Thane Stenner, founder of Stenner Wealth Partners+ at CG Wealth Management, works with some of the nation’s wealthiest families and entrepreneurs and knows the importance of seeking advice from licensed insurance professionals, particularly for UHNW families. They’re a sophisticated lot when it comes to money management, understanding the value of building diversified portfolios across many asset classes, from global and domestic equities and bonds to private equity, venture capital and private real estate, among other lucrative opportunities.
Stenner is the Chairman Emeritus of ultra-high-net worth (UHNW) network Tiger 21 in Canada and previously held award-winning consulting roles at Morgan Stanley/Graystone Consulting, based in California as Managing Director, International Client Advisor, Institutional Consulting Director, Alternative Investments Director and Portfolio Manager. He also hosts “Smart WealthTM with Thane Stenner,” a podcast produced by BNN Bloomberg Brand Studio.
He is an expert advisor, servicing a select group of UHNW clients from across Canada, whose net worths range from $25 million to over $3 billion. The veteran senior portfolio manager and consultant for many prominent family offices does find that some clients overlook one particularly useful portfolio diversifier and risk management option: life insurance.
“Insurance is truly another significant asset class,” says Stenner, whose virtual/in-person Multi-Family Office/Outsourced CIO consulting team deals with 51 clients across Canada, including many single-family offices (SFOs).
Yet potential uses of insurance are often not fully understood. “Insurance isn’t brought up as often as it should be, even in the wealth advisory industry. Just like a lot of people don’t update their wills, or don’t even have a will, a lot of people don’t have insurance—or it’s not properly aligned with their true needs,” says Stenner.
One 2023 study of high-net-worth Canadians found 46 per cent do not have life insurance coverage, likely driven by another finding that fewer than one-fifth understand its benefits and tax advantages in holistic wealth planning.
Insurance has many benefits, but notably it provides real certainty of a timely, guaranteed payment upon death to provide tax-free liquidity to the estate and its beneficiaries and philanthropic interests.
John Hutson, CPA®, managing partner at Continuum Legacy Partners
The long view
That’s the 10,000-foot assessment, but more advanced life insurance strategies are complex and diverse, particularly with respect to permanent policies. Even most experienced wealth managers are not experts. Still, Stenner recognizes clients need it. So, he turns to various industry-leading specialists with deep knowledge of insurance and how it can meet families’ needs with respect to design, taxation and estate planning.
Continuum Legacy Partners Inc. is arguably one of Canada’s top boutique teams of expert advisors in this category. The Toronto-based firm specializes in advanced life insurance planning for Canada’s wealthiest families and entrepreneurs.
Continuum Legacy Partners’ managing partner John Hutson, CPA®, notes that UHNW families should view insurance as an alternative asset class to be integrated into their overall estate plan. It doesn’t hurt that it generates highly attractive after-tax internal rates of return. As such, it requires advanced planning and ongoing oversight. “You shouldn’t just buy it and put the policy in a drawer,” Hutson says. “It’s not something to forget about.”
Continuum Legacy Partners’ advisors are recognized as some of the very best in the insurance planning business, providing advice on life insurance strategies for families with a minimum of $50 million in net worth. Some clients have billions of dollars earmarked for transfer to the next generation.
“The common theme among them—because these are large families with succession planning issues—is their estate tax liability,” Hutson notes.
What do families need?
Unlike others in their field, Continuum Legacy Partners insists on working with families’ other advisory teams, including wealth managers like Stenner, tax planners, business planners and legal teams, to ensure their wealth pieces—the portfolio, businesses, properties, and wills and trusts—fit “together in a synchronized way,” he adds.
Only then are decisions made about how insurance policies can be strategically layered on top to address various needs. Hutson notes that families typically do not have one or two policies. They often have a portfolio of them. Most are permanent coverage—but you will see term insurance in there, too, on occasion.
“That term is often used as a strategic tool to buy time and protect health status until a broader estate plan is implemented,” says Erin Prohaska, CPA®, partner at Continuum Legacy Partners. The premiums are much more affordable than permanent coverage. By being underwritten when the insured is young and healthy, they can then convert to permanent coverage when the timing is right at standard ratings and pricing, she says.
As mentioned, the top need for permanent coverage is mitigating tax exposure when transitioning generational wealth. On this front, Continuum Legacy Partners has deep experience. Hutson was a senior tax partner at Deloitte for 25 years before starting Continuum Legacy Partners. Prohaska worked for Deloitte as a senior tax practitioner prior to serving as financial director for a large family office and as a finance executive. “We look at insurance as a strategic tool that can solve otherwise hard problems clients face,” she says.
The problems are sizable. In some cases, billions of dollars of wealth will transition, and issues to address are family dynamics, fairness, equity, liquidity and desired certainty.
At the same time, advanced and ongoing education is important because, while many families grasp how life insurance works, they are unaware of the nuances between different types and how some choices may be uniquely advantageous to their needs.
