Often businesses are unsuccessful after the primary owner of the company stops working or passes away. Currently one third of all Canadian companies do not have a set out plan for the succession of their businesses. This can be avoided with careful planning, which many businesses often times neglect.

With excellent planning, businesses will have the knowledge on:
- How to preserve ownership within their family
- How to maintain their current and future partnerships
- Know whether or not to sell to a third party
- Who will be the next head figure in charge to take place of the current one

All of these are very important to think about before the transfer of leadership or it could potentially destroy the business.

For example, the owner of a family business is planning on retiring but is the only one who is related to the business in his 4-person family. He does not know how to equally distribute the company’s power once he retires. He believes one of his sons is not worthy enough to take over the business while his other son is very hard working with lots of experience in that field. At our firm, we can help you create the best succession plan to suit your situation.

A.T. Financial has the trained professionals with the ability to help your distinct business build an individualized plan to carry on no matter what stage your business may be at. We have the strategies to help your business shelter taxes and provide earnings for those family members that may not be part of the company.

Our professionals have the capability to build our clients a benefits plan that will provide the appropriate benefits that fit nicely within your company requirements.

Examples of some of our benefits include:
- Life insurance
- Critical illness insurance
- Disability insurance
- Dental benefits
- Extended health benefits
- Group RRSPs

One component of this plan includes a deductible, which is an amount of eligible expenses of health care a person must have before a reimbursement can be made to them. It comes in 2 forms: a calendar year deductible and a per prescription deductible.

Another component is co-insurance. This is the proportion of the eligible expenses greater than the deductible amount that can be reimbursed to you.

We know exactly how to design a plan that is right for you and your employees that are easy to claim and provide benefits with great value.

The Private Health Services Plan (PHSP) plan allows employers to classify medical expenses of employees as a deductible business expense of the business.

Advantages of this plan:
- Provides significant savings for both employees and employers
- Includes a low-cost, affordable medical coverage for many small business owners and the self-employed
- No monthly premiums and no renewal charges
- Employees will be given an extensive choice of expenses they may use
- Flexible
- Can be combined with other health plans or can be used alone

In order to guarantee your purposes are fulfilled, we have the trained professionals to build an appropriate arrangement to help you strategically diminish the impact of your taxes on your estate plan. An estate plan generally involves a will, power of attorney, the designations for insurance beneficiaries, and a trust deed in some circumstances. It is important to consider what your business means to you, how important your lifestyle is to your family, and how involved you are with the community.

Our trained professionals are able to help preserve the interests of business owners and important employees of your company. Our fair compensation packages are individualized to suit your employment, retention, and reward needs. As well, we are able to help minimize taxes for owners when they receive their own compensation.

We have excellent plans to help compensate once key individuals retire from the company:

Individual Pension Plans (IPP):
This pension plan provides the maximum amount of benefits that is allowed by Revenue Canada. It is limited to an individual and their spouse and is sponsored by the individual’s employer. It must be registered with Revenue Canada and follows specific rules.

This IPP is creditor-proof and allows a greater contribution amount of about 25% to 70% than that compared to conventional RRSPs. All expenses and contributions that arise and are maintained are tax-deductible. It is a great alternative to an RRSP as it allows the accumulation of a greater retirement fund.

With this plan, you can be certain of the level of benefits that you will receive when you retire. If an individual retires before 65 years of age, an extra amount of contribution is available to the plan and can total up to half of the assets that the plan has accumulated. As well, the plan allows additional amounts of contribution if less than 7.5% is earned.

Insured Retirement Plan (IRP):
The IRP is valuable when individuals need life insurance and want to expand their income for retirement. It uses the requirements of the Income Tax Act to work with life insurance contracts that are exempt. This growth usually exceeds values in a taxable investment and is not necessarily taxed every year.

Retirement Compensation Arrangement (RCA):
This Income Tax Act permitted plan allows tax-deductible contributions that are either contributed to an RCA by the taxpayer or by the employer. The income received by the individual is treated like pension income and will be taxed accordingly. A lower tax rate will be used if the individual is no longer a Canadian tax player if they emigrate from Canada.

An RCA should be considered when the following occurs:
- The earnings are generally greater than the small business tax limit after paying the required amount to its owners
- Personal and corporate income taxes are declining where the company resides
- A company’s key individuals have little to no pension benefits
- The key individuals of a company intend to sell the business when they retired and want to emigrate from Canada