Life insurance continues to be a critical estate planning tool for policyholders and their corporations. This presentation will delve into the following topics:

1.    Corporate owned life insurance – the macro tax environment has led to increased tax deferral.  Tax deferral is not tax elimination and can lead to double/triple taxation when a shareholder passes away.  Post mortem planning can provide relief to these multiple layers of tax.  This part of the presentation will review updates on post mortem planning including proposed rule changes and updates to CRA positions. Additionally, this presentation will review the impact of structuring corporate beneficiary designations properly in the corporate context to minimize the risk of benefit issues applying. 
2.    Life insurance ownership including bare trusts – This portion of the presentation will discuss some of the considerations and scenarios with different types of ownership,  and transferring ownership. There has been greater interest in the use of bare trusts and nominee corporations in recent years. Additionally, there will be a discussion around tax reporting for the late notification of death for owners and corporate owned life insurance.