Plain-language guides on Canadian creditor protection law. Written for business owners, professionals, and anyone who has worked too hard to risk losing it.
A discretionary family trust can remove assets from a beneficiary's legal ownership entirely, making them unreachable by that person's creditors. But structure, administration, and timing are everything.
In Canada the term is marriage contract, not prenuptial agreement, and the legal requirements for enforceability are specific. Here is what full disclosure and independent legal advice actually mean in practice.
A family trust that fails the three certainties test, or where the settlor retains effective control, will be declared a sham and voided. The 2026 Resendes v. Maciel decision clarified exactly where the line falls.
An estate freeze exchanges common shares for fixed-value preferred shares, locking in your current business value as the ceiling for creditor claims. Future growth accrues to a family trust beyond their reach.
Segregated funds are insurance contracts, not securities. That distinction gives them creditor protection that standard mutual funds cannot offer, provided a family class beneficiary is named.
A holding company with a perfected PPSA security interest ranks ahead of unsecured judgment creditors in every Canadian province. Here is how the structure works and when to set it up.