"When you grow up in a family that moves every few years, you learn to be flexible. My father worked for one of the major corporations in the US, so we never got to go to the same school more than a couple of years at a time. And although he had a good pension plan when he retired, my mother wasn’t well looked after when he passed away. I guess that’s why I’m so concerned about my estate and financial flexibility even though I’m only 51. My situation’s complicated by the fact that our home is in Canada, we have two vacation properties in the States and I’m a US citizen. The investment business has always given us a comfortable income, but it’s the safety of our family’s assets that I’ve become increasingly concerned about lately. There’s so much shareholder activism and litigation these days, often over issues you could never see coming. As the CEO of this firm, I feel like a sitting duck. I want to put money aside for my family in a way that virtually firewalls what I’ve accumulated so far."

      "Over the years I’ve had excellent advisors who handled the business and also worked on my personal finances. We contacted The Wealth Advisory because we needed a group that could straddle issues in both Canada and the States. They understood the rationale for our existing plan right away and arranged to have their US tax lawyer join us by phone for every meeting. We looked at investing offshore, but I’m a pretty simple guy, and after exploring what it would take, I felt it just wasn’t for me. What we did do was move the future growth in my business off to the kids and solve the US tax problems relating to my company shares and our vacation properties. We repositioned some assets and redrafted our Wills but we managed to keep our options open in case we want to move back to the US after I retire. Now that it’s all set up, I’m resting much easier knowing that if someone attacks me, I’ve protected my family. I call it my asbestos suit plan."