ESTATE LAWYERS IN OTTAWA

The crowning achievement for many successful individuals is personal wealth that’s been secured wisely and professionally. Built through hard work, often over a lifetime, their financial legacies will continue to perform, supporting a comfortable retirement, growing family, prosperous business and philanthropic pursuits. At Connolly Nichols Allan & Snelling LLP, our estate-planning skills and business experience help clients manage succession and the liquidity of business assets. We wield every wealth management tool—from asset protection structures to estate administration, from trusts to managed buy-outs—to meet your precise, individual needs. Located in the west end of Ottawa in Kanata in a ground floor office with ample parking, our estate lawyers in Ottawa are accessible and convenient.

We understand that wealth management is ongoing. It must respect your evolving assets, objectives and business. It requires vigilance, vision and prudence. That’s why we forge relationships that last with our clients. We work closely with you and your accounting, insurance and investment advisors to develop and implement comprehensive and robust plans always in the service of your objectives. We’re ready to help secure your future and that of the next generation, giving you the peace of mind that your assets will continue to perform to your expectations.

Representative Work:

Our estate lawyers in Ottawa provide advice, develop and implement strategies and plans, for succession of businesses and estates and management of wealth, and have represented clients in respect of:

implementation of estate planning through tools such as multiple wills to probate financial assets in low probate fee jurisdictions in Canada saving significant government fees.
use of family trusts to provide for intergenerational transfers of assets, income splitting, multiple use of capital gains exemptions.
powers of attorney for property and powers of attorney for personal care (living wills).
use of spousal trusts, Hansen trusts and other tools to provide for income and care for specific beneficiaries while preserving capital for ultimate beneficiaries.
will and trust interpretation and representation in respect to contested or disputed wills or trusts.
strategizing and implementing plans for business succession to enable continuation of the family business and to achieve liquidity for other estate bequests and dispositions.
coordination with accounting advisors for tax minimization and tax-effective business succession.
estate administration, probate, variation of trusts.
removal and replacement of executors or trustees.
estate freezes and other tools to provide for intergenerational wealth transfer.

Business Succession and Liquidity

Succession and liquidity are often used interchangeably but have very different meanings in the context of small and medium businesses. Succession is the transfer of management and control of the business. Liquidity is the disposition of ownership interests. In the context of wealth and estate planning, they are strongly tied together because without a plan for succession, the prospect of achieving liquidity at fair value is significantly diminished.

Business succession is likely the single most significant issue that is most neglected by owner-entrepreneur, and yet few other issues have such a large long-term impact. Who will succeed the owner-entrepreneur? One of the adult children and if so which one? Will it be employees or some of them? The challenges to business succession are daunting and all too easily deferred. Accepting that business succession is a process, based on a plan that is individualized, adaptive and changing as circumstances change is the first step to achieving a better future for the owner-entrepreneur, his or family and those dependent on the business for financial security.

Business liquidity is the means by which the ownership interest in the business is turned into cash or other investments generating financial security. It may or may not be combined with the devolution of control. Liquidity is highly dependent on the implementation for succession. For example, compare the prospects of liquidity in two businesses, the first which has implemented management succession with officers that have extensive client facing roles, and the second of which has all client facing roles exclusively in the hands of the owner-entrepreneur. What are the prospects for sale of the second business compared to the first? In the first business the buyer will have confidence that the clients will be retained by the business because the clients have a relationship with continuing management. In the second business, those relationships are lost with the departure of the owner-entrepreneur and have to re-established with the new owner, which is a significant risk. If the second business is even saleable, it will attract a much lower price than the first because of the increased risk.

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