Lea Koiv

President

Lea Koiv & Associates Inc.

In 2016 Lea Koiv set up her consulting practice, Lea Koiv & Associates Inc., and works with accountants, lawyers, business valuators, actuaries and other professionals, as well as select high-net worth clients, in tax, retirement and estate planning.

From 2001 through to 2015 Lea was employed at Standard Life. She was the National Director, Retail Tax & Estate Planning, at the time its Canadian operations were acquired in 2015. While at Standard Life, she authored the company’s well-received Taxing Issues series.

Lea had previously spent a significant number of years in the tax practices of international accounting firms (KPMG, Deloitte + Touche, and Arthur Andersen), as well as a pension and benefits consulting firm (A. Foster Higgins & Co.), where she was focused on the IPP practice. She was a member of the Pension Review Committee, an industry committee that met regularly with CRA. She served as the Treasurer of the Association of Canadian Pension Management for a number of years.

Her knowledge of insurance products, coupled with her tax knowledge, positions here to integrate the use of these products with various retirement, estate planning and wealth strategies. She is especially interested in retirement planning and has been engaged as an “expert witness” in the cases dealing with pension commutations, IPPs, etc. She also has very significant experience in the “copycat” annuity area, having first promoted the use of these annuities in 2008-9, and then having worked diligently to resolve certain CRA concerns. She also regularly deals with advisors and accountants with respect to implementing IPPs and RCAs.

Lea continues to participate in industry associations (CALU, Advocis, etc.). She is also a member of Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners and the Estate Planning Council. She continues to be in demand as a speaker at industry and advisor events. Her articles have also appeared in a number of publications.