Business Services
Short answer
What does business insurance and corporate planning cover?
For an incorporated Canadian business it covers four things: funding the buy/sell agreement so shares transfer at an agreed price, key person and overhead coverage so the company survives losing someone, corporate tax structuring of retained earnings and the Capital Dividend Account, and group benefits and retirement plans that keep good staff. Thompson & Pollock builds these together with your CPA and lawyer.
Reviewed by Johnathan Pollock · Updated August 2026
We offer tailor-made financial planning services designed to help you grow your business, reduce the amount of taxes you pay, safeguard your assets, and prepare your team for a secure retirement. From buy/sell agreement funding and key person coverage to corporately owned critical illness, group benefits, and business succession planning — we cover every angle a Canadian business owner needs.
While we have a keen focus on aiding businesses in the trades, we're equally proficient in delivering exceptional financial services to a diverse range of businesses across various industries. Whatever your needs, Thompson & Pollock Wealth Inc. is here to guide you every step of the way.
What we offer business owners
Each of the strategies below is a tool we use regularly with incorporated business owners across Ontario and New Brunswick. The right combination depends on your ownership structure, your partners, your tax position and what you want the business to do for you and your family in the long run.
- 01
Buy/Sell Agreement Insurance
A buy/sell agreement funded by life insurance is the single most important document most multi-owner businesses never get around to putting in place. If a partner dies, becomes disabled, or exits the business, the surviving owners receive a tax-efficient lump sum that lets them buy out that partner's shares — at a pre-agreed valuation — without having to remortgage their homes, drain the company's working capital, or end up in business with a grieving spouse who never wanted to be an owner. We coordinate with your accountant and corporate lawyer to structure the agreement (criss-cross, promissory note, or share redemption), determine the right amount of coverage, and place corporately owned life insurance that funds the obligation cleanly through the Capital Dividend Account.
- 02
Key Person Insurance
Almost every business has one or two people the company simply cannot afford to lose — a founder, a top producer, a master tradesperson, a key estimator, a CFO who knows where every dollar is. Key person insurance is corporately owned coverage on that individual, with the company as the beneficiary. If the unthinkable happens, the business receives a tax-free death benefit (and, with critical illness or disability riders, a living benefit) to recruit and train a replacement, retire debt, reassure the bank, retain nervous customers, and keep payroll moving while the owners figure out what comes next. We help you identify who your key people actually are, quantify what they're worth to the business, and put coverage in place quickly.
- 03
Corporately Owned Critical Illness Insurance
One of the most overlooked planning tools available to incorporated business owners. The corporation owns and pays for the critical illness policy with after-tax corporate dollars (typically taxed at a much lower rate than personal income), and on diagnosis of a covered illness — heart attack, stroke, cancer, and many more — pays a tax-free lump sum benefit. Pair it with a Return of Premium rider and, if no claim is made, the corporation can recover 100% of the premiums paid — creating a powerful sinking fund that protects the owner personally while moving money out of the company tax-efficiently. We build these structures regularly for trades businesses, professional corporations and family-run companies across Ontario and New Brunswick.
- 04
Corporate Owned Life Insurance (COLI)
Permanent corporate life insurance is one of the most tax-efficient ways to grow surplus capital trapped inside an operating company or holding company. Cash value compounds on a tax-deferred basis, the death benefit flows out through the Capital Dividend Account to your estate or beneficiaries tax-free, and the policy can be used as collateral for tax-free policy loans during your lifetime. We use COLI to fund buy/sell agreements, build estate liquidity, equalize inheritances among children inside and outside the business, and turn passive corporate surplus into a tax-advantaged legacy.
- 05
Business Overhead Expense Insurance
If you are personally disabled, your personal disability policy replaces your income — but it does not keep the lights on at the shop. Business Overhead Expense insurance reimburses the company for fixed monthly expenses (rent, utilities, lease payments, staff salaries, insurance premiums, professional fees) while you recover, so the business is still standing when you come back. Critical for owner-operators, professional practices, and contracting businesses that depend on the principal being on the tools.
- 06
Group Benefits
A well-designed group benefits plan — health, dental, vision, paramedical, EAP, optional life and critical illness — does two jobs at once: it takes care of your team and their families when they need it most, and it materially improves your ability to attract and retain skilled people in a tight labour market. We shop the major Canadian carriers on your behalf, design the plan around your workforce and budget, and review it every renewal so you are never quietly absorbing double-digit premium increases year after year.
- 07
Group Pensions & Group RRSPs
Today's best employees expect more than a paycheque. A Group Retirement Savings Plan (Group RRSP, DPSP, or Pooled Registered Pension Plan) lets your team save for retirement through convenient payroll deduction, often with an employer match — a benefit they would have to earn 1.5× to 2× as much salary to replicate on their own. The plans are professionally managed, low-cost, and deductible to the company. Done right, they are one of the highest-leverage retention tools a small or mid-sized business has.
