Turning a profit in business is a good thing, but it can result in some surprising challenges. Just ask Stan Wiens, a long-time Envision member and the owner of Swing West Contractors Ltd., of Abbotsford.

“With the building boom in B.C., we found ourselves in the unique position of having a greater return on our projects than we had expected,” Stan explains. “We knew that if we withdrew the money on a personal level, we’d have to pay tax on it immediately. On the other hand, if we invested the funds back into the business we knew we’d lose our small-business deduction. From a tax perspective, neither one seemed like the right choice.”

That’s when Envision Senior Financial Planner and Wealth Manager James Grill came up with another idea. He’s been working with Stan and his wife, Lenora, for almost 10 years, helping them make the most of both their personal and business finances.

“James suggested we start an individual pension plan,” says Stan. “Basically, we’re able to go back to when the company was founded and pick up past service pension adjustments. In essence, we were able to transfer significant sums of money from the business directly into the pension plan while deferring the taxes to a later date.”

“It’s unbelievable how individual pension plans work compared with RSPs,” says James. “In this case, we were able to avoid a large tax bill while making it easier for Stan and Lenora to pass on wealth to their children.”

Although the individual pension plan concept has been around for awhile, relatively few investment professionals have really taken the time to explore the idea.

“Our objective has always been positive growth,” says Stan. “James knows that and is diligent about keeping us informed of the latest investment opportunities. In this case, he presented a strategy no one else had ever approached us with—one that turned out to be just what we needed to move forward.”