VIP Family Office planning setting
VIP Family Office

Structure
Wealth
Properly.
Minimize Tax.
Protect
Generational
Outcomes.

VIP Family Office focuses on the structural decisions that determine how wealth is taxed, preserved, and transferred — integrating tax law strategy and estate-liquidity planning into a coordinated framework for affluent families.

Core Discipline Quantify the estate tax and liquidity exposure first — before recommending products, structures, or implementation steps.
Schedule a Confidential Review View Planning Framework
△

Decades of Experience

Trusted by families and businesses across Canada.

◎

Integrated & Strategic

Tax, legal, insurance and estate planning under one framework.

□

Confidential by Design

Your privacy and family’s legacy are always protected.

◇

Aligned With Your Goals

Objective advice focused on your long-term success.

Our Purpose

We Help You Achieve
What Matters Most

We help affluent families and business owners preserve their wealth, minimize tax, and ensure a smooth transfer to the next generation.

Every recommendation is made with your family’s values, goals, and legacy in mind.

Learn More About Us →
Our Core Services
▥

Corporate &
Estate Structuring

Designing tax-efficient structures that protect your wealth today and for generations.

↗

Tax Minimization
Strategies

Advanced tax planning that legally minimizes liability and maximizes after-tax wealth.

⌂

Estate & Liquidity
Planning

Ensuring your estate settles efficiently with sufficient liquidity and minimal disruption.

♙

Succession & Next
Generation Planning

Preparing the next generation for responsibility, leadership, and long-term success.

View All Services →
Who We Work With

Families. Business Owners.
Advisors.

We work with a select group of families, business owners, and their trusted advisors who value expertise, discretion, and results.

Learn Who We Serve →
The Hidden Problem

Most affluent families are not under-advised. They are under-integrated.

Separate investment, tax, legal, insurance, and estate conversations can each sound reasonable in isolation. The failure usually appears later — when liquidity is needed, control has to transfer, siblings disagree, or the tax bill arrives before the cash does.

01Asset-rich, liquidity-poor estates
02Corporate capital trapped behind tax friction
03Equalization issues between active and inactive children
04Plans that look complete but fail at implementation
What We Quantify

Before structure, we make the exposure visible.

Clients do not need more vague planning language. They need to see the numbers, the pressure points, and the trade-offs before any recommendation is made.

Estate tax exposure

Estimated terminal tax, capital gains exposure, and liquidity timing.

Corporate liquidity gap

Where retained earnings, holding-company assets, and tax obligations collide.

Forced-sale risk

Whether assets may need to be sold at the wrong time to fund tax or equalization.

CDA optimization potential

How tax-free capital dividend account outcomes may change family economics.

Succession tension

Where ownership, control, management, and inheritance objectives diverge.

Implementation drag

Which legal, tax, insurance, and advisory steps must actually be executed.

How We Think

A planning process built for consequence, not cosmetics.

The objective is not to produce another binder. It is to pressure-test how wealth moves under tax, timing, family, liquidity, and governance constraints.

01Diagnose

Map entities, assets, liabilities, family objectives, tax exposure, and existing advisors.

02Model

Quantify estate liquidity, capital gains, corporate extraction, and transfer scenarios.

03Stress-Test

Identify what breaks if markets, health, timing, family dynamics, or tax rules change.

04Coordinate

Align legal, tax, insurance, corporate, and advisor execution into one implementation path.

05Monitor

Keep the structure live as assets, family roles, corporate strategy, and legislation evolve.

Planning Scenarios

The issues usually reveal themselves before the client has language for them.

Real Estate Family

Appreciating assets, limited liquidity.

Significant unrealized gains may create a future estate tax bill that cannot be funded without selling properties or disrupting the portfolio.

Business Owner

Control and inheritance are not the same problem.

One child may operate the company while others need to be equalized, creating governance, liquidity, and fairness issues.

Professional Corporation

Corporate wealth can become personal family friction.

Retained earnings, shareholder value, insurance funding, and post-mortem planning need to be integrated before the estate event.

