Life Insurance for Professionals and Professional Corporations

This page exists to flag the practice-specific considerations; the mechanics themselves are covered in depth on the linked pages above.

For most professionals, disability exposure deserves at least as much attention as death — often more. A professional corporation's revenue frequently depends on one person's billable time in a way that a business with employees and systems doesn't. If the professional is unable to work, practice revenue can drop immediately, while fixed overhead — rent, staff wages, equipment leases — continues regardless.

A complete picture for an incorporated professional usually includes personal disability income protection, business overhead expense coverage for the practice's fixed costs, and — where the professional works with partners — a disability buyout provision as part of the buy-sell structure. Each addresses a different gap; none substitutes for the others.

Professional corporation rules — who can hold shares, what the corporation can be named, restrictions on non-professional ownership — vary by profession and by provincial regulatory college. These rules affect how a buy-sell agreement can be structured (since shares typically can't simply be sold to an outside buyer) and sometimes affect corporate ownership of certain assets. This is legal and regulatory territory for your lawyer and your college to confirm — Gavin's role is understanding your structure well enough to place the insurance correctly around it, not advising on the regulatory rules themselves.