CLE Online

Welcome and Introduction

Josephine M. Nadel — Owen Bird Law Corporation, Vancouver

Governance and Strategic Advising for the Family Enterprise

• strengths and challenges of the family enterprise
• the three-circle model: taking a systems approach
• understanding family dynamics of family firms
• role of strategic advisor to family enterprise clients
• governance structures for the family enterprise and its component systems (family, business, owners)
• examining family councils, shareholder forums, advisory boards, and other governance mechanisms
• communication and process for each system
• family employment policies
• grooming successors
• establishing consensus and common vision, mission, and values

Josephine M. Nadel — Owen Bird Law Corporation, Vancouver

Estate Planning Tools and Techniques

• wills and multiple wills
• other estate planning tools
• alter ego/joint partner trusts
• other inter vivos trust planning
• planning for incapacity
• charitable giving strategies

Laura West — Bull, Housser & Tupper LLP, Vancouver

Networking Break 

Tax Planning for Family Succession—Corporate and Trust Structures

• corporate and trust structures for inter-generational planning
• freeze alternatives and strategies
• corporate attribution risks and implications
• family trusts and 21st anniversary planning

Alexander Demner — Thorsteinssons LLP, Vancouver 

Legislative Changes and Update Highlights

• Wills, Estates and Succession Act
• wills variation issues
• Adult Guardianship and Planning Statutes Amendment Act
• new Societies Act

Jocelyn M. Le Dressay — Owen Bird Law Corporation, Vancouver

Networking Lunch

Legacy and Inter-Generational Agreements

• shareholders agreements
• marriage agreements
• family legacy agreements
• policies
• mechanisms for dispute resolution

Mark Bickford — Koffman Kalef LLP, Vancouver 

Strategic Ownership Options: Business Ownership and Succession

• continued ownership
• liquidity or monetization event
• selling or retaining the enterprise
• retaining family ownership with non-family management
• sale to a family member
• sale to strategic buyer or consolidator
• management buy-out
• sale to a third party
• managing post-liquidity consequences

Shane Dunn — Partner and Senior Vice President, M&A Lead Advisory, Ernst & Young, Calgary

Networking Break

Case Update and Estate Litigation Highlights

• resulting and constructive trusts
• wills variation issues
• Fraudulent Conveyance Act
• incapacity
• Wills, Estates and Succession Act
• conflicts of interest

Hugh S. McLellan — Herbert McLellan, Vancouver

Concluding Remarks

Josephine M. Nadel — Owen Bird Law Corporation, Vancouver