Rethink How You Build, Retain, Control, Access & Transfer Wealth
Advanced financial planning for incorporated Canadian business owners.
You've worked hard to create wealth. The bigger question is how much of that wealth you retain, control, can access when needed, and ultimately transfer.
At DO FINANCIAL, we help incorporated business owners explore tax-efficient planning strategies designed to improve the way corporate and personal wealth work together.
Our approach goes beyond simply asking:
“Where should I invest my money?”
We also ask:
“Is there a more efficient way to structure, use and ultimately transfer the capital you've already created?”
Discover What Your Current Plan May Be Missing
Think Like a Wealth Creator
Is Your Financial Plan Designed to Accumulate Wealth, or Help You Control It?
Traditional financial planning often focuses primarily on accumulation: save more, invest more and hope the capital grows sufficiently for the future.
Those things matter.
But we believe sophisticated planning should ask additional questions:
- How much of the capital you create do you actually retain?
- How much is lost unnecessarily to tax, interest and inefficient financial structures?
- Who controls your capital when an opportunity arises?
- Can you access capital without unnecessarily disrupting other long-term strategies?
- How efficiently can accumulated wealth eventually be transferred to your family or the next generation?
We call this the Wealth Creator philosophy.
Build. Retain. Control. Access. Transfer.
It's not about one investment, insurance policy or tax strategy.
It's about looking at your financial life as an integrated system.
Built for Incorporated Canadian Business Owners
Your Corporation May Be Creating Wealth. Is Your Planning Helping You Retain It?
Successful incorporated business owners often reach a point where traditional financial planning no longer addresses every opportunity.
You may have retained earnings accumulating inside your corporation.
You may be asking how much salary or dividends to take.
You may be thinking about retirement.
You may be paying significant personal and corporate tax.
You may have accumulated investments, real estate and other assets.
And eventually, you may need to determine how the wealth you've created will pass to your family.
These aren't separate problems.
They are interconnected planning decisions.
DO FINANCIAL helps business owners evaluate how corporate and personal planning can work together more efficiently.
What Might Your Current Financial Plan Be Missing?
Depending on your circumstances, advanced planning may include evaluating strategies involving:
Corporate Tax Planning
Explore opportunities that may improve the tax efficiency of retained corporate capital and the eventual extraction or transfer of that wealth.
Corporate-Owned Life Insurance
Understand how appropriately structured permanent life insurance may complement corporate investment, retirement, estate and succession objectives.
Capital Dividend Account Planning
Life insurance proceeds received by a Canadian private corporation may create a credit to its Capital Dividend Account (CDA) based on the applicable provisions of the Canadian Income Tax Act.
Where properly structured and implemented, the CDA may permit qualifying amounts to be distributed to Canadian-resident shareholders as tax-free capital dividends.
The calculation is not necessarily equal to the entire insurance death benefit, and appropriate tax and legal advice is important.
Retirement Income Planning
Evaluate how your corporation, registered plans, personal investments and other assets may work together to create greater retirement income flexibility.
Individual Pension Plans
For certain incorporated business owners and professionals, an Individual Pension Plan (IPP) may provide an alternative or complement to traditional RRSP-based retirement accumulation.
Retirement Compensation Arrangements
In appropriate situations, a Retirement Compensation Arrangement (RCA) may provide another mechanism for funding retirement benefits beyond conventional registered-plan limits.
Business Succession & Estate Planning
Coordinate insurance, corporate assets, investments and estate strategies to help preserve and ultimately transfer wealth efficiently.
No individual strategy is appropriate for everyone. Recommendations depend on your particular circumstances and require proper analysis and implementation.
A Different Way to Think About Financing
Privatized Financing
Most people consider the interest rate when deciding how to finance something.
We believe there's another important question:
What happens to the capital used to finance it?
Over a lifetime, individuals and businesses may transfer substantial amounts of capital to outside lenders through financing costs.
Privatized Financing starts by examining whether a portion of that financing function can be brought back within your own financial system.
When appropriate, one method involves properly structured participating whole life insurance.
Think of a HELOC, But With Important Differences
Many business owners are familiar with a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC).
A homeowner may be able to access capital secured by the equity in a property without selling the property itself.
There is a conceptual similarity with permanent participating whole life insurance.
As policy values develop, capital may become accessible through mechanisms such as policy loans or collateral lending while the underlying insurance contract remains in place, subject to its terms.
But the comparison isn't exact.
