The succession question, who controls the company shares, who runs the business, how the family arrangements lock in, sits behind the will, not inside it. DRG Law writes that question first.
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Succession decisions
An Ontario business owner's estate is almost always more than the will alone, it carries the company shares, the family arrangements, and the operating agreements the business runs on. The succession question lives across all of them.
The will is one document inside a succession plan, not the plan itself. The questions that actually decide what happens next, who controls the company shares, who runs the business, what the family arrangements say, are written before the will is drafted. DRG Law writes the succession question first.
The decision
The questions below are the structural decisions behind a succession plan. The will follows the answers, not the other way around.
Voting control of the operating company sits at the top of the plan. Whether shares pass directly to a family member, to a holding company they control, or to a trust that holds them on their behalf, changes everything downstream.
The person who controls the shares is not always the person who runs the operation day to day. The succession plan names both, and writes the rules that hold when they are the same person and when they are not.
Family arrangements, a domestic contract, a marriage contract, a co-ownership agreement on a property, touch the succession plan. The plan is written knowing what the existing family documents say and does not contradict them.
Once the control question, the operating question, and the family arrangements are written, the will records the answers in the form Ontario succession law recognises. The will is the last document drafted, not the first.
How DRG Law writes it
The 2026 launch will carry the full succession practice. Until then, DRG Law writes the structural decision and routes the file when a specialist signature is needed.
A one-page map of who owns what, who controls what, and what the family arrangements say. Becomes the starting point for every succession conversation.
Share class changes, holding-company restructures, and trust arrangements are written before the estate documents move. The estate documents reflect a structure that already works.
The will and power-of-attorney documents record what the structural work decided. Damaris drafts them or routes to a specialist depending on what the file requires.
Common questions
The will records what the structural decisions decide. Writing a will before the control question, the operating question, and the family arrangements are written usually ends in a document that contradicts the company records or the family agreements. The will follows the structure.
Yes. The tax shape of a share transfer, an estate freeze, or a trust arrangement is set jointly by the lawyer and the accountant. DRG Law works with the owner's accountant from the first call.
An estate freeze stops the value of the current owner's shares from growing further, and lets the growth from that point forward accrue to the next generation or a trust. It is a tax-planning step that has to be done while both the owner and the company are healthy. DRG Law and the accountant write the freeze together.
Ontario default rules decide. The shares pass under the will, or under intestate succession if there is no will. The operating company keeps running on whatever resolutions are on file. Most outcomes under defaults are not what the owner would have chosen.
Next step
The full wills and estates practice opens in 2026. Until then, send the question so Damaris can confirm whether the file can start now, hold for the launch, or route to a more direct path.