You built the wealth. Now it’s spread across a corporation, an investment portfolio, maybe some real estate and a holding company, and the pieces were never really designed to work together.
We work with high net worth individuals and families across Ontario from our Toronto and Oakville offices, connecting the corporate, personal, and estate sides of your finances into one plan. Not a family office with a Bay Street price tag. A boutique CPA firm where you deal with the people actually doing the work.
Cassar CPA Professional Corporation
Cassar CPA Professional Corporation
Cassar CPA Professional Corporation
Cassar Business Services Inc.
Here’s what changes when your accountant looks at the whole picture, not just one return:
Most people with real wealth have a corporation on one side and a personal return on the other, handled as if they’re unrelated. They aren’t. How you pay yourself, what your corporation invests in, and what shows up on your personal return are one connected decision. We plan them as one, so you’re not paying more tax than you need to because two halves of your life never spoke to each other.
Holding companies, investment accounts inside a corporation, family trusts, real estate, these tools do real work when they’re set up right and cost you money when they’re not. We look at how you’re structured and whether it still fits, then adjust it around where you actually are and where you’re going.
Canada doesn’t have an estate tax, but that doesn’t mean death is tax-free, far from it. Without planning, a significant share of what you’ve built can go to tax and probate instead of your family. We build the plan that protects your legacy, working alongside your lawyer and advisors so everything lines up.
The big firms will happily set you up with a family office and bill accordingly. At the other end, most accountants just file what’s in front of them. There’s a gap in the middle, the successful business owner or professional with real assets who needs sophisticated planning but wants to actually talk to the person doing it. That’s exactly who we’re built for. Our founder, Matt Cassar, has spent fifteen years helping people structure and protect what they’ve built, and we believe reducing your tax, growing your assets, and protecting your legacy are one job, not three.
Here’s what working with us looks like:
We start by looking at everything together: your corporation, your investments, your real estate, your holding company if you have one, and your personal tax. Most people have never had all of it looked at as a single system. You get a clear read on where you stand and where money is leaking that doesn’t need to.
We plan how your surplus is held and invested, inside the corporation, through a holding company, or personally, and how income moves between them, so the structure lowers your tax over time instead of quietly working against you. This is where the pages below come in: whether your wealth sits in a practice, a portfolio, or a business, the structuring is specific to you.
We handle your personal return as part of the whole, not in isolation: your compensation mix, your investment income, your registered accounts, and the timing of it all. The goal is simple, keep more of what you earn, year after year.
We plan for how your wealth transfers: the deemed disposition at death, registered accounts, probate, family trusts where they fit, and the eventual sale or handover of a business. Done early and alongside your lawyer, it protects far more than it costs.
“Their diligent approach and personal care have saved me thousands of dollars in taxes over the years!”
"You simply won’t get this quality of service from a big firm.”
“I’ve been working with Matt for a while now and I recommend him as much as I can to my friends and family”
“Cassar CPA has saved me a lot of time, money, and headache!”
“We love Matt and his team! We use them for our NFP organization and they’re always fast, flexible, and knowledgeable”
“Fantastic and knowledgeable team with very forward thinking practices.”
"Matt and his team provide clients efficient and speedy turnaround on monthly accounting and year-end services, while at the same time acting as an advisor on various finance matters.”
If you’ve built significant wealth and the corporate, personal, and estate sides of it have never been planned as one, that’s the conversation we’re built for. With offices in Toronto and Oakville, we work with high net worth individuals and families across Ontario. Let’s set up a discovery meeting to review where you stand and where we can help you keep and protect more.
It comes down to scope. A regular engagement files your returns and keeps you compliant. Planning for significant wealth means looking at how your corporation, investments, real estate, and personal tax fit together, and how they’ll transfer one day, then structuring all of it to reduce tax over years, not just file for last year. The complexity is the difference: more moving parts, more that can go wrong, and much more to gain from getting it right. That’s the work we focus on.
No, and that surprises people, because death is still far from tax-free. Canada has no formal estate or inheritance tax, so your beneficiaries don’t pay tax on what they receive. But the CRA treats you as having sold everything you own at fair market value right before death, which can trigger a large capital gains bill on your final return. Registered accounts like RRSPs and RRIFs are generally added to that final return as income, and in Ontario there’s also estate administration tax (probate) on the value passing through your will. Without planning, the total can be substantial. With planning, much of it is manageable.
That’s one of the central questions for anyone with real wealth, and the answer depends on your income, your spending, and your plans. Surplus can stay invested in the corporation, move to a holding company, or come out to you personally, and each path has different tax consequences today and down the road. Leave too much passive investment income in the corporation and it can start eroding your small business tax rate. We look at your full situation and map out where the money should sit.
Maybe one, maybe both, maybe neither, it depends entirely on your situation. A holding company can hold surplus cash and investments and add a layer of protection; a family trust can help with income splitting, succession, and control over how wealth passes to the next generation. Both add cost and complexity, and neither is right for everyone. We’ll tell you honestly whether they earn their keep in your case rather than selling you structure you don’t need.
Cassar CPA Professional Corporation works with high net worth individuals and families across Ontario from our offices in Toronto (WaterPark Place, 20 Bay Street) and Oakville (132 Trafalgar Road).
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Toronto Office
WaterPark Place 20 Bay Street, 11th Floor
Toronto, ON M5J 2N8