A life insurance policy is not real estate. Borrowing has costs, tax consequences can arise, policy structure matters, and loans must be properly managed.
The HELOC analogy simply helps illustrate an important principle:
An asset may have value without requiring you to sell it in order to access capital.
Privatized Financing
Privatized Financing is the broader language we use to explain the financial principle.
The Infinite Banking Concept® (IBC®) is an established approach associated with using properly designed participating whole life insurance to help individuals exert greater control over their financing activities.
Dave Otto, CFP®, CLU® is an Authorized IBC Practitioner.
Watch: An Introduction to the Infinite Banking Concept®
TO COME: KEEP EXISTING VIDEO HERE
Learn More About Privatized Financing →
Capital Retention Matters
It Isn't Only What You Earn. It's What You Keep Working for You.
People naturally focus on investment returns.
But wealth can also be affected by:
- taxation
- financing costs
- investment fees
- lost opportunity cost
- interrupted compounding
- inefficient asset ownership
- poorly coordinated corporate and personal planning
A higher return is not automatically a better result.
We believe the more useful question is:
How efficiently is your overall financial system converting the income and capital you create into long-term personal, corporate and family wealth?
That's a very different conversation.
Rethink Your Thinking
The biggest financial opportunities aren't always found by choosing another investment.
Sometimes they begin by challenging an assumption.
Ask Yourself:
If something you believe about money turns out not to be true, when would you want to know?
How much of the wealth you create do you actually retain?
Who controls your capital when you need it?
What is the lifetime opportunity cost of the way you currently finance?
Is your financial plan simply helping you accumulate assets, or is it also helping you retain, control, access and eventually transfer wealth?
Sometimes a better answer begins with a better question.
Explore the Wealth Creator Philosophy
Advanced Planning Requires Collaboration
Your CPA, Lawyer and Financial Planner Shouldn't Be Working in Silos
Corporate tax, retirement, insurance, estate and succession planning frequently overlap.
That's why we believe sophisticated planning should be collaborative.
Where appropriate, DO FINANCIAL works alongside your existing:
- Chartered Professional Accountant
- tax lawyer
- estate lawyer
- investment professionals
- other professional advisors
Our role is not to replace your professional team.
Our role is to help identify opportunities, educate you about potential strategies and help coordinate the conversation required to determine whether those strategies fit your situation.
Important tax and legal decisions should be reviewed with appropriately qualified tax and legal professionals.
Why DO FINANCIAL?
Experience Matters. So Does Perspective.
Dave Otto, CFP®, CLU® has more than four decades of experience helping Canadians make informed financial decisions.
But experience alone isn't the differentiator.
Perspective is.
We believe successful business owners deserve more than conventional product recommendations.
They deserve someone willing to ask:
“Is there a better way to do this?”
Our work combines established financial planning principles with advanced strategies involving corporate planning, retirement, insurance, capital retention, Privatized Financing and estate and legacy planning.
The objective isn't complexity for the sake of complexity.
It's clarity.
Understand your options.
Understand the trade-offs.
Then make an informed decision.
Who We Work Best With
DO FINANCIAL primarily works with incorporated Canadian business owners who have built successful businesses and are now asking more sophisticated questions about what happens to the capital they're creating.
You may be a good fit if:
- your corporation consistently retains meaningful surplus capital
- you're paying significant personal or corporate tax
- you want to improve retirement income flexibility
- you're concerned about unnecessarily losing capital to tax or financing costs
- you're interested in coordinating corporate and personal wealth
- succession or estate planning is becoming increasingly important
- you're open to challenging conventional financial assumptions
- you value education before implementation
We also work with selected professionals, real estate investors and affluent Canadian families whose circumstances present similar planning opportunities.
Is Your Current Plan Missing Something?
You don't need to abandon everything you're currently doing.
You don't necessarily need another investment.
And you don't need to make a decision before you understand the strategy.
Start with a better question:
Is my current financial structure helping me retain, control, access and transfer as much of my wealth as reasonably possible?
If you don't know the answer, let's find out.
Book a Conversation With Dave
Discover what your current plan may be missing.
Important Information
Strategies involving corporations, taxation, insurance, investments, retirement and estate planning depend on individual circumstances and may have legal and tax consequences. Information provided by DO FINANCIAL is intended for educational purposes and should not be considered specific tax or legal advice. Tax and legal matters should be reviewed with appropriately qualified professionals before implementation.