Family Office Services for Professional Corporations

Table of Contents

• What Family Office Services Mean for Professional Corporations
  • Single-Family vs. Multi-Family Office Models
• Professional Corporation Tax Planning: The Core of the Relationship
  • The mechanisms that actually drive the outcome
  • Salary versus dividends: why the answer keeps changing
  • What a family office adds that a tax preparer does not
• Incorporated Professional Financial Planning That Connects Corporate and Personal Goals
• Corporate Investment Planning: Putting Retained Earnings to Work
• Business Succession Planning and Wealth Transfer for Incorporated Professionals
• Eligibility, Fees, and What to Expect From Family Office Services
  • Service models and when each fits
  • How fees are typically structured
  • How to measure value
  • Questions worth asking before you commit
• Frequently Asked Questions

Last Updated: October 12, 2026

What Family Office Services Mean for Professional Corporations

Family office services for professional corporations combine investment management, tax planning, and estate coordination into one relationship built specifically for incorporated professionals. The core issue is that a professional corporation is not a side account.

A family office is a dedicated advisory structure that manages the financial affairs of one household or a small group of related households.

Single-Family vs. Multi-Family Office Models

A single-family office serves one family exclusively. You get direct access to your advisory team, fully customized reporting, and no competing client priorities.

A multi-family office serves several families under one roof. You share the infrastructure, which lowers the cost of entry, while still getting coordinated advice across tax, investments, insurance, and estate matters. For most incorporated professionals, this is the practical starting point.

What matters more than the label is whether the firm understands professional corporations. A generalist wealth manager may handle your investment portfolio well and still miss the corporate tax mechanics entirely.

Professional Corporation Tax Planning: The Core of the Relationship

Professional corporation tax planning is the reason most incorporated professionals seek out family office services in the first place. The corporation gives you flexibility a salaried employee does not have: you choose when to pay yourself, how much to retain, and how to invest what stays inside.

The Canada Revenue Agency administers the rules that govern that flexibility, including the small business deduction, the refundable tax regime on passive investment income, and the integration system that is meant to make earning through a corporation roughly equivalent to earning personally. You can review the current thresholds and mechanics directly at Canada Revenue Agency corporate tax pages.

The mechanisms that actually drive the outcome

The small business deduction. Active business income below the federal small business threshold is taxed at the small business rate. Income above it is taxed at the general rate.

Refundable taxes and RDTOH. When a corporation earns certain investment income, it pays tax that is partly refundable.

The passive income threshold. Investment income above a certain annual threshold can reduce or eliminate access to the small business deduction on active income (Small business deduction rules).

Salary versus dividends: why the answer keeps changing

A common mistake is assuming salary and dividends are interchangeable. They are not. Each has a different effect on RRSP room, CPP contributions, personal marginal rates, and the corporation's own tax position.

• Salary creates RRSP contribution room and CPP entitlement, and it is deductible to the corporation. It also adds to personal taxable income at your marginal rate.
• Dividends are paid out of after-tax corporate income and are not deductible to the corporation. They do not create RRSP room or CPP entitlement, but they can be more tax-efficient at certain income levels because of the dividend tax credit.
• Retained earnings left inside the corporation can be invested, but the investment income they generate is subject to the refundable tax regime and can erode the small business deduction.

The right split changes as your income, family situation, and corporate retained earnings change. A split that made sense at incorporation often does not make sense five years later.

Corporate Investment Planning: Putting Retained Earnings to Work

Corporate investment planning is about investing retained earnings inside the corporation without triggering unnecessary tax drag. The portfolio inside a professional corporation is subject to different rules than your personal account, particularly around passive income.

The practical implications are straightforward:

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• Asset location matters more than asset selection. Placing the wrong asset class inside the corporation can cost more in tax than it earns in return.
• Capital gains and Canadian dividends receive different treatment than interest income, which affects what belongs in the corporate portfolio.
• Investment income above the passive income threshold can reduce or eliminate access to the small business deduction.

Most professionals may not have had this modeled. They hold the same balanced fund inside the corporation that they hold personally, and they assume the tax outcome is similar. It is not.

Business Succession Planning and Wealth Transfer for Incorporated Professionals

Business succession planning for incorporated professionals has two tracks running at once: transferring the practice and transferring the family wealth. They overlap far more than most owners expect.

The practice itself may be sold to a partner, an associate, or an outside buyer. The corporation may be wound down, or it may continue as a holding structure for the family's investments.

Wealth transfer planning sits alongside that.

For incorporated professionals with a pension from prior employment, the commuted value decision is often part of this conversation. It is a one-time choice, and it interacts with everything else in the plan.

Eligibility, Fees, and What to Expect From Family Office Services

Eligibility for family office services depends on the provider, but the practical threshold is complexity rather than a fixed number. If your corporation holds meaningful retained earnings, you have multiple income sources, and your estate plan touches more than one generation, you are likely in the right range. Some firms publish minimum asset thresholds; others assess fit based on the scope of work. The honest answer is that the right model depends on what you actually need coordinated.

Service models and when each fits

Single-family office. Serves one family exclusively. You get a dedicated team, fully customized reporting, and no competing client priorities.

Multi-family office. Serves several families under one roof. You share the infrastructure, which lowers the cost of entry, while still getting coordinated advice across tax, investments, insurance, and estate matters. For most incorporated professionals, this is the practical starting point.

Outsourced or virtual family office. A smaller firm or network coordinates the advisory team, accountant, investment manager, insurance advisor, lawyer, without building a full in-house infrastructure.

How fees are typically structured

Fee models vary, and the structure matters as much as the number. The common approaches are:

• Assets under management (AUM) percentage. A percentage of the assets the firm manages. Simple to understand, but it can create a mismatch when the advice you need most is tax and structure planning rather than portfolio management.
• Flat retainer. A fixed annual or quarterly fee for a defined scope of planning and coordination work. Predictable, and it aligns the fee with the work rather than the asset base.
• Hourly or project-based. Common for one-time planning engagements, such as a corporate restructuring review or a succession plan. Useful when you want a specific piece of work done without an ongoing relationship.
• Hybrid. A combination of a retainer for planning and a percentage for assets under management. Increasingly common because it separates the cost of advice from the cost of portfolio management.

Ask for a written breakdown before committing. A firm that cannot explain its fee in plain language is a firm that has not thought carefully about what it is charging for.

How to measure value

Value in a family office relationship is not the same as investment return. Look at three things:

1. Tax saved through better structure and timing. A salary-versus-dividend decision modeled correctly, or a passive income threshold managed before it is breached, can be worth more than a year of portfolio outperformance.
2. Coordination gained by having one team instead of four. The cost of fragmented advice is not a line item, but it shows up in missed opportunities and conflicting recommendations.
3. Decisions made faster because someone is accountable for the whole picture. When no one owns the integrated plan, decisions stall. When someone does, they move.

Ask any firm you are considering to walk you through a sample integrated projection, corporate and personal side by side, before you sign. If they cannot produce one, they are not set up to coordinate the way a family office should.

Questions worth asking before you commit

• Who is accountable for the integrated plan, and how often is it reviewed?
• How does the firm coordinate with my existing accountant and lawyer?
• What happens to the relationship if my practice income changes or I sell the practice?
• How are fees calculated, and what is included versus billed separately?
• Can you show me how the corporate and personal projections reconcile?

Be skeptical of any firm that cannot answer these in plain language. At Thompson & Pollock Wealth Inc., we built our practice around self-employed owners.

Frequently Asked Questions