Institutional Signal

Private planning should feel calm, precise, and consequence-aware.

The work is not about appearing wealthy. It is about avoiding forced liquidation, unmanaged tax exposure, family conflict, and implementation failure when the estate plan is finally tested.

Begin Here

Make the exposure visible — privately, and without obligation.

Engagements begin with quantification. If your circumstances are a fit, we will outline next steps. If not, we will tell you directly.

For Families & Business Owners

Begin a Confidential Review

For families and business owners requesting a structural diagnostic — directly, or through introduction by an existing advisor.

Schedule a Confidential Review
For Advisors & Partners

Partner With Us

For wealth managers, planners, accountants, lawyers, and insurance professionals — see the full advisor model first.

Read the advisor model →
About VIP Family Office

Built to fill the gap independent advisors face.

Sophisticated clients demand integrated services, and banks win on infrastructure. VIP Family Office provides that infrastructure — planning, coordination, oversight, dispute capability, and legal execution — while keeping the referring advisor's relationship intact. The principals lead three of Canada's most respected practices in tax law, insurance and legacy optimization, and tax advisory.

Built for the gap between independent advisors and institutional infrastructure.

Affluent families increasingly demand integrated services — tax, legal, insurance, lending coordination, audit defense, executor capability — packaged as one institutional offering. Banks deliver that breadth, but at a cost: the relationship migrates inside the institution, the advisor becomes peripheral, and the family loses the personal accountability that brought them to a private practice in the first place.

VIP Family Office was built to close that gap from the other direction. The platform provides the institutional infrastructure — planning, coordination, dispute capability, legal execution through Barrett Tax Law, fractional CFO support — while keeping the existing advisor central to the relationship.

“ The client stays the advisor’s client. The depth becomes shared.

For families that already have a trusted advisor, this means access to the full institutional layer without changing trust relationships. For families that arrive directly, it means a single coordinated framework that does not depend on any one specialist surviving a generation, a market, or a tax-rule change.

Meet The Principals

Three firms. One coordinated practice.

Tax law and legal execution through Barrett Tax Law. Insurance and risk strategy through Donsky & Donsky Legacy Optimization. Tax advisory and financial implementation through Levy Consulting Advisory & Tax. Each principal brings depth in their domain; the platform coordinates the whole.

Dale Barrett
Dale Barrett
BCL, LLB
Founder · Barrett Tax Law

Advising on estate freezes, corporate structuring, trusts, and advanced tax minimization strategies.

Dale Barrett is recognized as one of Canada’s leading estate and tax lawyers, with nearly two decades of experience designing sophisticated planning structures for business owners, affluent families, and multi-generational estates. A recognized author and sought-after public speaker in the estate and tax planning field, his work focuses on the legal and tax frameworks that determine how wealth is preserved, controlled, and transferred over time.

His mandate is straightforward: eliminate structural inefficiencies before they become tax liabilities. Without proper planning, estates are exposed to capital gains tax, double taxation, and forced liquidation of assets at death. Dale's approach addresses these risks at the foundation — locking in value, enabling controlled intergenerational transfers, and aligning corporate and personal planning into a cohesive, defensible system. This is the legal infrastructure everything else depends on.

Jordan Donsky
Jordan Donsky
HBA, MA, LLQP
Founder · Donsky & Donsky Legacy Optimization

Specializing in insurance-based strategies that fund tax liabilities and support efficient wealth transfer.

Jordan Donsky leads the liquidity and capital strategy within the family office model, focused on solving the funding gap that undermines many estate plans. Recognized among the top life insurance advisors in North America, his work centers on insurance-based planning structures that create tax-efficient capital, preserve asset control, and support intergenerational transfer objectives.

He specializes in corporate-owned insurance structures, immediate financing arrangements, and integrated estate liquidity strategies designed to ensure families have the capital required to execute the plan without forced liquidation or structural disruption.

