, on your terms, with your eyes open.
Where unplanned transfers lose their value.
Taxes at death
The deemed disposition taxes accrued gains in the estate's highest brackets — the single largest toll on most substantial transfers.
Probate & delay
Court fees are the visible cost; the eighteen-month wait, frozen assets, and forced-sale discounts are the expensive part.
Family friction
Ambiguity is a tax too. Undefined intentions become disputes, and disputes consume estates faster than the CRA does.
A transfer plan is simply these three leaks, found in advance and funded for less than they'd cost. Tanya's consultation maps all three against your actual balance sheet.
Transfers designed on purpose.
The skip-a-generation gift
Grandparents in Calgary fund policies benefiting grandchildren — a defined, generally tax-free amount arriving directly, outside two layers of estates, exactly as intended.
The cascading policy
A parent insures an adult child, with cash value growing tax-advantaged within prescribed limits; ownership later transfers to the child under provisions that may permit tax-deferred rollover, subject to CRA rules — wealth moving down with the policy.
The corporate exit ramp
A family holdco's surplus is repositioned into exempt insurance; at death, CDA-routed capital dividends deliver it to the next generation tax-efficiently instead of drip-feeding taxable dividends for decades.
The fairness architecture
The business to one child, insurance-funded equivalence to the others, defined amounts to a blended family's every branch — intent, made contractual.
Wealth transfer, answered plainly.
How is this different from estate planning?+
Can I really transfer a policy to my child tax-efficiently?+
What's the single biggest transfer mistake you see?+
Do trusts replace the need for insurance?+
How early should transfer planning start?+
Intergenerational planning, across three provinces.
Tanya designs wealth transfer strategies for families throughout Alberta — including Calgary, Edmonton, and Grande Prairie — across British Columbia, including Vancouver, Victoria, and Kelowna, and throughout Ontario, including Toronto, Ottawa, Mississauga, and Hamilton.
Decide where your wealth lands — while it's still your decision.
One conversation to map the corridors, price the tolls, and put your intentions in writing.