Business Succession & Exit Planning

Every owner leaves the business eventually — the only question is whether it happens on their terms. RN Canada's succession and exit planning service gives Alberta and British Columbia owner-managers a clear roadmap from where the business is today to a well-structured, tax-efficient transition, whether that means selling to a third party, handing over to a successor or transferring to the next generation. Because the most powerful tools take years to set up, the earlier this work starts, the more value and choice you keep.

What RN Canada does

• Valuation. Establishing what the business is realistically worth today and what drives that value, so you are negotiating from evidence rather than hope.
• Successor identification. Working through whether the natural buyer is a family member, a key employee, a management team or an outside party — and what each path demands.
• Transition timeline. Building a multi-year roadmap that sequences the value-building, structuring and handover steps in the right order.
• Tax-efficient exit structuring. Modelling the share-sale versus asset-sale decision and positioning shares so the lifetime capital gains exemption is available where it applies.
• Intergenerational transfer. Planning a tax-efficient family handover within the current transfer rules, coordinated with your estate plan.

How the exit is structured

The central decision in most exits is share sale versus asset sale. A share sale can let an individual seller apply the lifetime capital gains exemption on qualifying shares; a buyer often prefers an asset purchase for the tax cost it inherits. Reconciling those preferences — and pricing the difference into the deal — is core to the work.

The lifetime capital gains exemption (LCGE). For dispositions of qualified small business corporation shares on or after June 25, 2024, an individual can shelter up to $1,250,000 of capital gains, indexed from 2026. Source: Line 25400 – Capital gains deduction — Canada.ca. Multiplying that exemption across a spouse or family trust is often only possible if the structure is in place well before a sale.

Capital gains inclusion rate. Gains are included in income at 50%. (The proposed increase to a 66.67% inclusion rate was cancelled.) Source: Capital gains — Canada.ca.

Intergenerational transfers. Where the plan is to keep the business in the family, transfer rules can make a genuine handover more favourable than an arm's-length sale. Those rules — from Bill C-208, tightened by Bill C-59 for transactions on or after January 1, 2024 — set conditions around control and involvement that we plan against from the start.

Who it's for

This service fits owner-managers within a few years of stepping back, founders weighing a sale against a family or management transition, and owners whose retirement depends largely on what the business is worth when they leave. It suits Alberta and BC businesses where the difference between an unplanned exit and a structured one is measured in both the sale price and the tax bill.

How RN Canada helps

We build the roadmap — valuing the business, identifying the successor, sequencing the timeline and structuring the exit so the after-tax result reflects the work you put in. Our founder, Ozgur Duymaz, holds a Ph.D. in accounting and finance and is a CPA (Canada), ACCA (UK) and CMA (US). To start planning your exit while you still have every option open, talk to us or browse the full services overview.

This page is general information, not personalized advice. Speak to us about your specific situation.