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In times of old, a Strongroom was a secured vault where important legal documents and family heirlooms were stored in the homes of royalty and noble class families. Today, the assets of modern wealthy families are protected by skilled estate planners who shield the estate by enacting strategies to minimize tax and ensure the proper management of investments. Equally important, estate planners help bequeath a family’s legacy to the next generation, thereby giving purpose to a lifetime of achievements.

We craft your Strongroom to safeguard your significance. It sits at the very center. Your life plan, legacy plan, legal plan and tax plan surround and protect your significance, with strength and purpose. These five components working in harmony together are how MacMillan approaches the design and implementation of your Strongroom.

Your life plan is the driving force of your estate plan. As such, we start by forging this plan to ensure your significance is protected, preserved and enjoyed during your lifetime. We then turn our attention to your legacy plan. If we have done your life plan properly, your legacy plan will naturally flow from it.

Your legal plan and tax plan are essentially the technical tools used to enforce your life and legacy plans. They are there to help support and inform your objectives, not define them. Having the technical elements work effectively together is extremely important, which is why we have legal and accounting in-house.

Your Strongroom is made of five key components. Click on the adjacent diagram to find out what each component entails.

 

Tax Plan

Your tax plan is an important technical tool used to protect your life and legacy plans. It should not control your planning, but rather support your goals and objectives. Each year, countless individuals pay an excessive amount to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Although paying taxes is an unavoidable reality, even in a well-designed estate, using the right tools and knowledge can significantly reduce or defer this sum. A proper tax plan should account for both domestic and international issues. Many families are unaware that internationally held assets, such as property or investments resident in the United States, are liable to both US and Canadian estate taxes. Failure to structure these assets within a larger tax scheme will inevitably cause their real values to be reduced.

Foreign assets can also legally create multiple estates. For instance, by owning property in the USA, you possess both an American and Canadian estate. Upon an individual’s passing, these two estates will need to be settled, adding considerably to the amount of time and money required. Our contemporary understanding of domestic and international legislation enables us to devise the most innovative means of minimizing the workload surrounding an estate while maximizing your total net worth.

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