The nuts and bolts of policies
That’s particularly the case for permanent policies where clients might balk at premium costs. Continuum Legacy Partners helps them understand the opportunity whereby in paying the premiums they are transforming taxable capital into a long-term, tax-free asset.
“Permanent insurance is a risk mitigator, but it’s also an investment with the potential to grow tax-free over time,” says Prohaska. The initially purchased death benefit sum is really the base-case outcome. The investment side of a policy can grow the benefit substantially over time.
“If you acquire a $50-million participating policy, 50 years later the death benefit may grow to approximately $375 million tax-free,” she explains. This is often the “eureka moment.” Clients suddenly understand the true potential. Then comes the challenge of reviewing the many choices from different insurers, and the nuts and bolts of each policy. To help, Continuum Legacy Partners has an in-house actuary—an expert in policy design, including the underlying investment strategies and the way various carriers report their results.
Stenner says few advisory shops in this space have their own actuary. “It’s a huge value add,” because Continuum Legacy Partners’ actuary provides unique insight. “Our actuary, for example, can call up other actuaries at insurers and inquire about why a policy behaves a certain way,” Ms. Prohaska says.
Effectively, this enables Continuum Legacy Partners to provide a bottom-up analysis of policies so clients can make the best decisions. After all, these policies involve more than mitigating risk. They’re long-term wealth builders with unmatched return profiles, Hutson says.
“When we project the rate of return on insurance to age 90, it can range somewhere between 10 and 16 per cent annualized on an equivalent pre-tax basis,” he adds. Should the insured die sooner, that return on investment is obviously much higher.
“When viewed narrowly, life insurance can seem like a cost,” says Duncan Sinclair, FCPA®, ICD.D®, chair of Deloitte Canada and Chile, and member of the Deloitte Global Board, where he chairs the Risk and Ethics Committee and serves as a member of the Stewardship Committee. “But in the context of estate and tax planning, it’s one of the few instruments that delivers certainty at a time of greatest need. The true value lies not in the premium paid—but in the peace of mind, tax efficiency, and legacy it secures for generations to come.”
The strategy: Use personally-owned or corporately-owned life insurance to fund anticipated tax liabilities at death (e.g., capital gains on deemed disposition of assets).
The tax benefit: Avoids the need to liquidate assets to pay taxes; preserves the full value of the estate for beneficiaries; and the death benefit is tax-free to the named beneficiaries.
Such discussions certainly resonate with Stenner’s clients.
“Wealthy families are very shrewd and intellectually curious,” he says. “Helping them understand the differentiations between different products, carriers and policies goes a long way to serving their complete wealth needs.” Notably, that includes peace of mind.
“All we seek to do is bring them stability and assurance, and a well-designed insurance strategy offers just that.”
*Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length. Mr. Stenner’s viewpoints within this interview were submitted to CFO in July 2025.
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About Stenner Wealth Partners+
Stenner Wealth Partners+ (SWP+) is an in person/virtual Multi-Family Office/Outsourced CIO Consulting team of financial/wealth specialists with a boutique approach and global perspective. SWP+ serves Canadian and US investors/households with generally a minimum of 10M+ in investable assets or 25M+ net worth. As a CG Wealth Management team, SWP+ is a highly exclusive practice team with one of Canada’s largest independent wealth management firms. Client Range of Net Worths: between $25M To $3B+. They strategically limit new client engagements, onboarding only six to eight new key relationships annually to ensure a highly personalized and focused approach. SWP+ is a member of Canadian Family Offices.
About CG Wealth Management
The global wealth management business is entrusted with C$120.4 billion in client assets (according to the Canaccord Genuity Annual Report, June 30, 2025). The wealth management operations of the Canaccord Genuity Group (CG Wealth Management) provide comprehensive wealth management solutions and brokerage services to individual investors, private clients, family offices, Donor Advised Funds (DAFs), and intermediaries through a full suite of services tailored to the needs of each client.
About Continuum Legacy Partners
Continuum Legacy Partners+ is composed of former senior tax partners from a Big Four accounting firm, who specialized in estate and tax planning for private companies and ultra high net worth (UHNW) families. We saw a need for these UHNW families to also have access to the most sophisticated insurance planning opportunities available. Each plan is completely customized to our client’s specific needs and addresses our client’s tax, estate, succession, wealth preservation and philanthropic goals. Utilizing the powerful planning opportunities afforded by insurance, where appropriate, can greatly enhance achievement of these goals.
Disclaimer: This story was created by Canadian Family Offices’ commercial content division on behalf of Stenner Wealth Partners+ at CG Wealth Management, which is a member and content provider of this publication. CG Wealth Management is a division of Canaccord Genuity Corp., member of CIPF and CIRO. Thane Stenner’s views, including any recommendations, expressed in this article are his own only, and are not necessarily those of Canaccord Genuity Corp.