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.

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.