In this model, insurance functions as a balance sheet stabilizer. When deployed alongside Dale's structuring, it transforms estate planning from theoretical design into executable strategy — ensuring obligations are met, control is maintained, and wealth is transferred with maximum efficiency.

Lior Levy, CPA, CA
Lior Levy
CPA, CA, LPA, BSc
Founder · Levy Consulting Advisory & Tax

Providing advanced tax advisory and planning coordination within complex family and corporate structures.

Lior Levy is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) specializing in corporate and personal tax strategy, advanced planning implementation, and multi-entity advisory coordination. His work focuses on ensuring sophisticated planning structures are aligned with practical tax reporting, compliance requirements, and long-term operational execution.

The objective is coordination, not competition. When engaged, Lior works collaboratively alongside the client's existing accounting firm to ensure that planning is implemented cleanly and maintained properly over time. Where a client does not have an established accountant, he can step in more directly. Otherwise, his involvement remains targeted, situational, and aligned with preserving the integrity of the broader advisory team.

· · ·
The Objective

Wealth that is structured properly — and stays that way.

  • Structured EfficientlyOwnership and control aligned across the family.
  • Tax-ProtectedExposure quantified and minimized at every layer.
  • Liquid When NeededAssets remain intact through transition.
  • Built to LastPositioned for long-term generational continuity.
Schedule a Confidential Review
II
Services Overview

A complete suite — designed for complexity.

Integrated planning, fractional CFO support, dispute defense, legal execution, executor services — coordinated through a single point of accountability across tax, estate, governance, and corporate complexity.

· · ·
Solutions

What we do for affluent families and business owners.

Every engagement spans multiple disciplines. The list below describes the full operating scope — your engagement is scoped to what your situation actually requires.

01 Strategy & Structuring

Integrated tax, estate, insurance, and business planning coordination

Corporate structuring and reorganization strategy (holdco / opco / step plans)

Estate liquidity planning and intergenerational wealth structuring

02 Operations & Advisory

Fractional CFO services — institutional-grade financial leadership without a full-time hire

Business advisory: growth, governance, capital structure, exit readiness

Risk management and insurance strategy integration

03 Continuity & Governance

Family governance, continuity, and next-generation education

Philanthropy and foundation planning coordination

Executor services for complex estates (≈2% vs trust-company ~5%)

04 Defense & Disputes

CRA audit support, objections, appeals, and tax litigation pathway

General counsel oversight — coordinating civil, family, and regulatory counsel

Voluntary disclosure and taxpayer relief coordination

New Capability

Fractional CFO services — institutional-grade financial leadership without a full-time hire.

For families and closely-held enterprises that need a senior finance function — but not a full-time CFO — VIP Family Office provides the operating layer between bookkeeping and board-level decisions.

  • Cashflow forecasting & runway planning
  • Budgeting, variance & KPI dashboards
  • Financial reporting cadence
  • Decision support: capex, hiring, expansion
  • Lender & investor readiness
  • Finance systems & controls oversight

Designed to complement your client's wealth manager — improving the quality of business and personal financial data feeding into planning decisions.

Engagement Lifecycle

How we engage — a deliberate six-step lifecycle.

From fit assessment through ongoing oversight — including dispute response if circumstances require it.

I

Fit & Application

We work with a limited number of families and partners.

II

Discovery

We gather the full picture — entities, financials, risk, goals, and advisor ecosystem.

III

Written Roadmap

A strategy roadmap that is sequencing-ready and execution-oriented.

IV

Execution

Legal execution through Barrett Tax Law; coordinated implementation with advisors.

V

Ongoing Oversight

Quarterly or monthly cadence, plus fractional CFO workstreams if needed.

VI

Dispute Response

If CRA scrutiny or other legal risk arises, the platform supports through resolution.

Core Values

How we work — and how we don't.

Six principles that govern every engagement. They are not slogans; they are operating constraints.

Discretion

High privacy. Low noise. Engagements are confidential by default; no public client lists.

Continuity

Long-term thinking with multi-year oversight — not single-engagement transactions.

