The structural fact in the Meister item is that two things most people treat as one came apart. He is disposing of 82.7% of the economic position while the directorship, and the 6,780 directly-held shares that sit under it, stay exactly where they are. Control and value were never the same asset; the filings just make it visible.

That separation is the core of the main Canadian planning structure available to a private-company owner. An estate freeze exchanges your existing common shares for fixed-value preferred shares — locking in today’s value as your entitlement — while newly issued common shares, carrying all future growth, go to a family trust. Done properly, the voting shares stay with you, so control does not move at all. Section 86 or section 85 of the Income Tax Act provides the rollover; the trust can later allocate gains among beneficiaries, which is the mechanism behind multiplying the lifetime capital gains exemption across family members on a QSBC share sale.

The reason this is worth your attention rather than a billionaire’s is the opposite of scale: a freeze is most valuable before the value is large. Every dollar of growth after the freeze date accrues outside your estate. Freeze late and there is nothing left to move.