Both of these narratives are genuine, actual occurrences. One is heartwarming, while the other carries a more challenging tone.

Young business owner takes over the family construction business.

?Doug was working as a bookkeeper for a small business when his father called him and told him that he was in failing health and needed Doug to take over the business as general manager.

Doug was stuck in a dead-end job as a bookkeeper for another small firm and decided to accept his father's offer right away.

?It was a tough transition to move into the leadership role and manage a rowdy workforce, learn how to bid for profitable projects from public sources, and deal with banks who were unhappy with the long lead times required. All of this while working in a harsh climate with severe penalties for work not completed on time.

However, with his father's help, Doug was able to make the transition. Before his father passed away, he gave Doug a valuable piece of advice for the future.

He said, "Doug, you can't eat iron", meaning that in the construction business, each project could only earn a small profit if carefully managed. It also meant that Doug would never be able to cash in on the construction equipment because they worked it so hard.

We contacted Doug with a cold call. He agreed to see our case study and, based on his skills as a bookkeeper and his father's advice, decided to take a small step in a direction that would secure his financial future.

Some years later, after many challenges on the construction front and changing banks, he called us one afternoon and asked about some of the tax solutions we had mentioned years earlier.

Doug knew he was about to build a mountain of assets on the balance sheet and needed a way to pay less tax and plan for his future.

There are a number of pre-approved sections in the Income Tax Act that provide relief and deferment for the kind of situation that Doug was in.

He did not want to keep earning a lot of pre-tax profits only to see the tax department take almost half of it because of lack of planning.

We put in place a number of pre-approved structures and financial instruments to accumulate funds on a tax-sheltered basis.

The years rolled by and Doug was able to accumulate millions of dollars in these instruments and structures.

Today he is retired, has three homes, and endures the annual jet lag when his wife drags him off to Europe, plays golf 4-5 times a week and has not seen winter in years.

How a Business Owner Lost What He Wanted Most

A true story told to our principal, John Lindsay.

It was a sunny morning when I saw a stunning sight: a brand-new 45-foot banana-yellow sport fishing boat, designed for catching big fish in the gulfstream, docking at a slip across from my sailboat. I was impressed by the beauty and power of the boat.

A few days later, I got a chance to chat with the owner. I complimented him on his boat and asked him what he did for a living. He told me he was the owner of a small manufacturing company with plants in two states.

As a specialist in financial structuring for private business owners, I was curious to hear his story. He said he had started his business from scratch 30 years ago and had recently retired. He just wanted to enjoy his time on the boat.

I asked him if he had sold his business and he said he had, for $20 million with terms. “Wow, you must have picked up quite a tax problem,” I said. “Not any more,” he said. He explained that the sale had gone sour.

The new owners, whom he had trusted, had turned out to be incompetent in many aspects of the business: financial control, sales and marketing, restocking by their suppliers of raw materials, and employee retention. Most of the workers who had been with him for over 20 years had either quit or been fired, and the new owners had started missing payments to him.

“Yikes!” I said, “What does that mean for you in the future?” He said it meant that he had to move his boat north to be closer to his home, because he had to go back to running the business, as his only daughter was not capable of taking over.

I said, “You must feel really disappointed.” He said that was life, and it hits you hard sometimes. Then he told me that to make matters worse, he had suffered a heart attack and a mild stroke since the sale of the business. “But do you know what I will dearly miss,” he asked? “Your boat in Florida,” I guessed? “Yes,” he said. “All those fish waiting for me and now I can’t get out there like I wanted.”