Corporate protection
The business runs on people. Insure the people.
You've insured the trucks, the building and the liability. The one input that stops the work when it's gone is the person who runs it, or the two or three people it can't run without.
Licensed across Canada. What to expect
Five holes. Most corporations have covered none of them.
The trucks, the building and the liability are insured. Everything below usually isn't, and every one of them keeps running the month you can't.
The seat
If you're out for six months, who runs it? Nine in ten owners have no written answer. The business finds out the hard way.
Covered by a lump sum that pays for interim managementThe Friday
Payroll goes out whether you're in the yard or in a hospital bed. EI sickness pays an owner over 40% nothing, unless they opted in a year ahead, and then at most $729 a week.
Covered by corporate-owned critical illnessThe guarantee
Bank lines, equipment finance, the building. Most of it carries your personal guarantee, and lenders don't pause because you're recovering.
Covered by a benefit that services the debtThe accounts
The customers who only deal with you deal with somebody else, unless there's money to put someone in front of them.
Covered by key person coverage on whoever holds themThe partner
Two owners, one diagnosis, and a buy-sell agreement with no money behind it. A crisis instead of a transaction.
Covered by a funded buy-sell
Coverage while you need it. Capital back if you never do.
The corporation owns the policy, pays the premium, and is the beneficiary. The money lands where the obligations are.
No receipts, no restrictions on use. Payroll, your seat, the debt, the accounts, the buy-sell. The business decides.
Diagnosis
A covered condition. Heart attack, stroke, cancer and typically two dozen more, defined by the industry's benchmark wording so a heart attack means the same thing on every policy. Many also pay a partial benefit for early-stage conditions.
Thirty days
A lump sum is paid to the corporation, tax-free, once the survival period is met, usually thirty days after diagnosis. No receipts, no treatment plan to approve.
Return of premium
Options exist that return the premiums paid if the policy is never claimed on, on the rider's terms. Covered through the years that matter, money back when it doesn't.
Underwritten once
Health questions at the start, not at claim. Most owners qualify. We tell you before you apply whether something in your history is likely to change the answer.
Protecting your best employees is the best case for the business.
Life and critical illness coverage on a key employee, owned by and payable to the corporation. The operations manager. The lead estimator. The one salesperson with the book.
Every lender asks the same question: who runs it if something happens to you, and who runs it if something happens to them? Key person coverage is the answer with a number on it.
Continuity
Replace the revenue they generate, fund the search, cover the ramp for whoever comes next.
Lender confidence
Banks lend against continuity. A key person policy is continuity they can see.
Retention
Structure part of the coverage so their family benefits too. It becomes one more reason to stay. The kind of handcuffs people are grateful for.
The signal
It tells your best people they matter, in a way a bonus never quite does.
The lump sum lands in the corporation tax-free. What happens next is a choice.
A critical illness benefit paid to the corporation is not taxable income. The corporation can spend it on anything: payroll, the payments, a manager, the buy-out. If it is instead paid out to a shareholder personally, it is a dividend like any other, and taxed like one.
Life insurance is different, and better on the way out. The death benefit is paid to the corporation tax-free, and the amount above the policy's cost basis credits the capital dividend account, which can be paid to shareholders as a tax-free capital dividend.
Critical illness: tax-free to the corporation
No tax on receipt. Spent inside the corporation, no tax at all. Paid out personally, a taxable dividend.
Life insurance: tax-free, and out through the CDA
The benefit above the cost basis credits the capital dividend account. From there it reaches your family or your partner's family tax-free.
Premiums: corporate dollars
Premiums are generally not deductible. They are paid with income taxed at 11.2%, not with income you took out at 53.53% first, which is still the cheaper way to own coverage.
The shareholders' agreement says who buys. It rarely says with what.
Most agreements between partners cover death, and some cover a critical illness or disability: one partner buys the other out. Almost none of them come with the money to do it. The healthy partner is left borrowing against a business that just lost half its management, or the ill partner's family is left owning half of something they cannot run.
A critical illness policy on each owner, owned by the corporation, puts the purchase price in the corporation's account the month it's needed. Life insurance does the same for the death case, and through the capital dividend account the proceeds reach the family tax-free.
Read the agreement first
The session starts with what yours actually says about illness, disability and death, and what it is silent on.
Match the coverage to the price
Coverage is sized to the value of the shares, and reviewed as the business grows.
A crisis becomes a transaction
Funded, the buy-out is a signature. Unfunded, it is a negotiation between people who are grieving or recovering.
Most owners qualify. The ones who wait are the ones who don't.
Coverage is underwritten when it is issued: health questions, and depending on the amount, a paramedical exam. Once the policy is in force, a change in your health does not change the coverage or the premium. That is the whole reason to do it while you are healthy.
Coverage on a key person needs their consent and their underwriting. Most take it as the compliment it is, and where part of the benefit goes to their family, it becomes a reason to stay.
What is asked
Medical history, current health, family history, lifestyle. For larger amounts, a nurse visit for bloodwork and vitals.
What can happen
Standard, rated (a higher premium), an exclusion for a specific condition, or a decline. A session tells you quickly which is likely.
Not on the intake
Nothing about your health is asked on this site or on the first call. Underwriting is a later step, if you choose to go ahead.
Every lender asks the same question. This is an answer they accept.
Banks and equipment lenders lend against continuity. The personal guarantee follows the owner, and the covenant follows the business. When the owner cannot work, both are at risk, which is why the question "who runs it if something happens to you" comes up at every renewal.
A critical illness or key person policy owned by the corporation is continuity a lender can see. Some lenders require it. Most look more favourably on a corporation that has it, and coverage can be collaterally assigned where a loan calls for it.
The guarantee keeps getting paid
The benefit services the debt through the months the owner is away, so the guarantee is never called.
Assignable
Where a lender requires coverage as a condition of the loan, the policy can be assigned to them.
Bonding
For contractors, the same logic applies to the bonding company. Continuity on the principal supports bonding capacity.
About protection
Is the benefit really tax-free?
Yes. Critical illness benefits are paid to the corporation tax-free. Life insurance benefits are paid to the corporation tax-free, and the amount above the policy's cost basis credits the capital dividend account, which can be paid out to shareholders tax-free.
What conditions are covered?
Typically around twenty-five, always including heart attack, stroke and cancer. The exact list depends on the policy, and we walk you through it before anything is signed.
Can I get this if I've had health issues?
Underwriting applies, and most owners qualify. A session tells you quickly where you stand and what's available.
Do my key people need to know?
Yes, and they should. Consent is required for coverage on another person, and most employees take it as the compliment it is. Where part of the benefit goes to their family, it becomes a genuine retention tool.
What does the session cost?
Nothing. Thirty minutes with us and a written summary of the five holes as they apply to your corporation, whether or not you go ahead.