Integrated Planning

Stendal models the family's annual income, spending, and capital needs against the portfolio's expected return and confirms financial independence under different market scenarios, revised whenever circumstances change.

Stendal projects the family's cash requirements for the coming year and the next five years across taxes, distributions, capital calls, and lifestyle, then maps required liquidity against the portfolio's actual liquidity profile.

Stendal produces an annual personal financial statement covering assets, liabilities, year-over-year change in net worth, and total cash flows, consolidated across all entities in the family's structure.

Stendal designs and implements the tax strategy across the family's personal returns, holdcos, family trust, and estate plan, coordinating execution with the family's existing CPA where one is in place.

Stendal designs how the family extracts compensation from holdcos and opcos (salary, dividends, management fees, shareholder loans), optimizing for combined personal and corporate tax across all jurisdictions.

Stendal designs holding structures that accommodate family members resident in different countries, balancing Canadian and U.S. corporate tax regimes and avoiding unintended double taxation.

Stendal maps the family's exposure to U.S. estate tax (for U.S. persons or U.S.-situs assets) against the Canada-U.S. treaty positions and the unified credit, identifying where planning must flex to avoid double taxation on death.

Stendal designs the holdco structure for U.S.-resident family members to manage GILTI and Subpart F exposure, monitors the annual calculations, and coordinates with U.S. counsel on the resulting filings.

Stendal implements the treaty-based deferral elections for the family's retirement accounts on both sides of the border and coordinates the annual filings that preserve them.

Stendal coordinates the annual review of every family member's will and powers of attorney against changes in circumstances, asset structure, and law, and works with counsel on revisions.

Stendal designs the family's estate freeze structure to lock in the senior generation's tax exposure while transferring future growth to the next generation, and coordinates re-freeze events when valuations or family circumstances change.

Stendal works with the family's chosen counsel on trust drafting, ensures the trust deed reflects the family's stated objectives, and tracks amendments against the original intent.

Stendal maintains a current map of each family member's residency-based estate exposure across the provinces and any foreign residency, flagging where probate, succession, or estate tax regimes interact unexpectedly.

Stendal documents and maintains the post-mortem tax framework (pipeline strategies, loss carryback elections, capital-gains planning) so the framework is execution-ready when needed.

Stendal maintains a current executor playbook covering account access, key contacts, document locations, and step-by-step execution sequence, reviewed annually so the executor is not improvising on the day.

Stendal coordinates the estate administration on the family's death, executing the playbook prepared in advance with counsel and the executor, and managing tax filings, asset transfers, and beneficiary distributions cleanly.

Stendal coordinates the preparation of the shareholders' agreement covering decision rights, transfer restrictions, valuation mechanism, and exit provisions for each holding company, working with counsel on the legal draft.

Stendal develops the plan to utilize each family member's lifetime capital gains exemption against qualifying small-business or farm property, coordinating with counsel and tax on the structuring required.

Stendal evaluates whether self-interest trusts (alter-ego, joint-spousal) fit the family's circumstances and coordinates their establishment with counsel where the case is right.