Private Client

The Aird & Berlis Private Client Group delivers integrated, cross-border legal strategies to assist high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals, families and their family offices enhance and protect their legacies and plan for the future.

We advise a diverse range of private clients, including family business owners, high-net-worth individuals, family offices and trustees. Many of our clients are involved in industries such as real estate development, investment management, private equity and professional sports ownership. We also work with individuals with foreign assets or non-Canadian citizenship, families with vulnerable beneficiaries and those with complex cross-border planning needs. We are proud to serve some of Canada’s most prominent families and multigenerational enterprises.

Our team provides strategic advice on sophisticated tax, estate, trust, corporate, succession and continuity planning matters. We collaborate closely with family advisors and professionals across jurisdictions to ensure each plan aligns with our clients’ personal values, business goals, mission and long-term vision. Our lawyers are recognized leaders in the private client space and regularly advise on traditional Canadian and multi-jurisdictional business, corporate, trust and estate planning matters; private client M&A transactions, including purchase, sale and transition planning; high-profile estate disputes; tax disputes with the Canada Revenue Agency; family business governance; and philanthropic giving. We take a collaborative, cross-disciplinary approach that draws on deep expertise in tax, trusts and estates, litigation, corporate and charity law. We also assist executors, attorneys and trustees with the proper administration of estates, trusts and other fiduciary responsibilities.

The Aird & Berlis Private Client Group includes some of Canada’s preeminent lawyers in private wealth law, with distinguished expertise in international planning, estate litigation and complex succession matters. Our lawyers are consistently ranked in the top tiers of Chambers High Net Worth for Private Wealth Law and Private Wealth Disputes in Canada. We are also recognized in The Legal 500 Canada, Lexology Index, Best Lawyers and other top directories. Our lawyers have received some of the highest honours in the area of trusts and estates, including the Ontario Bar Association’s Award of Excellence and Best Lawyers’ “Lawyer of the Year” recognition. Clients commend our team for its depth in tax and corporate law, cross-border capabilities and proactive, solutions-driven approach.

Several members of our team hold the Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) designation, granted by the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), an internationally recognized hallmark of expertise in the field of trusts and estates. Many have held prominent roles with STEP Canada, including Chair, providing us with additional insight into the private client space.

Our core services include:

• Canadian Business, Corporate, Estate & Trust Planning: Designing and implementing individualized planning strategies, including multiple wills, testamentary and inter vivos trusts, estate freezes, income-splitting arrangements, charitable giving structures and family governance mechanisms.
• Cross-Border & International Planning: Advising clients with foreign citizenship, global assets or multijurisdictional family members, and coordinating with foreign counsel on tax-efficient cross-border structures. We have also developed particular expertise in helping clients tax-effectively structure their emigration from and immigration to Canada, as well as to and from other jurisdictions around the world.
• Private Client M&A: Advising on private-client mergers and acquisitions, including the purchase and sale of privately held businesses, succession and transition planning, and ownership restructuring.
• Trust & Estate Administration: Advising executors, trustees and attorneys on the administration of estates and trusts, compliance with fiduciary duties and asset distribution.
• Family Business & Succession: Structuring family business transitions, shareholder agreements and family office governance frameworks. Advising on pre- and post-nuptial agreements, cohabitation agreements, family trusts and partnerships, as well as planning for marriages, divorces, emigration and immigration. Supporting family businesses with transactions, investments and expansion, and assisting with business breakups, shareholder buyouts and spin-off transactions.
• Tax Planning: Developing proprietary and traditional tax planning techniques to optimize outcomes, minimize tax liabilities and align with estate, corporate and philanthropic goals.
• Private Client Litigation: Representing clients in disputes involving wills, trusts, powers of attorney and fiduciary conduct, including will challenges, breach of trust claims, dependant support and equalization claims, and passing of accounts.
• Charity & Not-for-Profit: Advising on charitable foundations, donor-advised funds and strategic philanthropic giving, including structuring substantial donations in conjunction with estate planning.
• Capacity & Substitute Decision-Making: Advising on guardianship, capacity challenges and powers of attorney for personal care and property, including planning for vulnerable or disabled beneficiaries.

Whether you’re preparing to transition a family business, resolving a dispute, planning across borders or establishing a multi-generational legacy, we guide clients through complexity with insight and sound judgment. We build enduring relationships across generations and provide practical, tailored solutions for intricate estate, trust and succession matters.