Business owners · Trades & owner-operated
Incorporated trades and owner-operated companies
In many owner-operated companies, the owner is the business: the licence, the client relationships and the personal guarantee on the equipment loan. Planning starts with what would happen to the company and its debts if you were not there.
The planning issues
What usually matters for trades & owner-operated
Not every issue applies to every owner. These are the questions we most often help owners work through, with your accountant and lawyer leading on tax and legal design.
You are the key person
If you are off work or gone, jobs, bids and cash flow can stop quickly. The question is how long reserves and credit would carry the company.
Check key-person exposurePersonal guarantees and callable debt
Equipment loans and operating lines often carry the owner’s personal guarantee. A lender may review or call them after a death or disability.
Include debt in the checkHow much cash to keep accessible
Seasonal work, holdbacks and tax instalments mean the company needs a real cash buffer before any surplus is treated as long-term.
See the passive income costSuccession to family or employees
Passing the company on can involve the lifetime capital gains exemption if the shares qualify (asset tests apply at the time of sale and over the prior 24 months), an estate freeze, or a gradual sale. These are tax and legal decisions led by your accountant and lawyer.
Check estate liquidityWhere to start
Planning checks for this situation
Each check shows any estimated funding gap under assumptions you can see and change. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.
Planning check
Key-person exposure
The cost to the business if a key person is gone, versus reserves, credit and existing coverage.
Open the checkPlanning check
Estate liquidity
What your estate would need to pay at death, minus the cash and coverage already available.
Open the checkPlanning check
Buy-sell funding
Your buyout obligation under a shareholder agreement versus how it would actually be funded.
Open the checkHow we help
What a review can do
Insurance is one of the options we compare across multiple companies. Insurance advice and applications for Ontario residents are handled by Jackson Armstrong, Financial Consultant, LLQP. When a gap is better closed another way, or an estimate shows none, we say so.
Sources reviewed November 7, 2026: CRA, Definitions for capital gains (qualified small business corporation shares). General summary only; rules have exceptions.
- Work out with you how long the company could run without you, using your real reserves and credit.
- Compare building reserves with key-person and disability coverage from several insurers, including what lenders may require.
- Coordinate with your accountant and lawyer on succession, so any funding matches the plan they design.
Next step
Book a no-cost business-owner review
About 20 minutes. We look at what your corporation should keep accessible, what it should protect, and how the value you have built transfers. No recommendation until we understand the facts, and no obligation.