- 08
Business Succession & Estate Planning
The vast majority of business owners plan to fund their retirement by 'selling the business one day' — and the vast majority of those sales never happen on the timeline or for the value the owner expected. We help you build a real succession plan: defining what the business is worth, who can or should buy it (family, management, third party), how the sale will be financed, how to structure the transaction for maximum after-tax proceeds (Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption, family trusts, estate freeze), and what your personal financial life looks like the day after closing.
- 09
Business Insurance — Liability & Property
Commercial general liability, property, tools and equipment, builder's risk, commercial auto, fleet, cyber, and contractor-specific coverages. We work with trusted P&C partners so the protection on the business side of your balance sheet is just as well-thought-through as the protection on the personal side.
How we work with your accountant and lawyer
Most of what we do for business owners sits at the intersection of insurance, investments, tax and corporate law. We routinely coordinate directly with your CPA and corporate counsel — drafting and updating buy/sell agreements, structuring shareholder agreements, modelling estate freezes, designing capital dividend account strategies, and making sure the policies, the corporate structure and the wills all line up. Nothing falls between the cracks because nobody is talking to anybody else.
Three ways owners handle this — and what each actually leaves exposed
| What matters | Nothing formal in place | Policy bought, no structure | Coordinated plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| If an owner dies | Estate becomes your business partner | Money arrives, ownership dispute remains | Shares transfer at a pre-agreed value, funded on day one |
| Tax on the buyout | Paid with after-tax personal dollars | Often missed CDA credit | Capital Dividend Account used deliberately |
| Key person out for six months | Cash flow absorbs it | Life coverage only, no disability | Key person disability and overhead expense in force |
| Retained earnings | Sitting in the operating company | Unmanaged | Structured so the small business deduction and LCGE stay intact |
| Staff retention | Wage competition only | Ad hoc | Group benefits plus group retirement with vesting |
| Exit | Whatever a buyer offers | Unprepared | Purified, documented, LCGE-ready |
Illustrative outcomes. Your result depends on your corporate structure and agreements.
Built for trades and contractor businesses
Most of the owners we work with run plumbing, HVAC, electrical, framing or renovation contracting companies. The pattern is consistent: strong cash flow, cash piling up in the operating company, a partner or two with nothing formal written down, and no plan for what the business is worth on the way out.
The fix is sequenced — protect the downside first with buy/sell funding and key person coverage, then structure the retained earnings so the small business deduction and the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption stay available, then add group benefits and a group retirement plan to hold your crew, and finally invest what is left through the Optimize Private Client Program.
Business owner questions we get every week
- What is a buy/sell agreement and why does it need insurance?
- A buy/sell agreement is the contract that decides what happens to an owner's shares if they die, become disabled or leave. Insurance is what makes it work: without funding, the surviving owners have to find the purchase price from cash flow, a bank loan or their own homes. Corporately owned life insurance provides the money the day it is needed, and structured properly the proceeds flow out through the Capital Dividend Account largely tax-free.
- How much key person insurance does a business need?
- A common starting point is the cost to replace the person plus the profit the business would lose while doing it: recruitment and training, lost gross margin for six to twenty-four months, and any debt the lender can call. For an owner-operator whose licence or relationships drive the revenue, that figure is usually several times annual salary.
- Is corporately owned life insurance tax deductible?
- Premiums are generally not deductible. The advantage is elsewhere: the corporation pays with lower-taxed corporate dollars, the cash value of a permanent policy grows on a tax-advantaged basis, and the death benefit less the policy's adjusted cost basis credits the Capital Dividend Account so it can be paid to shareholders tax-free.
- Should my holding company or my operating company own the policy?
- It depends on where the cash is, who the shareholders are, and whether you are protecting the share-sale test for the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption. Excess passive assets in the operating company can disqualify the shares from the exemption, so ownership is a planning decision we make with your accountant rather than a default.
- Can group benefits actually help me keep staff?
- In the trades, yes — it is frequently cheaper to add a benefits plan than to match a competitor's hourly rate, and it is far more visible to a spouse making the household decision. A group retirement plan or DPSP with a vesting schedule adds a second reason to stay.
- When should I start planning my exit?
- Two to three years before you want out, at the earliest. Purifying excess passive assets, getting financials clean, documenting recurring revenue and locking in key staff all take time, and every one of them affects the price a buyer will pay and how much of it you keep.
Written and reviewed by Johnathan Pollock
Managing Partner, Thompson & Pollock Wealth Inc. — Amazon best-selling author of The Entrepreneur's Toolkit.
Last reviewed August 2026