Resources

Are Insurance Premiums Deductible

A technical tax planning bulletin by Stuart L. Dollar of Sun Life Financial analyzing the deductibility of life, health, and disability insurance premiums under the Canadian Income Tax Act. The guide outlines the general baseline rule that insurance premiums are not deductible, while detailing specific statutory exceptions for corporate-owned collateral insurance, group employee benefits, business overhead expense policies, and charitable policy donations.

Corporate Ownership of Life Insurance

This document by Jean Turcotte (Sun Life) provides an overview of corporate-owned life insurance in Canada, detailing its tax benefits, structural risks, and key legal precedent.

Sun Life Diversified Account (SLDA)

The Sun Life Diversified Account (SLDA) is an investment account option available exclusively through Sun Life's SunUniversalLife II policy, designed to provide steady, tax-preferred growth while managing volatility within a universal life insurance portfolio.

Tax Implications For Life Insurance

This document by Jean Turcotte (Sun Life) provides an overview of the tax implications surrounding life insurance policy transfers in Canada under the Income Tax Act, detailing general and specific disposition rules, ACB adjustments, taxable benefits, rollovers, and corporate transfer scenarios (such as OpCo-HoldCo and trusts).

IFA Tax Shelter 101: The 60-Second Statutory Math Test

A technical breakdown and 60-second statutory math test evaluating how standard Immediate Financing Arrangement (IFA) life insurance sales illustrations trigger Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) tax shelter rules under subsection 237.1(1) and limited-recourse debt rules under section 143.2.

Is My IFA Life Insurance a Tax Shelter?

This memorandum provides a comprehensive framework for analyzing whether an Immediate Financing Arrangement (IFA) qualifies as a tax shelter under the Income Tax Act (ITA) and the application of subsection 237.1(1), section 143.2, and Regulation 3100 to financed life insurance structures.

Pipeline Post Mortem Planning

The paper highlights an advance tax ruling (2018-0789911R3) that permits estates to extract immediate cash from corporate surplus to pay the deceased shareholder’s terminal taxes under ITA subsection 70(5), bypassing the traditional one-year waiting period without triggering punitive deemed dividends under subsection 84(2).

The Capital Dividend Account

An in-depth guide by Sun Life examining how Canadian private corporations utilize the Capital Dividend Account (CDA) to distribute tax-free capital to shareholders. The paper breaks down cumulative CDA calculations, how corporate-owned life insurance proceeds credit the account net of adjusted cost basis (ACB), and how to structure insurance-funded buy-sell agreements without triggering CRA anti-avoidance rules.

New Client Intake Form

Confidential client questionnaire and application form for Armstrong Financial Services. This comprehensive document gathers the personal, financial, medical, and corporate data necessary for life and critical illness underwriting, estate planning, and corporate insurance structuring, while incorporating regulatory advisor disclosures, digital record/AI consent, and medical/driving record authorizations.