Execution Readiness

Plans that can actually be implemented. Every recommendation is sequencing-aware.

Advisor Respect

We strengthen advisors. We do not replace them. Existing relationships are reinforced, not disrupted.

Defensibility

Planning designed with audit and dispute risk in mind from day one.

Accountability

Clear ownership of next steps and outcomes. Nothing falls between advisors.

Exclusivity & Membership

Selective by design.

VIP Family Office is intentionally selective. We accept a limited number of new families and partners each year to ensure depth, responsiveness, and quality of execution.

i

Partners are Invited or Apply

Wealth managers, planners, accountants, and lawyers can apply to refer or be introduced.

ii

Families are Introduced

Through trusted advisors, or by direct application for confidential review.

iii

Fit is Confirmed

We confirm complexity alignment, resourcing match, and capacity before proceeding.

Schedule a Confidential Review Partner With Us
III
Who We Work With

Built around the advisors who bring us our families.

Every family on the platform is here because an advisor made an introduction or applied directly. The infrastructure exists to retain those relationships, deepen them, and defend them when complexity, scrutiny, or risk arrives.

· · ·
i.

Bank-Level Breadth, Without Conflicts

ii.

Planning + Defense — strategy backed by dispute capability

iii.

Boutique, Selective, High-Touch Membership

The Retention Problem

Independent advisors lose clients to banks because banks look like infrastructure.

When a sophisticated client wants integrated tax, legal, insurance, lending coordination, executor support, and audit defense, the bank has all of it under one roof. You have your investment mandate — and a referral list.

VIP Family Office solves that retention problem by giving you the missing infrastructure — planning, coordination, oversight, execution pathways, and dispute and controversy capability — while keeping you central to the relationship.

Your client stays your client.
We don't manage their money. We don't sell around you.

The platform is built to help you confidently say: "You don't need to go to a big bank for integrated services — we have an institutional-grade platform around us."

Coordinated planning across advisors
The Boundary

What VIP Family Office will not do.

The strongest signal that we will not compete with you is the list of things we have explicitly chosen not to offer.

×

We do not manage investment portfolios.

×

We do not replace the client's wealth manager, planner, or insurance advisor.

×

We do not "own" the client unless that is expressly agreed.

×

We do not run the client's business day-to-day.

×

We do not manage homes or households as a core offering.

✓

We integrate, coordinate, defend, and execute — alongside your existing role.

Advisor Segments

A coordinated platform for five professional channels.

Each segment uses VIP Family Office for the same underlying reason: client complexity has outgrown what any single discipline can deliver alone.

For Wealth Managers

Keep your best clients — without becoming a bank.

Problem

Banks win on full-suite services and perceived infrastructure. Independent WMs lose on breadth and coordination, not performance.

Value

VIP Family Office provides the bank-like wraparound layer: planning, legal pipeline, dispute capability, executor strategy, CFO support — attached to your brand, not replacing it.

For Financial Planners

Planning that doesn't break in implementation.

Problem

Plans are often theoretical. Implementation breaks across tax, legal, and insurance. Clients lose confidence in the projection.

Value

Plans become executable roadmaps backed by legal execution through Barrett Tax Law, fractional CFO support for business-owner clients, and a CRA dispute pathway when the plan is tested.

For Insurance Professionals & MGAs

Close sophisticated cases — with tax and legal validation.

Problem

High-value cases stall without tax and legal integration. Premium opportunities get missed; clients second-guess.

Value

We embed insurance into tax, estate, and corporate strategy — supported by lawyer-led credibility and a non-poaching commitment that keeps your relationship intact.

For Estate Planners (TEPs)

Strategies that are implementable, defensible, administered.

Problem

Estate plans fail at execution. Valuations get challenged. CRA scrutiny creates risk. Administration drags.

Value

Tax depth, corporate execution capability, executor optimization, and CRA dispute readiness — across the full lifecycle of complex estates.

For Accounting Professionals

Identify the need. Keep the client central.

Problem

Accountants identify planning needs but lack a unified execution channel — tax counsel, insurance integration, CFO support, dispute capability.

Value

A coordinated partner platform where you bring complex clients and remain central to the relationship — with all execution layers handled around you, not in front of you.

— Common Thread

You stay central. We add depth.

Across every channel, the model is identical: institutional-grade infrastructure that strengthens the advisor-client relationship — and never displaces it. Non-poaching is not a slogan; it is structural.

Legal Services & Execution

Implementation through Barrett Tax Law.

VIP Family Office works in close affiliation with Barrett Tax Law — the exclusive legal provider for VIP families. This ensures planning is implemented precisely:

  • Wills and trusts
  • Corporate reorganizations and estate freezes
  • Governance documents and family constitutions
  • Filings, opinions, and court representation as required

Without fragmentation. Without handoffs. Without losing context.

Legal services through Barrett Tax Law
Tax Disputes, Audits & Litigation

When the CRA gets involved, planning isn't enough.

VIP Family Office supports families through every stage of CRA scrutiny — through Barrett Tax Law:

  • Audit strategy and information management
  • Notice of objection and appeals positioning
  • Settlement negotiation
  • Tax Court of Canada and Federal Court litigation pathway

This dispute capability is built into the operating model — not a referral chain that activates after a crisis.

Tax disputes and CRA audits
General Counsel & Legal Oversight

A single legal quarterback — across the entire picture.

Most families have multiple lawyers. Few have a single legal quarterback responsible for the whole picture. Through Barrett Tax Law, VIP Family Office can act as general counsel — coordinating civil, criminal, family law, and regulatory counsel as needed, managing litigation strategy, and aligning legal decisions with tax, estate, and insurance objectives.

Discuss General Counsel Engagement
Executor Services

Why executor selection determines outcomes.

Executors manage valuations, tax filings, creditor issues, beneficiary communications, and fiduciary liability. A weak executor creates delay, conflict, and unnecessary tax. A strong one preserves value through transition.

~5%

Trust Company Standard

Trust companies commonly charge up to ~5%. On large estates, this can mean hundreds of thousands or millions — often without proportional responsiveness or strategic oversight.

~2%

VIP Approach

VIP Family Office offers professional executor services via individual appointment, supported by Barrett Tax Law. Where appropriate, executor compensation can be structured closer to ~2%.

∞

Improved Outcomes

Preserving value for beneficiaries while improving accountability, competence, and tax-aware administration through every stage of estate settlement.

Two Ways In

Partner with VIP — or be introduced by your advisor.

VIP Family Office accepts a limited number of new families and partners each year. Engagement begins with confirmation of fit, complexity alignment, and capacity.

Schedule a Confidential Review Partner With Us
IV
Get In Touch

Begin a confidential conversation.

Engagements begin privately. Whether you are an advisor exploring partnership or a family seeking a structural review, the path begins with a single conversation.

· · ·
Two Ways to Begin

Advisors and partners. Families and business owners.

Choose the path that matches your situation. Each form routes directly to the principal who can best respond — typically within one business day.

For Advisors & Partners

Request a Partner Conversation

For wealth managers, planners, accountants, lawyers, and insurance professionals exploring a referral relationship or partner channel.

For Families & Business Owners

Begin a Confidential Review

For families and business owners requesting a confidential structural review — directly, or through introduction by their existing advisor.

Office

665 Millway Avenue, Suite 44
Concord, Ontario, Canada

Email

contact@vipfamilyoffice.ca
partners@vipfamilyoffice.ca

Engagement Path

Confidential review · written roadmap · coordinated implementation · ongoing oversight.

What Happens Next
01

We read every submission

Personally. There is no automated triage. The principals review each inquiry within one business day.

02

We respond directly

Either with a question, a brief explanation of fit, or a calendar link for a 30-minute confidential conversation.

03

If there is a fit, we begin

Engagements start with diagnostic work — quantification of exposure, mapping of structures, identification of gaps. Before any recommendation.